When it comes to sequels, comedy sequels are always the hardest to pull off successfully. They risk being a rehash of the original like “The Hangover Part II”, or completely unnecessary like “Blues Brothers 2000”. That’s not to say that there aren’t good comedy sequels, some from recent years have been good or awesome such as “Anchorman 2” and “22 Jump Street”. Most recently, Hollywood has given us these three comedy sequels: “Dumb and Dumber To”, “Horrible Bosses 2”, and “Hot Tub Time Machine 2”. These films were received poorly by critics and a by certain percentage of moviegoers. Are they really that bad and unnecessary? Well, allow me to weigh in with my thoughts (potential spoilers ahead too!):
To begin, I’ll talk about “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” because it was released just this February. It’s the follow up to 2010’s “Hot Tub Time Machine” and you pretty much have the premise of the film just from the title. Is it ridiculous? Yes, but the film is so much fun. There is great chemistry between the main characters played by Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Rob Corddry, and John Cusack. It was a modest critical and commercial success, but the sequel was heavily panned by critics and only received a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It wasn’t anything great, but it’s not that bad. Its main flaws are that some of the humor falls flat and is a little too gross out at times. It was also disappointing that Cusack was absent (he was never even asked to supposedly), but his character is replaced by Adam Scott, who is impeccable as always. You can certainly argue that it was an unnecessary sequel, but I argue that it’s not as terrible as it’s been made out to be. While the first was essentially an 80’s nostalgia film, this was like a comedic murder mystery. I give them credit for doing something different even if it didn’t completely work. The end credit sequence alone with the main characters quantum leaping via the hot tub makes it worthwhile I say.
Next up is “Horrible Bosses 2”. I really enjoyed the first and thought the entire cast was excellent. I was excited for this sequel despite the negative reviews and ended up liking it as much as the first. It’s not spectacular, but it’s a lot of fun and most of the humor works. Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz are great new additions to the cast as businessmen who are father and son. They pose a problem to our main characters played again by Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and Jason Bateman. Their “Shower Buddy” invention is stolen by the two, so they whip up a plan to kidnap the son and blackmail the father and when the son catches wind of their plan, he plays along with it. Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Spacey return as the horrible bosses from the first film and are a delight as is Jamie Foxx as “Motherfucker” Jones. It’s also nice to see Jonathan Banks in this. Overall, it’s a fun comedy sequel that works mostly because of the chemistry between the leads and the other characters.
Finally, there’s “Dumb and Dumber To”…the honest trailer from Screenjunkies sums it up well. “Dumb and Dumber” is a great comedy with high replay value. Like the previous two films I’ve discussed, it wasn’t asking for a sequel or in need of one, but Hollywood decided to make one after we stopped caring and boy was it bad. Seeing Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey do the same shtick 20 years later is more depressing than funny. The Farley Brothers were at their prime when they directed the first and way past it when they directed this. It’s also lazy in the sense that the writers basically just copied a lot of the jokes and the gags from the first film. The humor was either repeated or just fell completely flat, which is the main problem with the film. Overall, it just didn’t work and any excitement I had for it was stripped away when I saw that first trailer. It’s the prime example of a comedy sequel that doesn’t work and its main purpose for existing is to cash in on people’s love/nostalgia for the first.
To sum it up, comedy sequels can be either hit or miss. I enjoyed “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” and “Horrible Bosses 2” despite the negative critical reception because they were fun and didn’t try to imitate their predecessors too much. “Dumb and Dumber To” I did not enjoy because it was lazy and way too little, way too late. It’s all a matter doing something creative and different while still keeping in tone and essence with the first.
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