Hot Tub Time Machine

Hot Tub Time Machine
2010 - MGM/UA
Directed By Steve Pink



SYNOPSIS

Adam (John Cusack) his two friends (Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry) and his young nephew (Clark Duke) are unexpectedly transported back in time when a ski resort's hot tub malfunctions. The three older men relive their epic trip from 1986 and debate whether or not to change the past... and make their so-so 21st century lives better.



MY THOUGHTS - Spoiler free!

Rude, crude and hilarious!

Hot Tub Time Machine is a fun romp back to an era many would like to forget.

The humor takes the already crude Judd Apatow-level of comedy and dials it further down, creating a new gutter, located far below the current one. Anyone easily offended would walk out of the film fairly soon into it... but this film is designed for people like me - fans of edgy envelope-pushing comedy.

The keys to the success of the humor lies in the characters. The four main guys are complete losers, but we grow to like them (even Rob Corddry's obnoxious bastard Lou) as the story moves on and cheer them on when they do good. They are presented as real, complex people and not as some basic stereotype (a la The Breakfast Club) this help them to appear more real and relatable.

'Hot Tub' is like those films of Apatow's but without any of the deeper stuff. Hot Tub only exists to make you laugh.
Much of the humor is of the shock-you-into-laughing type that South Park excels at, but without any of that 'deeper stuff' the humor may only work once. The second time you see it, it just won't be as funny because the shock isn't there. You've been desensitized.

The film is also loaded with many references to many 80's films and even has Crispin Glover, one of the stars of the biggest time travel movie of that decade, in a hilarious supporting role.

The biggest headache of the film to me was the glaring error surrounding Clark Duke's character. The character is only 20 in 2010, yet was conceived in 1986. He should be 23-24 years old.

Hot Tub Time Machine probably won't stand up to repeated viewings and won't become a cherished comedy classic, but it's a fun way to spend some time and get several big laughs.