Film Review: ‘The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature’ is in the No-Fun Zone

Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 10, 2017 - 10:34pm

CHICAGO – Anyone showing up to the “The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature” will know exactly what they’re going to get… it’s a late summer sequel to an animated movie you may be surprised was successful enough to warrant a sequel at all, much less a theatrically released one.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

I must admit I did not see the first Nut Job film. However after seeing this sequel, I’m in no hurry to catch up on the further adventures of this rag-tag group of urban woodland creatures. But before I get too into it though I want to throw a few pebbles of faint praise. We truly live in a golden age of animation because even third tier hand-me-downs like this one are competently animated and put together. It may not have an iota of the heart of Pixar’s best, but at least it doesn’t look like something that sprang from a screensaver on a Commodore Amiga.

Beyond that there’s very little to recommend this manic exercise in animated movie cliches, with nary a single memorable character. Only a few hours after I saw this film on a Saturday morning – surrounded by fidgety 4 year olds – I was struggling to remember a single name without looking it up on IMDB.

”The Nut Job: Nutty by Nature” opens everywhere on August 11th, in 3D and regular screenings. See local listings for the 3D theaters and showtimes Featuring the voices of Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph, Jackie Chan, Bobby Cannavale, Bobby Moynihan, Jeff Dunham and Gabriel Iglesias. Screenplay by Cal Brunker, Bob Barlen and Sunghwan Kim. Directed by Cal Brunker. Rated “PG”