Hot Tub Time Machine 2

When Hot Tub Time Machine came out a few years ago, the timing was perfect for a silly self-aware comedy about traveling back in time via a hot tub. The second Craig Robinson looked at the camera and said “It’s a hot tub time machine!” you said to yourself “Yes! This is exactly what I need in my life right now”; similar to when Eddie Murphy stared into the camera in Trading Places. But comedy is all about timing and knowing when a bit is up; just ask Mike Meyers. He beat Austin Powers and that comedic style so much into the ground that he caused his fans to revolt! By the time he decided to play a hockey guru with Jessica Alba he found himself being deported back to Canada with Tom Green!

So naturally I was expecting Hot Tub part 2 to fall completely flat because its shtick was played out the second the first one was released on Red Box. But I do have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at times during the sequel.

This movie takes place a few years after their lives were forever changed up at the ski lodge, they are now all successful icons as a result of their knowledge of the significant events that take place in the future. Lou (Rob Corddry or the bald guy) is the founder of Louggle (Google) and he is now married to his life-long crush Kelly after becoming the lead singer of Motley Lou. Nick (Robinson) has become the world’s most famous singer due to the fact that he is constantly making up his own version of songs that he knows will eventually become famous. And Jacob, Lou’s son, still hates his father as he is perceived as the lazy kid who never has any ideas of his own and lives under the shadow of his selfish and narcissistic father.

Well one day someone decides that they’ve had enough of his father’s antics and they decide to shoot Lou’s johnson off in disgust. This of course leads the three of them having to travel back in time so they can stop whoever was responsible for it. However instead of traveling back to the past, they find that they have actually traveled to the future and catch a glimpse of how their past mistakes have ruined them all.

More jokes miss than hit in this movie but the ones that do hit are pretty darn funny.  Their cut down jokes on one another are all pretty solid and the game show that’s hosted by Christian Slater provides some images that you will unfortunately never get out of your head. And for whatever reason you see just as many shots of penises as you do boobs but man the boobs you do see are on screen for quite a while.

Steve Pink (Grosse Pointe Blank) returns to direct this sequel but he falls just a bit short of recreating the magic the first one had. John Cusack was smart enough to jump ship on this one and to be the honest, everyone else involved should have too.

While this movie did make me laugh at times, I still have to give it a rating of pretty WEAK.