Think Like a Man Too Kevin Hart, Regina Hall, Terrence J, Michael Ealy. Directed by Tim Story. Rated PG-13. Opens Friday.
The original Think Like a Man in 2012 was essentially a feature-length infomercial for Steve Harvey’s relationship-advice book, using the struggles of four separate couples to illustrate Harvey’s crude, reductive view of male-female relations. It was also a massive hit, surely the most successful movie ever based on a self-help book (take that, What to Expect When You’re Expecting!), and so now we have the superfluous Think Like a Man Too, which is an improvement only in that it doesn’t feature a single reference to Harvey’s book.
The four main couples head to Las Vegas for a wedding weekend, anchored by a battle-of-the-sexes showdown between the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Each couple has a rote emotional journey to complete, but the movie is more about tired Vegas misadventures than character development (with so many characters, it’s hard to adequately serve any of them). Kevin Hart stole scenes as the couples’ proudly separated pal in the first movie, but thanks to his increased fame, he’s become the star of the sequel, and his manic presence gets tiresome quickly. With its Vegas setting and bachelor-party plot, Think Like a Man Too aspires to be the next The Hangover, but its TV-commercial production values and retrograde gender politics make it more like the next Last Vegas.
