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- Movie: Hot Tub Time Machine
- Rating: R
- Running Time: 1 hrs. 40 min.
- Starring: John Cusack, Clark Duke, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddy, Sebastian Stan, Crispin Glover and Chevy Chase
- Written By: Josh Heald, Sean Anders and John Morris
- Directed By: Steve Pink
- Distributor: MGM
- Series:
Hot Tub Time Machine Review
Better Than It Sounds. Really. By
Rob Vaux
March 25, 2010
Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, John Cusack and Clark Duke in HOT TUB TIME MACHINE(2010).
© MGM
The central irony of Hot Tub Time Machine is that the audience most willing to love it will probably also notice its copious 1980s continuity errors. Do you know when 21 Jump Street first came out? Or when that hideous Kid N' Play haircut was all the rage? If you do, then Hot Tub Time Machine wants to embrace you to its keyboard-tie-laden bosom… despite the fact that it can't quite get the timetable straight itself.
On the other hand, those in the know about such details will probably be so entertained by the goofy hilarity of it all that its various slip-ups fail to matter. It constitutes a bizarre blend of the incredibly smart and the very, very stupid, laden with ridiculous in-jokes that somehow coalesce into a clever (if simple-minded) comedy. More importantly, it represents a return to form for star John Cusack, wandering in the wasteland of bad rom-coms and imbecilic event pictures since the brilliant High Fidelity over a decade ago.
Here, he plays Adam, an underachieving forty-something reeling from a demised relationship and forced to look after his shut-in nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) playing Second Life down in the basement. His two best friends look back on their lives with similar regrets: Nick (Craig Robinson) eking out a purgatorial living in a dog-grooming salon and Lou (Rob Corddy) still head-banging to Mötley Crüe in between half-hearted suicide attempts. In an effort to snap the four of them out of their collective funk, Adam plans a trip to the mountains, where they can relax in the hot tub and capture some last tattered remnant of their long-lost youth. Before you can say "high concept," a spilled energy drink activates the hot tub's latent powers, sending them all back to 1986.
Yes, really.
Initially, they take careful steps not to disrupt the time-space continuum lest they "make Hitler President" or engender some similar catastrophe. As the mistakes of their past loom large, however, they basically let out a collective "fuck it," and start trying to make things better for their future. So too, does Hot Tub Time Machine abandon all narrative discipline and just concentrate on having a good time. Director Steve Pink served as the screenwriter for many of Cusack's greatest hits… and does his work here the way you'd expect a screenwriter to direct. The scenes come lazily, almost haphazardly, based around central concepts and only loosely forming a coherent story. But the gags within them have such loopy energy--such an absurd combination of derision and affection for its central quartet--that the slapdash technical elements fade into irrelevance.
Ostensibly, the film acts as a parody for time-travel films, marked by the ominous presence of Crispin Glover as a one-armed bellhop and holding such classic elements as preventing your own birth and profiting from future knowledge. They all play out surprisingly well, save for a few too-obvious gags about the ludicrous fashions of the era and an over-reliance on gross-out moments.
Hot Tub Time Machine really earns its stripes by getting inside its characters' heads. Their smart-aleck banter and faux-serious dilemmas benefit immeasurably from the very funny actors, topped by Cusack who can deliver this kind of material in his sleep. But beyond that, the scenario also grants the children of the 80s a quiet bit of nostalgia: a lamentation of lost youth and a chance to reflect on the realities of growing older. It takes a surprising bit of grace to handle that amid the fart jokes and ski-based pratfalls, but Hot Tub Time Machine makes it look very easy.
Otherwise, it's all just a goof. Pink maintains the proper slapstick atmosphere and the jokes vary their targets to keep from becoming repetitive. The film's "what the hell" breeziness maintains a constant appeal--feeling relaxed rather than lazy--and while the occasional slide into wish fulfillment misses a few obvious zingers, it also finds solid ground in the big-hair absurdity of the era it worships. There's no better guide for such an excursion than Cusack, allowing those who grew up after the 80s to enjoy the ride as much as those of us who survived it. Nostalgia aside, Hot Tub Time Machine's only real criteria is making us laugh. That it does so with such regularity constitutes one of the bigger surprises of the year.
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I can't wait to check this out this weekend, glad to see you gave it a good review Rob. Hot Tub Time Machine FTW!!