The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature

Surly the squirrel (Arnett) is back and, wait for it, he’s not as surly. He’s even gone and let all the animals from the park to dip into his nut store, an act of kindness that doesn’t impress Andie (Heigl) who believes the animals are losing their instinct to forage. However, when the nut store is blown up and the greedy mayor has plans to renovate the nearby green spot into a shoddy amusement park, Surly bands the animals together to take the builders down…

If you're scratching your head to remember anything about the 2014 original you're in good company. The DreamWorks offering didn't pull up any roots when it was released but it must have done some solid business because here we are. If original wasn't high on originality its sequel boasts a story lifted from Furry Vengeance or Yoggi Bear (and probably at least two of the Open Seasons): the animals versus the money greedy humans.

Nut Job 2 is too scattergun to wholly enjoy. It sets itself up with a theme that animals shouldn’t lose their instinct to forage – "Easy doesn't build character," Heigl’s Andie says – but loses itself in the deluge of action sequences that follow; by the close Surly lists the things he's learned in the last ninety minutes and rejecting human castoffs for real animal food isn't among them. Hmm. There are too many villains jostling for position with the mayor, his spoilt daughter, and the animal catcher unsuccessfully looking to make an impression.

It also can't decide what the real romance is: the love between Surly and Andie or the bromance between Surly and Buddy, the mute rat; the former kiss, the latter gets an elongated flashback. You decide. The 1963 setting doesn't give the story anything but the odd distracting visual that reminds one it’s 1963 (The Birds is showing at the cinema, the cars).

But with the amount of action set pieces on show The Nut Job 2 certainly won't bore and it slightly noses out the original because of Jackie Chan's army of cute kung-fu mice. Perhaps a nod to the Wongs in The Wanderers, these adorable but violent white mice could, like the Penguins of Madagascar, entertain in a movie of their own.