Vacation Friends 2

I genuinely enjoyed the 2021 movie "Vacation Friends", and when I had the chance to sit down and watch the 2023 sequel "Vacation Friends 2", of course I did so.

However, I have to say that writer and director Clay Tarver delivered a lukewarm sequel here. The script and storyline for "Vacation Friends 2" was generally devoid of the funny and outrageous situations that were in the first movie. And the script felt rather mundane and bland, and I was hardly brought to laughter throughout the course of the 106 minutes that the movie ran for.

The acting performances in "Vacation Friends 2" were fair, and it was nice to see John Cena, Lil Rel Howery, Meredith Hagner and Yvonne Orji return to reprise their characters in the sequel. It was really good to see Steve Buscemi in the movie, though his talent was just not utilized to any great accomplishment in "Vacation Friends 2", which was a shame. And it was certainly also nice to see Carlos Santos on the cast list.

So I found "Vacation Friends 2" to be somewhat of a disappointing viewing experience. And it is hardly a movie that I will be picking up a second time, simply because it was lacking the comedy appeal of the 2021 movie.

My rating of "Vacation Friends 2" lands on a very bland five out of ten stars.

Beware: this movie is only suited for teenagers. It's THAT silly and farcical. But I wouldnt even dare recommend this movie to any teenager, because there is a lot wrong...

The bad: it's jokes fall flat, almost all of the time. And the jokes are the kind of IN YOUR FACE jokes, that are so obnoxiously cheap, that they annoyed me from start till finish. I didnt laugh once. And what's a comedy without any good jokes? You tell me...

Not any good then? I wanted to see this picture because of John Cena and Steve Buscemi, two actors who have proven themselves to be great (comedy) actors. Steve Buscemi was allright, but John Cena was ridiculously NOT funny.

Please pass this one by, because you will regret watching it...

The original was a pleasant surprise to me, as I found myself laughing out loud multiple times. It had some clever writing and scenarios that really made one laugh.

This one...where to start. I almost turned it off in the first 20 minutes. The whole beginning of the movie is little more than "let's scream the F word as loud as possible over and over" and "let's say private things out loud." If you find that funny, you may like it more than I did, but I found it incredibly lazy and just not humorous.

Luckily, it -does- get slightly better after that. There are some mildly funny scenes in it, but the writing just isn't there this time. Don't go in expecting the original, or you'll be let down pretty hard.

The first Vacation Friends was a pretty mediocre comedy, but there were a few decent laughs. This sequel really doesn't bring much new to the table and the cast, sans Cena, is just not very funny. Cena is by far the highlight as he is the only one who really displays any real charisma, but he cannot do much to offset this predictable, boring story.

It's standard father-in-law and "win over the tough exec" fare. Everything is quite lazy with a lack of really any creative spark to speak for. Hulu's original movies from 20th Century films are hit or miss to say the least, and this is without a doubt a miss.

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews, if you liked the first movie you are all but guaranteed to like the first half of this movie as it is very similar.

The second half of the movie is more like an unrealistic action comedy that is not to be taken seriously, but there are still some laughs to be had. I respect that they didn't copy the first movie throughout the entire film.

If you go into this movie expecting a masterpiece or for it to be exactly the same as the first movie you are going to be disappointed, but if you lower your expectations a little you will be entertained for the entire 100 minutes.