After the 2010 time-traveling romp, Hot Tub Time Machine, brought in $64 million worldwide, another stab at a worn-out premise has been marked for revival in the shape of Hot Tub Time Machine 2.
The first movie saw four buddies – John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke and Rob Corddry – venture back to a seminal summer of their youth to replay events with the gift of hindsight. It didn’t exactly deliver any unexpected turns, but the chemistry of its leads kept the comedy rolling. For this second outing, Cusack has bailed and is instead replaced by Adam Scott in the role of his son, who unites with his father’s buddies in 2025.
Whether or not a sequel was warranted is besides the point here, as any excuse to plonk audiences in front of a familiar property is deemed a worthy endeavour nowadays. Judging by the contents of this family-friendly trailer (the red-band raunch fest landed back in July), the story is much the same. A catch-up with the gang provides the best laughs, as their exploitation of time travel reaps many luxurious benefits before they opt for another dip in the tub.
Landing in the future by mistake, the trio begin a series of timeline tweaks after realizing their lives haven’t panned out how they expected. It’s all standard stuff plot-wise, but there seems to be a lot of chuckles thanks to Robinson’s droll turn. We’ll see exactly how their caper ends, when Hot Tub Time Machine 2 arrives in theatres on February 20th, 2015.
In the sequel, when Lou (Corddry) finds himself in trouble, Nick (Robinson) and Jacob (Duke) fire up the hot tub time machine in an attempt to get back to the past. But they inadvertently land in the future. Now they have to alter the future in order to save the past… which is really the present.