Vacation Friends 2 (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – Marcus lands an all-expenses-paid trip to a Caribbean resort, and he and his wife, Emily, invite their uninhibited besties, Ron and Kyla. But when Kyla’s incarcerated father is released from San Quentin and shows up, things get out of control.

My Take – Released straight to Hulu two years ago, Vacation Friends was a moderately enjoyable comedy that mainly worked due to the odd pairing of John Cena and Lil Rel Howery and the ridiculous shenanigans they got together with Yvonne Orji and Meredith Hagner.

Hence it seemed like a fun idea when it was announced that the original cast and the director Clay Tarver, minus the initial writing team of Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Tim Mullen, and Tom Mullen, would be returning for a sequel.

Sadly, the film doesn’t live up to the hi-jinks of the original even with the addition of the awesome Steve Buscemi. Working from a script written by Clay Tarver himself, the film struggles to recapture the balance between laughter and sentimentality that made the first film entertaining.

In a bid to outdo its predecessor, the sequel just adds subplots that don’t get their due time and amps up the craziness, from shootouts with the Cuban coast guard to over-the-top action sequences.

However, this escalation doesn’t necessarily equate to more laughs. In fact, it often distracts from the genuine heart that occasionally shone through in the original. And as much as Cena tries his best with the terrible material he has this time around, even he couldn’t save this mess.

Sure, it offers a familiar escape, but ultimately it leaves you wondering if this vacation was even necessary.

Taking place sometime after the events of the first film, the story once again follows Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orji), who this time around have invited Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner), their excitable and foul-mouthed pals and drinking buddies to join them on all-expense paid vacation in the Caribbean.

Recently turned parents, the two also bring along Maurilio (Carlos Santos) on babysitting duty. But unknown to them, the trip is not all pleasure for Marcus, as he has to attend a bidding meeting to win a construction contract from the hotel owners.

Unfortunately for him, the business meeting is suddenly pushed up, and he has to do everything possible, with his chaotic friends in tow, to win over the group’s VP named Yeon (Ronny Chieng), who has other plans in mind. Making matters worse is the arrival of Kyla’s ex-con father, Reese (Steve Buscemi), who stops by unannounced after getting out of prison.

Ron, who has never met Reese before, now also has to be on his best behavior to impress his father-in-law, who isn’t necessarily all that impressed by the happy-go-lucky park ranger.

This could have been a funny premise, but the writer-director Clay Tarver struggle to find anything clever to do with it. The problem here obviously is the lack of funny scenes. Most of them fall flat and unlike the last film, the cast truly couldn’t get their charm and comedy timing to make those scenes work, but the script is highly predictable.

The novelty surrounding this unlikely friendship is missing in the sequel. They are all already friends here, accepting each other and there isn’t much tension involved here. Even the criminal father-in-law angle offers nothing much as the issue is resolved quite easily.

One of the film’s best ideas is to make Ron, the gung-ho risk-taker with a heart of gold, flummoxed by Kyla’s lowlife father, who is seemingly the only person in the world Ron can’t strong-arm into chumminess. For a while, it’s fun to watch try-anything muscle-man Ron sweat and fail to impress a clipped, disdainful Reese. But the comic friction wears down, and soon the two are just playing a couple of guys who don’t like each other that much while forced to spend time together.

Similarly, Ron and Kyla’s new baby is introduced with flair, before the film loses its nerve and pushes him to the side, in service of lame babysitting jokes.

Lil Rel Howery, brings a steady presence to the film, anchoring the story amidst the comedic chaos. While he may not be given as much to work with this time around, his performance prevents the film from spiraling into complete disarray. Sadly, Yvonne Orji is given even less to do this time around.

The only train here is John Cena’s unstoppable appeal and sincerity, who along with Meredith Hagner attacks their roles with gusto. But they’re stuck performing tired, wannabe-shocking scenes about cocaine and cremated remains.

You’d expect the addition of Steve Buscemi as Kyla’s father to bring more humor, but his character is not developed well enough to work. In other roles, Carlos Santos, Ronny Chieng and Jamie Hector are alright. On the whole, ‘Vacation Friends 2’ is a subpar and underwhelming comedy sequel that is nothing more than a clear step down from the relatively enjoyable first film.