Vacation Friends 2 Reviews Call It Not as Good as the First

Vacation Friends 2 reviews are in, and they are saying it is not as good as the first.

What are the Vacation Friends 2 reviews saying?

The film reunites Vacation Friends writer-director Clay Tarver and stars John Cena, Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, and Meredith Hagner, with new co-stars Carlos Santos, Ronny Chieng, Jamie Hector, and Steve Buscemi.

Vacation Friends 2 has opened to a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is lower than the 57% rating of the 2021 original film. Michael Nordine with Variety commented on the film’s transition to a more action-oriented genre. “If anything, delving into action/comedy territory distracts from what made the original kinda-sorta touching at a few key moments: the heart beneath the hijinks,” he said. “It’s still beating here, but not as strongly as it did the first time.”

“The cast is what holds it together as the film begins suffering from trying to explore too many ideas in under two hours,” says Nate Richard of Collider. “While its predecessor proved to be a goofy and satisfying watch, the sequel is never able to fully recapture the charm. You’re much better off rewatching the first film.”

“Picking up a few months after the end of Vacation Friends, this uproarious sequel finds newly married couple Marcus (Howery) and Emily (Orji) inviting their uninhibited besties Ron (Cena) and Kyla (Hagner), who are also newly married and have a baby, to join them for a vacation when Marcus lands an all-expenses-paid trip to a Caribbean resort. His reason for traveling there in the first place is to meet with the owners of the resort to bid on a construction contract for a hotel they own in Chicago.”

“But when Kyla’s incarcerated father Reese (Buscemi) is released from San Quentin and shows up at the resort unannounced at the worst possible moment, things get out of control, upending Marcus’ best laid plans and turning the vacation friends’ perfect trip into total chaos.”