Review of The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (2017) by Matt G — 17 Aug 2017

C'mon, people. What are we doing? How did we, as the human race, get here? How is it that I, a 31-year-old with a full-time job, a community of friends, and a family, have to spend 3+ hours and 250 published words viewing and considering the value of The Nut Job 2? Why does this even exist? The first barely made an impression of any kind on the culture, yet because of our obsession with familiarity, a second is thrusted upon us like so many unwanted vermin.

In this outing, the central group of small woodland creatures has to protect their park-home from a greedy Mayor's plans to turn it into a shoddy amusement park. It's technically a comedy, only the jokes are excruciatingly unfunny, and, as if we're sitting in a terrible sitcom writers' room, are constantly being explained to us. Arnett's squirrel "hero" Surly is still in the lead, continuing his bid for one of the worst protagonists in history; he's selfish, static, unfunny, whiny, and annoying. Jackie Chan joins the nonsense this time, begging the question: is there any better example of waste than only using Chan as a voice-actor?

It's a careless mess, with little positive to write about. Sure, there are a couple of jokes that marginally work, and the incessant amount of obnoxious vehicle crashes and action sequences look fine for what they are. Honestly, this might actually be a bit better than the first, but so what? Certain Transformers films are better than others as well, but they're still all God-awful. Nut Job 2 is a humorless, soulless, angry and mean-spirited throwaway that you probably won't and definitely shouldn't see.