Buddy Games: Spring Awakening

If I had to describe that film, I would tell people to imagine you have a big ball of hair. Now roll it in poop. Then set fire to it. Breathe it in. Taste the smoke. Savour it... that's Buddy Games 2.

It is some of the poorest/laziest writing of a script, that gets over worked & stretched thin into an abomination. Dax Shepard took the wise choice, by not featuring. James Roday Rodriguez, Nick Swardson, and Jensen Ackles accepted roles, but you could remove them from the film and the plot of the film wouldn't suffer.

It stopped being about the characters, and more about a succession of ever increasingly ridiculous situations, to the point where it stopped being mediocre & became unenjoyable... and that was about halfway into the film.

My recommendation is that you watch Grown Ups 1& 2 instead, and that the production company hide all copies of the DVD in the same landfill as 'ET the Extraterrestrial' for the Atari 2600.

This was dreadful and painful to watch. Unlike most people, I did enjoy the first one as an entertaining turn-your-brain-off one time watch, as it did have a good story, a cohesive story and one that had some great comedy and laughs that followed. So I figured I'd give this one a shot. Huge mistake. This mess was incoherent, convoluted and pointless nonsense that dragged out endlessly with ridiculous infantile writing. The entire sub-plot with the crazy Phoenix chick was cringeworthy and annoyingly bad. Actually, comparing the writing to five year olds is an insult to the five year olds, because they could write something better than this mess. It's a generous 3/10 for the cast that were clearly the only ones that had fun making this to punish the rest of us.

For those unfamiliar with the first Buddy Games, fear not! Prior knowledge is not required to follow the story. What a surprise! The opening scene effectively establishes the central characters, their antagonists, and the high stakes, allowing the adventure to kick off immediately. The editing presents things in a way that assumes no prior knowledge of the games or how they operate and a pop-up scorecard helps you to keep track of each team's position. The initial event ends quickly, leaving plenty of film for more to unfold. After the tragic death of one of their own, Bobfather (played by Josh Duhamel) and the boys steal the urn and embark on a journey to commemorate their friend's life at the place where the Buddy Games first began. However, their plans go awry when they find themselves caught in the chaos of spring break. It's doubtful whether the central cast of Duhamel, Bakkedahl, Dillon, Swardson, and Roday Rodriguez are real-life buddies, but their exceptional chemistry suggests they might be. JD ensures that everyone looks their best, even in humiliating moments for their characters. This movie reminded me of the Jack Ass movies, with their crude and juvenile humor and the constant one-upmanship in pulling off outrageous stunts. If you enjoy that type of pranks, there's nothing wrong with that. Unlike the first film, Josh did not write this one; he "only" directed and starred in it. Whether that's a good thing or not is subjective. Overall, "Buddy Games: Spring Awakening" is a watchable film that offers some entertainment value.

This is filmed better than the first. The editing is better and the story had a better plot. Basically, the guys attend a funeral, steal the urn, end up a spring break, get kidnapped by a cult, and seek out a waitress from their dead friend's past.

It makes fun of old men and crazy woke people.

If you watched the first and enjoyed yourself, you know what to expect. These are old guys acting like teenagers and the comedy is based on the crazy situations they put themselves Into.

It's cartoonish, Lude, goofy, gross, and silly. This isn't high art. It's fart jokes, drugs, alcohol, and slapstick humor. I enjoyed it.

While I wasn't the biggest fan of the original either, it was at least an entertaining movie with a few funny parts. This one, however, was not.

The writing was very poor. The story had no real sense of direction that I could figure out, it just kind of meandered its way through random scenarios. The opening felt like a dream sequence because of how absurd it got, careful never to actually cross the line into the realm of humor though.

I was confused by the random new age 'woke' stuff in the middle, and couldn't figure out if the movie was trying to advocate for or against it, but seemed to somehow do both? Or maybe neither? Again, careful not to cross into anywhere resembling humor.

In the end, I just have to wonder why this movie was even made. It's dry, directionless, and humorless. The best actor goes to Dax Shepard, for having the good sense to avoid this pile altogether.