"Hot Tub Time Machine 2," the sequel to the critical and box office hit from 2010, proves definitively that if at first you DO succeed, don't try again.
As Part 2 opens, we find that two of the original time-trippers (Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry) have parlayed their earlier visit back to 1986 into fame and fortune in 2015 (a third, Clark Duke, is pretty much the "butler" to his successful dad). John Cusack, the fourth member of the group, has wisely chosen to take a pass on this misbegotten reunion. He clearly used the hot tub to attain the foreknowledge that this particular venture had disaster written all over it.
Now the remaining trio has to travel ten years into the future to prevent Corddry's assassination in the present (don't ask). Adam Scott ("Parks and Recreation") and Gillian Jacobs ("Community") join in the festivities, though we suspect they'll not want to emphasize this particular part of their resume in any future auditions.
The screenplay by Josh Heald is, to put it mildly, a bit of an incoherent mess, short on logic and humor and long on jokes involving punctured testicles, spurting semen and homosexual rape. There is one funny scene in which the three look into a mirror to see their true selves in 2025, but the writer seems to have saved most of his best material for a clever and amusing end-title sequence. Whether it's worth the ninety minutes of dreck you have to sit through to get there is something you'll have to determine for yourself.
As Part 2 opens, we find that two of the original time-trippers (Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry) have parlayed their earlier visit back to 1986 into fame and fortune in 2015 (a third, Clark Duke, is pretty much the "butler" to his successful dad). John Cusack, the fourth member of the group, has wisely chosen to take a pass on this misbegotten reunion. He clearly used the hot tub to attain the foreknowledge that this particular venture had disaster written all over it.
Now the remaining trio has to travel ten years into the future to prevent Corddry's assassination in the present (don't ask). Adam Scott ("Parks and Recreation") and Gillian Jacobs ("Community") join in the festivities, though we suspect they'll not want to emphasize this particular part of their resume in any future auditions.
The screenplay by Josh Heald is, to put it mildly, a bit of an incoherent mess, short on logic and humor and long on jokes involving punctured testicles, spurting semen and homosexual rape. There is one funny scene in which the three look into a mirror to see their true selves in 2025, but the writer seems to have saved most of his best material for a clever and amusing end-title sequence. Whether it's worth the ninety minutes of dreck you have to sit through to get there is something you'll have to determine for yourself.