‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ Review
shockya.com
With one of the most clever titles in recent memory, Hot Tub Time Machine delivers plenty of laughs while showing a little heart. The film follows three middle-aged friends – Adam (John Cusack), who was dumped by his girlfriend; the always crazy Lou (Rob Corddry); and Nick (Craig Robinson), a former musician who is controlled by his wife. After Lou’s stint in the hospital, Adam and Nick decide to cheer up their broken friend by proposing a trip to Kodiak Valley, a ski-resort which holds memories of sex, drugs and alcohol in their youth. Adam brings along his nerdy, Second Life-playing nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) for the ride.
The men arrive at Kodiak Valley only to see the resort was just not what it used to be. They find everything in Kodiak Valley to be as depressing as their lives, so the guys do what anyone else would do: drink the night away in the hot tub, only to wake up in 1986. Jacob is obviously the only one to have watched Back to the Future, for he adamantly tells the guys they must do everything exactly as they did in 1986 or else it will affect the space time continuum. The characters in the 1980s is where the film thrives by poking fun at fashion, music and the first cell phones (or as I like to call them: the Zack Morris phones).
Hot Tub Time Machine obviously borrows concepts from other films (Peggy Sue Got Married, Groundhog Day) with Adam, Lou and Nick tempted to change fate and the future, but no movie has done it with this many laughs. Cusack just cruises through the movie, which he does so well in every one of his films. Robinson shows off the comedy chops he consistently displays in ”The Office.” And Corddry really shines as the unpredictable, but hilarious Lou, who tells Nick his idea of making a fortune by inventing Twitter. Chevy Chase’s cameo was pretty much forgettable, but the same cannot be said for a memorable and funny Crispin Glover as the hotel bellhop.
The film obviously never takes itself too seriously (how can it with such a title?), but it does a good job connecting us with its heartrending characters. And come on…did you really expect any more from a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine?
For now, the film holds the title for best comedy of the year. It is no DeLorean, but I don’t mind getting into this hot tub.
[...] “Adam brings along his nerdy, Second Life-playing nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) for the ride.” Oscar Areliz – butr [...]
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