''Hot Tub Time Machine 2'' is a 2015 American

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Steve Pink Steve Pink (born February 3, 1966) is an American actor, director and writer. He is the director of the comedy films '' Accepted'' and ''Hot Tub Time Machine'', and the co-writer of the films '' Grosse Pointe Blank'' and ''High Fidelity''. Lif ...

and written by Josh Heald. The film stars Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson,

Clark Duke Clark Duke (born May 5, 1985) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the films '' Sex Drive'' (2008), '' Kick-Ass'' (2010), '' Hot Tub Time Machine'' (2010), and '' The Croods'' (2013), as well as playing Clark Green in ''The Office ...

, Adam Scott,

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...

, and

Gillian Jacobs Gillian MacLaren Jacobs (; born October 19, 1982) is an American actress. She is known for playing Britta Perry in the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), Mickey Dobbs in the Netflix romantic comedy series '' Love'' (2016–2018), and Mar ...

. It is the sequel to the 2010 film ''

Hot Tub Time Machine ''Hot Tub Time Machine'' is a 2010 American science fiction comedy farce film directed by Steve Pink and written by Josh Heald, Sean Anders, and John Morris. John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke star in the film as four ...

''. The film was released on February 20, 2015.

John Cusack John Paul Cusack ( ; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor. With a career spanning over four decades, he has appeared in over 80 films. He began acting in f ...

, who played Adam Yates and produced the first film, does not return in the theatrical cut, but has a brief cameo in the unrated version. The film grossed $13 million against a budget of $14–18 million, and reviews were generally unfavorable, deeming it "unfunny" and "unoriginal".

Plot

Five years after the events of the first film, Lou Dorchen and Nick Webber have become

rich Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense taste, flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling **Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated c ...

and famous, with Lou becoming a billionaire and Nick being a successful musician/singer. At Lou's celebratory party, Lou is shot in the groin. Jacob (Lou's son) and Nick drag him to the hot tub time machine and activate it to travel back in time to find and stop the killer. When they awaken, they find themselves 10 years in the future, where Jacob is in charge of Lou's mansion. After determining that they are in an alternate timeline where Lou's killer is from this future, they go to their friend Adam Yates's home, only to meet his son Adam Yates Stedmeyer (Adam Jr.), who is engaged to a woman named Jill. Lou suspects his nemesis Gary Winkle is the killer, but he learns Gary actually made his own fortune from some land that Lou could have purchased. They party at Gary's nightclub, where Adam Jr. takes

hallucinogen Hallucinogens, also known as psychedelics, entheogens, or historically as psychotomimetics, are a large and diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mo ...

s for the first time. The next day, they attend the popular television game show ''Choozy Doozy'', where contestant Nick is required to have

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

sex with a man. As Lou suggested the idea, he is obliged to participate, but uses his "lifeline" to switch with Adam Jr. Essentially, Jacob becomes disillusioned with the misadventures and leaves the group to get drunk at Gary's club and to then commit

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

by jumping off an extremely high building. Lou makes amends with him and prevents his suicide. When the guys see a news report where Brad, an employee of Lougle, invents nitrotrinadium, the ingredient that activates the hot tub time machine, they suspect he is the killer. At Adam Jr.'s wedding, Jacob talks with Brad and realizes he is not the killer, but that he invented the chemical after being inspired by Lou's words. Jill, who is upset about Adam Jr.'s partying, has sex with Lou. But when Adam Jr. finds out, he steals the nitrotrinadium and goes back to the past, revealing himself as the killer. Jacob, Nick, and Lou return to the mansion, but are too late to stop Adam Jr. As the guys sit in defeat, Jacob realizes that because the chemical has appeared in the past after an encounter with the Repairman, it now exists in the future. They return to the present and stop Adam Jr. from shooting Lou after Lou apologizes to him. Following this incident, Nick apologizes to Courtney as Lou tells his wife he wants to go to

drug rehabilitation Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines. The general int ...

for his

drug abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definitions ...

. Adam Jr. meets Jill for the first time. The more optimistic Jacob approaches Sophie (his girlfriend in the future) and convinces her to join him in a relationship. As Lou, Nick, Jacob, and Adam Jr. return to the hot tub, Lou's head is shot off by another Lou (or Adam Sr. in the unrated version) dressed in a minuteman costume. Patriot Lou informs them there are multiple Lous anyway and invites them to "make America happen." During the closing credits, the guys are seen exploiting the time machine to change history.

Cast

* Rob Corddry as Lou Dorchen * Craig Robinson as Nick Webber *

as Jacob Dorchen * Adam Scott as Adam Yates Stedmeyer (Adam Jr.) *

as Hot Tub Repairman *

as Jill * Collette Wolfe as Kelly Dorchen * Bianca Haase as Sophie * Jason P. Jones as Gary Winkle *

Kellee Stewart Kellee Stewart (born March 31, 1976) is an American actress. Early life Stewart grew up in Norristown, Pennsylvania and graduated from Norristown Area High School in 1993. Stewart also attended the BFA Acting Program at State University of New ...

as Courtney Webber * Kumail Nanjiani as Brad * Josh Heald as Terry * Gretchen Koerner as Susan *

Lisa Loeb Lisa Anne Loeb (; born March 11, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author and actress. She started her career with " Stay (I Missed You)" from the film '' Reality Bites'', the first number-one single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 10 ...

as herself * Jessica Williams as herself *

Bruce Buffer Bruce Anthony Buffer (born May 21, 1957) is an American professional mixed martial arts ring announcer and the official octagon announcer for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events, introduced on broadcasts as the "Veteran Voice of the O ...

as himself

, who played Adam Yates in ''

'' (2010), has an uncredited cameo appearance in the unrated version appearing in the scene mentioned above.

Christian Slater Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor. He made his film debut with a leading role in '' The Legend of Billie Jean'' (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakout role as Jason "J.D." Dean, a sociopath ...

also has an uncredited cameo role as ''Choozy Doozy'' host Brett McShaussey.

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

on June 5, 2013. On January 31, 2014, it was announced that the film would be released on December 25, 2014. On October 14, 2014, the film's release date was pushed back to February 20, 2015. According to Corddry, the working title for the film was ''Hot Tub Time Machine 3: Because Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Hasn't Happened Yet'', a joke in reference to the movie's time travel plot. However, Paramount's marketing department believed that title would be confusing to audiences and named the film ''Hot Tub Time Machine 2.''

Release

''Hot Tub Time Machine 2'' grossed $6 million on its opening weekend, finishing seventh at the box office. The film grossed a total of $13.1 million, against a $14–18 million budget, which was less than the opening weekend of the first film.

Reception

Unlike its predecessor, ''Hot Tub Time Machine 2'' was a critical failure. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "A shallow dip overflowing with juvenile humor, ''Hot Tub Time Machine 2'' is a lukewarm sequel that's healthiest to avoid."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gives it a score of 29 out of 100 based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

, gave the film a grade of "C−" on an F to A+ scale. Reviews were generally negative, with ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' calling it a "flop-sweaty cash grab that gives a bad name to sequels in which key talent has jumped ship." Jordan Hoffman of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' disliked the film so much he said it tainted the memory of the first film.

Justin Chang Justin Choigee Chang is an American film critic and columnist currently working at ''The New Yorker''. He previously worked for '' Variety'' and for ''Los Angeles Times''. His 2023 reviews at the ''Times'' won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Critici ...

of ''Variety'' called the film "boorish and crass, homophobic and misogynistic, the very definition of sloppy seconds", which he found typical of the genre. However, he was surprised "that it somehow manages to send you out of the theater feeling tickled rather than sullied".

GLAAD GLAAD () is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since ...

singled out the film for its "outright offensive depictions of LGBT people" and defamatory homophobic humor.

Accolades

The movie resulted in two nominations at the

Golden Raspberry Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic failures. Co-founded by University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John ...

was nominated as Worst Supporting Actor, and the movie was nominated as Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.

Home media

''Hot Tub Time Machine 2'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 19, 2015 with a "Hotter and Wetter Unrated Cut" on the Blu-ray that includes additional scenes including a cameo from

that was cut from the film's theatrical edition.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hot Tub Time Machine 2 2015 films 2015 comedy films 2010s buddy comedy films 2010s science fiction comedy films American buddy comedy films American science fiction comedy films American sequel films Films scored by Christophe Beck Films set in New Orleans Films set in 2015 Films set in 2025 Films shot in New Orleans 2010s films about time travel Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Steve Pink 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language science fiction comedy films English-language buddy comedy films