Sometimes a movie's advertising massages the truth about what the movie really is; a drama is made to look a little more comedic, a comedy is played more as an action film, and so on. That's not the case here. Hot Tub Time Machine is completely honest about what it is as a movie. It's about a trio of middle-aged guys who get drunk, get in a hot tub, and find themselves back in the 1980's at the height of that particular decade's ridiculousness. It's a broad comedy and delivers its fair share of gross out humor, time travel movie parody, and funny moments. It doesn't reach the heights of comedy gold, but it's definitely worth a viewing.
Adam (John Cusack), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Lou (Rob Corddry) are three old friends staring down the barrel of middle-age, each failing in their adult lives in different ways. Adam's girlfriend has left him, Nick has given up his dream of being a musician to care for dogs, and Lou is on the verge of killing himself. We also see from the start that these guys have lost touch and aren't in each other's lives like they used to be.
This all changes when Lou does nearly kill himself and ends up in the hospital (it's not clear whether he was trying to kill himself, or was just on a bender and mistakenly left his car running in his garage). To cheer him up, Adam and Nick bring Lou to a ski lodge they used to visit all the time back in the day. They also bring along Adam's twenty-year old nephew Jacob (Clark Duke). When they get to the resort, they find it broken down and nothing like the place they remembered.
It does have a hot tub, though. And after a night of hard drinking and carousing, they end up in it and transported back to 1986. This is where the story really begins – as we see Adam, Nick and Lou in their teen forms back at the resort in its heyday. Jacob also comes back with them, but stays in his present day form (since he probably wasn't born yet).
After a pretty funny sequence in which the guys figure out they're back in the 80's, they realize that they were all at the resort on this very weekend, and that important events happened to all of them. Adam dumped a girl he feels he never should have let go, Nick bombed in an early live performance with his band, and Lou got beat up by some jerks on the ski patrol. Now the guys have a big dilemma: they've got the chance to relive defining moments from their past, but if they change anything they might risk ruining the future.
Needless to say, the character work here is what you'd expect from a broad comedy that runs mostly on gross-out humor and references to how crazy stuff used to be back then. You don't come to a movie like this or The Hangover for life-changing character transformation. You come for the gags. Which are at times pretty damn funny here. There are a ton of references to 80's classics like Back to the Future, Red Dawn, and even a couple of old Cusack movies. And the sequences that explore the rules of time travel are downright hilarious, with the movie plays around with the conventions of the time travel genre for good laughs.
The chemistry between Cusack, Robinson and Corddry is pretty good. We believe that they've been friends forever and know each other's weakest points well. And the way the three of them play off the young, nerdy and perpetually annoyed Clark Duke really sharpens the 80's humor.
The movie is at its strongest when it just focuses on the gags, though. That's where a comedy like this lives or dies. This one falls short of greatness because it's – well – it's just not quite funny enough to be great. But it's got a good amount of laughs and there's fun to be had in searching for all the 80's references. Overall, it's definitely worth checking out, if only for Crispin Glover's amazing recurring cameo.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The biggest special feature on the blu-Ray is the unrated version of the film. I saw the movie in theaters and don't remember too much radically different. Other than that, there are a couple extended TV commercials and some deleted scenes that don't add too much to the movie.
"Hot Tub Time Machine" is on sale June 29, 2010 and is not rated. Comedy. Directed by Steve Pink. Written by Josh Heald, Sean Anders, John Morris. Starring Clark Duke, Craig Robinson, Crispin Glover, John Cusack, Rob Corddry.
