It’s not like I didn’t know The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature was probably going to be a bad movie. The first movie was really bad. But it was cheap ticket Tuesday and sometimes it’s funny to hate on a movie. So here I am, hating on a movie.
Nut Job 2 has a plot involving squirrels defending a park from an evil mayor and his land developers. They want a green park, he wants profit… things happen, alleged jokes are told, and it’s all really bad.
I noticed many of the jokes were the same ones we saw as kids during Bugs Bunny cartoons… and they were old then. I guess modern kids who hadn’t seen those jokes might get a laugh. Maybe. I doubt it.
Or maybe they’ll get a laugh over two dogs in a cage… one vomits so he can feed the other but the other thinks that’s gross. So the first dog eats his own vomit again so it doesn’t go to waste, causing the second dog to vomit in disgust. And, you guessed it, the first dog eats the second dog’s vomit (and he’s wondering if the second dog is vegan… which is also allegedly a joke).
There’s a cute white mouse who knows kung-fu and speaks in Chinese/English accent. I was pondering if this was racist (since this was a more interesting thought than what was in the movie) until I found out it was Jackie Chan doing the voice. I still ponder. I also ponder how they got Jackie Chan in the movie but there’s about eight production studios, two of which were Chinese. And then I realized Chan is playing the wise sensei in the upcoming Lego Ninjago movie. So I guess voice work is his future. These are still more interesting thoughts than this movie.
The title… The Nut Job… in the first flick, at least that was a play on words since it had a dual story of squirrels trying to break into a nut factory while human crooks use the same factory to break into a bank. So it’s a play on words – a Bank Job / A Nut Job. Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature means nothing in the course of the movie and makes me realize the title is kind of dirty. I probably should have noticed that before. Also a more interesting thought than this movie.
Anyhow, this is a really bad kiddie cartoon that doesn’t even try to amuse the adults and I doubt it amused the kids. These jokes were told better in classic cartoons which kids should still enjoy… and with 100% fewer dogs eating their own vomit. So that’s a plus.
Score: 53