THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTY BY NATURE – A Review by John Strange
Imagine you live in the park with all of your furry friends. You live on the nuts you find around you. Your primary food source is seasonal so you have to store to survive the winter. Then, one of your number discovers a treasure trove of nuts. A treasure greater than you and yours can eat in many seasons. What would happen?
The discovery of the nut shop's treasure was the plot of the first Nut Job. In Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature, Surly (Will Arnett) rules over the clan as they do their best to devour barrels of nuts without concern for the future.
Only Andie (Katherine Heigl) worries that the nuts are bad for them in the long run. Her pleas for sanity fall on deaf ears. There is no way these forest creatures are going back to the park and their old ways.
And then disaster strikes. Someone forgets to turn off the gas and the store explodes! The clan is forced to return to their small urban park. But the park is itself in danger. The Mayor (Bobby Moynihan) is one evil and greedy elected official. He decides that he can't abide the land that makes up the park not producing revenue he can skim.
First he converted one park into a private golf course. Now he wants to change this park into an amusement park! Sweep away the grass and trees and replace them with poorly constructed roller coasters and other assorted cheaply wired rides.
Thus begins a war between the evil humans and the poor (but NOT defenseless) animals. The action is punctuated with brave acts on the part of the animals and craven acts on the parts of the humans. The addition of the kung fu mice lead by Mr. Feng (Jackie Chan) will give you a bit of fun but the screeches of the totally spoiled rotten brat daughter of the Mayor give you a film that the kids will love but the adults will leave shaking their heads.
The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature is full of great little scenes that individually are worth watching. I loved The Nut Job but this one is just not as good as the original.
Directed by: Cal Brunker
Cast: Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph, Bobby Moynihan, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham, Bobby Cannavale, Isabela Moner, Sebastian Maniscalo, Peter Stormare and Jackie Chan
MPAA Rating: PG (for action and some rude humor)
Selig Rating: C
Runtime: 95 Min.
Movie Site: http://thenutjob.com/
The Selig Rating Scale:
A – Excellent movie, well worth the price.
B – Good movie
C – OK movie
D – No need to rush. Save it for a rainy day.
F – Good that I saw it on the big screen but wish I hadn't paid for it.
