I’ll make this simple. You are reading a review for a film called Hot Tub Time Machine. If you go to this expecting anything other than a film about a bunch of guys who travel through time to the 1980s via a “Hot Tub Time Machine†you should get you head examined. That said, if you want to see a very funny film about time travel and hot tubs then I recommend you go see Hot Tub Time Machine.
Adam (John Cusack), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Lou (Rob Corddry) are best friends of old. But time has not been good to our friends and each is stuck in his own personal hell. When Lou tries to commit suicide, the guys decide that a road trip is in order so they grab Adam’s nerdy nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) and visit their old haunting ground in a ski lodge up north. After a night of partying hard in the hot tub, the guys wake up in the year 1984 and realise they have travelled back in time to the exact night that each of their lives changed forever. Now they must make the same mistakes they made in the past or upset the space time continuum and remain stuck in the past forever. Oh and they have to fix the “Hot Tub Time Machine†but you probably guessed that already.
Wikipedia defines the 80s this way: The 1980s (The Eighties) was the decade that ran from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 1989. During this time many fine comedies were made, music stars had perms, clothing was bright and tight and John Cusack started acting. Cusack quickly became a household name in films such as The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, Say Anything and Sixteen Candles so who better to star in a movie about a bunch of guys travelling back in time to the 80s. But as much as Cusack is the lead, the film belongs to Craig Robinson as Nick (don’t worry that you might’ve seen his best in the trailer, he’s on fire the whole way thru). Backing up Cusack and Robinson are Corddry and Duke as Lou and Jacob. Corddry is perfect as the “asshole†of the group while the pubescent Duke (last seen in Kick Ass) offers some keen 2010 observations on a decade past. And as with any 80s movie there a few cameos but all I’ll say is that Crispin Glover has some comic chops that he should explore.
Luckily, director Steve Pink (Cusack’s buddy Terry Rostand from Grosse Pointe Blank) didn’t try to over-direct this but instead let the script and the decade it’s based on do the talking. While his earlier attempt at directing Accepted didn’t set the box office alight here’s hoping he gets his hands on a decent script for his upcoming remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (probably starring Cusack).
It’s always nice when you see a film like HTTM, where your expectation levels are so low that when it turns out to be genuinely funny you enjoy it more so than a film you are really looking forward to. And in that regard HTTM definitely works. The minute Nick (Craig Robinson) turns to the camera and says “it must be some kind of Hot Tub Time Machine†you know you are in for a fun ride and the laughs don’t let up until the credits roll.
Andrew Kennedy
