I kind of liked the original Vacation Friends mainly due to John Cena’s exuberant weirdo of a character. It wasn’t a movie I expected a sequel to and I was pretty sure it wasn’t needed when I heard about it. After watching it, I have great confidence in that stance.

Vacation Friends 2 reunites Lil Rel Howery, John Cena, Meredith Hagner, and Yvonne Orji as the odd couple friends going on a new vacation together in the Caribbean. They are joined by Steve Buscemi as Cena’s father-in-law. Oh, and there’s a big ol’ drug/crime plot too.

Yeah… Steve Buscemi was a big mistake in this film… and that’s not a sentence you would usually say. Since Buscemi and Cena’s characters don’t get along, we are immediately robbed of Cena’s comic performance. And Buscemi plays it too straight to make up for it. Once Cena’s raw exuberance is lost, the rest of the jokes have to do the heavy lifting… and they can’t.

Either Buscemi should have played a much more vibrant, wacky, weird character OR they should have hired someone else. In theory, Buscemi is the right guy for the job… in practice, not so much.

Plus they decides to throw in a tedious overlong crime plot that isn’t funny nor is it thrilling or interesting. The filmmakers just don’t have the chops for a madcap action comedy.

About the only thing this movie gets right are a few moments when Cena and Hagner cut lose. They can still be infectiously over-the-top and I did laugh occasionally. But otherwise this flick is a misguided crushing bore.

Score: 61