Bland ‘Nut Job’ sequel forages for a reason to exist.

Be thankful for the second-rate visuals in “The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature.” The jokes about dogs eating their own vomit would have been much harder to watch with state-of-the-art animation.

You take victories where you can get them at this point in the summer, when studios feel compelled to continue releasing movies, even though most filmgoers have been stripped of their desire to see them. “The Nut Job 2” seems surgically targeted for parents who have a week left before school starts, and have run out of ideas.

The movie certainly doesn’t have any new ones. The first “Nut Job” in 2014 tried to set itself apart with an early 1960s setting and noir-ish qualities. It wasn’t especially good, but it was mediocre in the name of art. The sequel is a movie of distractions, not ideas. The action rarely stops, because that would be a reminder that the film has absolutely nothing to say.

Will Arnett voices Surly, a selfish squirrel who learned nothing from the previous movie, growing fat off the spoils of an abandoned nut store while would-be girlfriend Andie (Katherine Heigl) continues to forage in the nearby park. Disaster strikes for the lazier animals, just as a Boss Hogg-like mayor (Bobby Moynihan) aims to destroy the greenery and turn it into a death trap amusement park.

“The Nut Job 2” isn’t maddening like “Smurfs 2,” where you continue to hate yourself years later for spending the money. It’s an adequate babysitter, that completely fails to inspire. With so much repetitive action, there is literally no bad time to take a bathroom break during “The Nut Job 2.”

That’s one more small victory, before the fall movie season makes everyone start caring again.

phartlaub@sfchronicle.com