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 on 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.

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 on 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 and ultimately serves no purpose besides being a Chekhov's Gunman during the climax, where he and his army of mice free Surly's friends and largely contribute to fighting off Muldoon's men. Considering his tragic backstory about him being driven out of his home, a lot more could've been done with him.
 * 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 with 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 that 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 establish a poorly constructed amusement park.
 * 9) Weak direction skill of Cal Brunker, the same director behind Escape from Planet Earth and mh:greatestmovies:Paw Patrol: The Movie.
 * 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.
 * 12) Even worse than the last film. All the humans are portrayed as money-grubbing villains who don't care about the environment or the animals, the animals decide to band together to fight the humans, the Big Bad hires an exterminator to help him kill the animals, and the main villain has a bratty, annoying child, there's a Love at First Sight subplot that ends with the couple having children, the movie takes a dark turn in the second act where all hope seems lost, and in the end, the animals win without suffering any casualties, and all the villains are thrown in jail.
 * 13) While it's an improvement, the animation for the human antagonists can be rather unnerving at times.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The animation is an improvement over the first one, as expected from theatrical sequels.
 * 2) Once again, the voice acting is great, especially from Will Arnett.
 * 3) Decent soundtrack by Heitor Pereira, including "Everybody Get Nuts" in the end credits.
 * 4) Despite what BQ#6 says, the characters give out better personality, especially Surly.
 * 5) *In fact, some of the characters like Andie, Buddy, and Precious are still likable.
 * 6) The scene where Surly told the backstory of how he and Buddy met during a hurricane was somewhat emotional.
 * 7) In the end, it is revealed that Precious and Frankie had kids, and despite BQ#7, the kids are somewhat cute and likable.
 * 8) Some cool moments here and there, like the scene where Andie gets into a truck and destroys one of the rides.
 * 9) "We're all gonna... live!"
 * 10) Depending on your view, the scenery looks very awesome and beautiful.
 * 11) Racoon, the main villain from the first film, makes a cameo in the post-credits scene at the end of the film where he still survived, even though in the first movie, he states that he is coming up with another plan when he survived from falling off of a waterstream while surrounded by sharks.

Reception
The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature received generally negative reviews from critics as well as mixed reviews from audiences, although some considered it slightly better than its predecessor, due to its less mean-spirited tone. 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
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Trivia

 * It holds the current record for the 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 Movie, mh:greatestmovies:The Lego Batman Movie, and mh:greatestmovies:The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, 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.