Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Right now you can watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 in Australia on Netflix and Stan, and in the US on Paramount Plus Essential and Peacock Premium — and it is funnier than its reputation suggests. It says what it needs to say in one sitting, no filler. A 6/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. Bill Hader is the obvious draw, but the whole ensemble earns its laughs. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on Netflix.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is not trying to be everything to everyone, and that focus is exactly what makes it work. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 gets the fundamentals right first, then finds room to get weird with it. After the disastrous food storm in the first film, Flint and his friends are forced to leave the town. Flint accepts the invitation from his idol Chester V to join The Live Corp Company, which has been tasked to clean the island, and where the best inventors in the world create technologies for the betterment of mankind. When Flint discovers that his machine still operates and now creates mutant food beasts like living pickles, hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees and apple pie-thons, he and his friends must return to save the world. The chemistry Bill Hader and Anna Faris bring to it does a lot of the heavy lifting. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 came out in 2013. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 earns its laughs from character rather than situation, which is why it does not wear thin the way pure farce tends to. It knows exactly what it is, and does not try to be anything else.

For viewers who want something light without wanting something stupid, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 respects your intelligence. It does not lean on comparisons to make its case. Best experienced as a single, sustained watch from start to finish. Bill Hader anchors an ensemble with real chemistry. Genuinely funny, consistently, across the whole run.