The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature

The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature is a 2017 American-Canadian-South Korean 3D computer-animated comedy film released in August 11, 2017 and directed by Cal Brunker, the director of Escape from Planet Earth, and written by Brunker, Bob Barlen, and Scott Bindley. It is the sequel to the 2014 film The Nut Job. The film stars the voices of Will Arnett, Maya Rudolph, Bobby Cannavale, Bobby Moynihan, Jeff Dunham, Gabriel Iglesias, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jackie Chan and Katherine Heigl.

Plot
Surly the squirrel and his animal friends find out that the corrupt mayor of Oakton plans to bulldoze their beloved Liberty Park to make way for an amusement park. Hoping to save the place they call home, Surly, Andie, Buddy and the rest of the gang join forces with Mr. Feng, a seemingly cute and innocent mouse who happens to be a fierce master of kung fu.

Why It Still Isn't Nutty (Bad Qualities)

 * 1) The premise of it is actually okay, but it's executed very poorly with long scenes that pad out for extremely long, and some of these scenes have literally no effect to the film, at all.
 * 2) Unfunny and nauseating humor, such as Frankie feeding Precious barf, which leads to Precious barfing next, and Frankie eating it.
 * 3) Frankie and Precious' love story has nothing to do with the film at all.
 * 4) The mayor's daughter (Heather) is extremely unlikable (in fact, she's even more unlikable than any other character, especially Surly). as she always treats her dogs like slaves and always screams to get what she wants, basically making her a Mary Sue.
 * 5) False advertising: Mr. Feng and his mice were plastered all over the trailers and posters, but he only appears in the film for a total amount of 25 minutes out of a 91 minute film.
 * 6) The characters have been reused into something more bland and flat than ever, with no interesting characteristics and cliched stereotyping.
 * 7) Frankie and Precious’s puppies have nothing to do for being in the film as they literally show up at the end and don’t even get a full minute of screen time.
 * 8) The Mayor Percival J. Muldoon isn't even a villain. All he wants to do is to turn a park into an amusement park, and the only reason why he loses is because the park was considered "unsafe," so he literally gets arrested, despite being the mayor. In real life, the mayor would have to be a terrorist to be arrested, not making a poorly made amusement park.
 * 9) Weak direction skill of Cal Brunker, the same director behind 2013's Escape from Planet Earth.
 * 10) Brendan Fraser's character Grayson doesn't seem to exist anymore, and it isn't explained what happened to him.
 * 11) Once it reached the climax, the movie has too many main protagonists, so the movie can't decide what they are.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The animation is way better than the first one, as it's actually decent compared to the first.
 * 2) Once again, the voice acting is great, especially from Will Arnett.
 * 3) Racoon, the main villain from the first film, makes a cameo in the post credits scene at the end of the film.
 * 4) Decent soundtrack by Heitor Pereira, including Everybody Get Nuts in the end credits.
 * 5) The action scenes are pretty awesome.
 * 6) Despite being a sequel to The Nut Job, it is at least a bit of an improvement towards the first flim.
 * 7) *On that topic, despite what BQ#6 says, the characters give out better personality, especially Surly.
 * 8) **In fact, characters like Andie, Buddy and Precious are still likable.
 * 9) The scene where Surly told the backstory of how he and Buddy met during a hurricane was somewhat emotional.
 * 10) At the end, it is revealed that Precious and Frankie had kids, and despite BQ#7, the kids are somewhat cute and likable.
 * 11) Some funny moments here and there, like the scene where Andie gets into a truck and destroys one of the rides.
 * 12) "We're all gonna... live!"

Reception
The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature received generally negative reviews from critics as well as mixed reviews from audiences, although it was improvement over its predecessor. On mh:rottenwebsites:Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 15%, based on 62 reviews. The critic consensus reads: "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature may be a slight improvement over its predecessor, but its frantic animated antics still offer minimal entertainment to all but the least discrimating viewers." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted score of 36 out of 100, based on 19 critics indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, an improvement over the first film's "B".

Videos
S_BXNsF7V38

Trivia

 * It holds the current record for worst opening weekend of a movie opening in over 4,000 theaters with a take of just $8.3 million, soundly beating previous record holder The Emoji Movie's $24.5 million.
 * Will Arnett was in mh:greatestmovies:The Lego Batman Movie and Jackie Chan was in mh:greatestmovies:The Lego Ninjago Movie, the same year this movie was released.
 * Maya Rudolph would later play Finn and Bianca's mother in mh:greatestmovies:The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, which is another movie in the LEGO movie series.