My Review of "Hot Tub Time Machine 2"

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 came out back in 2015 and boy does it show. I remember loving the first movie so I thought at worse this would just be a rehash of the original. It isn't, though there were some fun ideas that they added into this one. There are a number of reasons why I didn't like this movie but it did have crazy potential.

The movie starts off not too far off the events of the first movie. We have most of the original cast except for Adam who is replaced by a step son who is a brand new character. Lou and his son Jacob are now in the spotlight in this movie. I think this would work if they didn't make Lou as aggravating as he is. They try to make his character a little more sympathetic later on but it feels like it's too late by then.

Of course, the movie has an even crazy storyline than the first one because these types of sequels have to be bigger and better. Lou's company is predictably going downhill. Despite the fact his company is hemorrhaging money, Lou has delusionary optimism about life. It could also be because of the amount of drugs he's taking.

Every year Lou has these gigantic soirees to celebrate himself and everyone has to endure his unsufferable narcissistic tendencies. He is utterly obnoxious and a horrible person. This goes on for quite some time and got a little grating after a while. I think you have to be in a certain mood to really understand this type of humor but it's not for everyone.

Finally someone steps up and attempts to murder Lou at this big gala. Instead of shooting Lou in the face or the chest they shoot his crotch. Again, this is par for the course with this movie because this is what we expect. I remind you, that you have to be in a certain mindset to really appreciate this type of humor.

The rest of the movie is the gang getting back together to figure out the mystery of who shot Lou. They use the hot tub to go back into time to find the murderer and stop the crime from happening. It's a murder mystery that doesn't emphasize many clues.

This movie does retread the way each of the characters learn more about themselves as they go through this adventure. In some ways that was a comforting aspect of the movie. They also retread a few memorable things from the previous movie. Much of this movie is different from the first movie. That's not a bad thing but the movie isn't the best either.

I loved the fact that they went into the future instead of the past. It's kind of a play on the fact that the Back to the Future series. They even had an overtly convoluted timeline explanation to this as well. It's also nice that they make satires on the extreme takes of what they believe the future would be like. They get most of it wrong but they did get some of them right.

I think the movie really falls short in concentrating on the Lou character and making him so grating. It distracted me from the fun for the rest of the movie. Sure he was a really fun part of the first movie but in this movie it doesn't fit for him to have so much screen time and exposure.

This movie also falls short because of the millions of references to pop culture at the moment this movie was made. Watching this movie now I had to think back to remember some of the references they were talking about. I don't think some people will even get what they're referring to because some of the references are so specific to the time it was made. At times they were flashes of popularity that have dissolved into the ether. I barely remembered some of these references. That's why it was harder for me to laugh at some of these jokes watching it so many years later.

Overall, this movie was a product of its time and I could see how it would have been very funny for a lot of people at the time it was released. Today not a lot of people will understand the jokes and find it very unfunny. Still if you're in a certain mood you can enjoy this movie. This would be a very small percentage of people that could still appreciate it. I have to give this movie a 5 out of 10. I cannot recommend this to anyone.