"Hot Tub Time Machine" (Directed by Steve Pink, 2010)
Hollywood, is this a joke? Hot tub + Time Machine!? Ouch. Another, hit to the intellect of movie audiences has been delivered. But, really? How promising can a movie entitled "Hot Tub Time Machine be?" Not very. But that's the idea here, this film is not meant to offer some kind of self-reflexive commentary on adulthood nor does it aim to enlightened us with some cheesy life-lessons. All it promises is a couple of hours of mindless and ridiculous fun times and it delivers.
The plot itself is not very original, it feels like a raunchier version of "Back to the Future," (with an appearance by Crispin Glover as a looser included). Marty McFly is replaced by three loser best friends: Lou (Rob Coddry), Nick (Craig Robison), and Adam (John Cusack); who are leading dissatisfying adult lives resulting from poor romantic relationships. When Lou, the reckless drunk of the group, has a supposed suicide attempt the friends reunite to cheer him up and reluctantly go on a trip to their old hang out place, the 'Kodiak Ski Valley Resort' to relive some good times taking Adam's nephew, Jacob (Clark Duke), along for the ride. After discovering that the years have turned the resort into a dump and having no option but to stay, the guys decide get into the newly repaired hot tub and enjoy the night. After a crazy night they wake up to go skiing only to find themselves among a sea of neon spandex and an 80s soundtrack. It's 1986 and they must relive that day exactly as they did or they risk causing 'a butterfly effect' altering the space-time continuum and resulting in Jacob, (who's body is flickering!), never being born.
Of course, the guys realize that the 80s they so fondly remembered really weren't that great either and now they must relive the shitty day that defined their future, and the antics ensue. The movie takes some quick jabs at 80s pop culture but unlike "Back to the Future" it doesn't remain hung up on the setting/time frame for jokes like it comfortably could have. Instead, it relies on the characters' responses to the outrageous situations they find themselves in for comedic effect. Craig Robison and Rob Coddry take credit for carrying most of the comedic scenes. Their timing is spot on and their unassuming performances allow their characters to feel more 'natural' & real and less forceful than the efforts by Cusack. Likewise, Clark Duke's character goes beyond the typical computer age sexed up kid to become the unlikely voice of reason and the sobering agent of the film.
Needless to say, this movie could not call itself a gross-out guy comedy without the gross-out gags or the misogynistic, homophobic and sex jokes which came at a dime a dozen. Yet, the movie moves so fast that the punches are short and quick, and therefore there isn't enough time for cheap one-liners to linger. Instead the viewer is meant to digest whole situation.
The bottom line is, the film was not laugh-out-loud funny but it was definitely entertaining. Low expectations leave room for big surprises and this certainly was the case with "Hot Tub Time Machine." The movie, like its title, was completely ridiculous in the best sense of the word. If its fault is that it is a rip-off "Back to the Future" so, what? There are far inferior and witless comedies that have done the same. This film was at least 101minutes of unpretentious fun.
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