Steve Pink
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Those who lived through the decade of Duran Duran will smile at the sly homages to classic '80s flicks like "Sixteen Candles," while those who weren't even twinkles in an eye will enjoy the "rager gone wrong" premise.
How could Pink, for example, not include a reference to "Sixteen Candles" or another of Cusack's memorable '80s movie?
Hot Tub Time Machine was ostensibly directed by Steve Pink, but it was really born from the collective unconscious of the 34-45 demographic—the viewers for whom the movie will deliver the most reliable pleasure, as they tease out the embedded references to Sixteen Candles, Revenge of the Nerds, Better Off Dead.
With the exception of a few movie references?the dialogue and one-sheet from 1984's "Red Dawn" is recalled; a romantic scene is staged to mimic 1984's "Sixteen Candles," and go-to '80s bad guy William Zabka (1984's "The Karate Kid") gets a familiar sort of role?and a handful of time-specific jokes (one girl asks what e-mail is, while a walk-on character carries a cell phone the size of a large brick), "Hot Tub Time Machine" really doesn't take satisfactory advantage of its time-travel storyline.
While there may be laughs to be had for audience members who grew up in the 1980s – “what’s email?” – it’s simply not good enough to just throw in references to Sixteen Candles when they’re not funny.
As for the time-travel paradoxes, you get the feeling they made a list of all the ones in "Back to the Future" and then came up with ways to make them filthy.
This shaggy and uneven comedy melding The Hangover with Back to the Future stars John Cusack, Rob Corddry, and Craig Robinson as onetime friends estranged in their middle years.
"The Hangover" meets "Back to the Future" in this hilarious and unapologetically adult buddy chuckler.
And, with Crispin Glover in the cast, why no direct reference to 1985's "Back to the Future, " that time-travel classic in which he co-starred?
If The Hangover were mashed up with Back to the Future and reduced to the barest of high concepts, the result might be something like Hot Tub Time Machine.
Think of it as the bastard punk offspring of Back to the Future and Groundhog Day.
The Hangover (2009)
Directed by Todd Phillips
influenced Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Characters Themes Plot
Lou is a dangerous alcoholic -- if this is "The Hangover," which in many ways it is, he's Zach Galifianiakis -- who lands in the hospital after what may have been a suicide attempt.
Touted as better than last years comedy blockbuster hit, “The Hangover,” “Hot Tub Time Machine” has some pretty big shoes to fill.
This shaggy and uneven comedy melding The Hangover with Back to the Future stars John Cusack, Rob Corddry, and Craig Robinson as onetime friends estranged in their middle years.
"The Hangover" meets "Back to the Future" in this hilarious and unapologetically adult buddy chuckler.
This is a step or two below " The Hangover ," but occupying similar turf.
If The Hangover were mashed up with Back to the Future and reduced to the barest of high concepts, the result might be something like Hot Tub Time Machine.
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
Directed by George Armitage
influenced Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015), Accepted (2006), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
For fans of John Cusack , the last few years have been a fairly bewildering time as the actor whose mere presence in a film was an almost certain indication that it would be of greater intelligence, ambition and quality than most ("The Sure Thing," "Tapeheads," "Say Anything," "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "High Fidelity" to name but a few) has lately been found in a string of projects so questionable that even Nicolas Cage might have hesitated to appear in them if they had come his way.
On that movie, director Steve Pink and star John Cusack continued a theme they established in both "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "High Fidelity," which they co-wrote.
Here’s why: With the original, director Steve Pink (Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity) turned what should have been a bullshit, nonsensical comedy into a wryly clever parody of its star’s past resume.
Debuting director Steve Pink wrote the screenplays for the John Cusack films "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "High Fidelity," both of which are fairly sophisticated bits of scribesmanship.
Steve Pink, who wrote "High Fidelity" and "Grosse Pointe Blank," makes his directorial debut, and he makes the most of what looks like maybe a $3 million budget.
In his directorial debut, Steve Pink--best known for co-writing comedies such as High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank --understands this and hits most of the right beats.
The (somewhat) deeper riddle, of course, is exactly how the phenomenon of time travel works in “Hot Tub Time Machine 2” — a thoroughly nonsensical process that Jacob, the brains of the outfit, manages to describe with admirable clarity, complicated somewhat by Lou and Nick’s incessant, sometimes spoiler-laden references to “The Terminator,” “Looper” and other wormhole-driven actioners of yesteryear.
They flew fast and furious in the first film and, if anything, fly faster and more furiously here, with shout-outs to everything from "Duck Dynasty" to The Terminator.
They also mistake movie references for jokes, you know, just like in The Terminator.
When Nick mentions that this sounds like The Terminator, Lou yells “everything reminds you of Terminator!”
With the exception of a few movie references?the dialogue and one-sheet from 1984's "Red Dawn" is recalled; a romantic scene is staged to mimic 1984's "Sixteen Candles," and go-to '80s bad guy William Zabka (1984's "The Karate Kid") gets a familiar sort of role?and a handful of time-specific jokes (one girl asks what e-mail is, while a walk-on character carries a cell phone the size of a large brick), "Hot Tub Time Machine" really doesn't take satisfactory advantage of its time-travel storyline.
High Fidelity (2000)
Directed by Stephen Frears
influenced Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015), Accepted (2006), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Director Steve Pink (Grosse Point Blank, High Fidelity) gives his comedians plenty of slack, and they find funny ways to fill it.
For fans of John Cusack , the last few years have been a fairly bewildering time as the actor whose mere presence in a film was an almost certain indication that it would be of greater intelligence, ambition and quality than most ("The Sure Thing," "Tapeheads," "Say Anything," "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "High Fidelity" to name but a few) has lately been found in a string of projects so questionable that even Nicolas Cage might have hesitated to appear in them if they had come his way.
On that movie, director Steve Pink and star John Cusack continued a theme they established in both "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "High Fidelity," which they co-wrote.
Here’s why: With the original, director Steve Pink (Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity) turned what should have been a bullshit, nonsensical comedy into a wryly clever parody of its star’s past resume.
Debuting director Steve Pink wrote the screenplays for the John Cusack films "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "High Fidelity," both of which are fairly sophisticated bits of scribesmanship.
Steve Pink, who wrote "High Fidelity" and "Grosse Pointe Blank," makes his directorial debut, and he makes the most of what looks like maybe a $3 million budget.
With the exception of a few movie references?the dialogue and one-sheet from 1984's "Red Dawn" is recalled; a romantic scene is staged to mimic 1984's "Sixteen Candles," and go-to '80s bad guy William Zabka (1984's "The Karate Kid") gets a familiar sort of role?and a handful of time-specific jokes (one girl asks what e-mail is, while a walk-on character carries a cell phone the size of a large brick), "Hot Tub Time Machine" really doesn't take satisfactory advantage of its time-travel storyline.
Look out for Back to the Future’s Crispin Glover, a creatively reinvigorated Chevy Chase, and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Cobra Kai cameo from The Karate Kid.) Remember those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books you read as a kid in the real 80s?
The Russos have always been big fans of popular culture, so I loved the references to all of the time travel films including Back to the Future and Hot Tub Time Machine .
Featuring a witty narrative in revisiting past time-travel movies, “Back to the Future,” “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Hot Tub Time Machine” and “Terminator” they are hilariously referred to and discussed.
Who’d have guessed there would be name-checks to Back to the Future , Hot Tub Time Machine and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure ?
Time travel is discussed, in a few sentences with “quantum” this or that in them, and in PARAGRAPHS of “Back to the Future/Terminator/Time After Time” and of course, “Hot Tub Time Machine” riffs.
And in Rob Corddry's hilariously manic turn, it has the most memorable showcase for a goofball co-star since Michael Keaton in 1982's "Night Shift."
Old School (2003)
Directed by Todd Phillips
influenced Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Themes Characters Plot
On its surface, “HTTM” is the typical middle aged emasculation comedy, first-cousins with “Old School,” “The Hangover,” etc.
Cusack, who also produced the film, has fun riffing on his sensitive '80s persona while Corddry's Lou is abrasive and crude, the frat brother who never grows up, a la Will Ferrell in "Old School."
Hot Tub Time Machine flirts with being a Wet Hot American Summer-style homage/parody of the ’80s ski sex comedy, but instead chooses the raunchy, lucrative buddy comedy route previously traveled by Old School and The Hangover, right down to the emasculated pal (Robinson) who must stand up to the strong, cheating woman in his life to regain his dignity.
His "Sexual Perversity in Chicago", a brilliant one-act, became "...About Last Night", a forgettable vehicle for Rob Lowe and Demi Moore.
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
influenced Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Plot
That would be 1986, when another time-travel movie came out, Peggy Sue Got Married.
Think of it as the bastard punk offspring of Back to the Future and Groundhog Day.
It also provides a sort of “Groundhog Day” in reverse as — determined not to change the future — the friends work extra hard to repeat the past.
But it’s no high-concept classic like Groundhog Day, and it lacks the sharp writing of even a lesser Judd Apatow flick.
And those old enough to remember two John Hughes gems from 1986, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Pretty in Pink, may wonder where the heart went.
The Wedding Singer (1998)
Directed by Frank Coraci
influenced Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Themes Plot
Hot Tub Time Machine does have some decent laughs and it out does The Wedding Singer with its plethora of 1980s references.
It�s more of an affable romp, The Hangover by way of The Wedding Singer: three guys having a wild and crazy night back in the �80s, though they began the night in 2010.
Instead, it quickly becomes clear that the film is more in tune with the dumber films of the era--the plot is essentially a mixture of the idiotic jiggle-fest “Hot Dog: The Movie” and the garish John Hughes gumdrop “Weird Science” with chunks of “Back to the Future” as a garnish.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Directed by John Hughes
influenced Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Themes
Hot Tub Time Machine, the nonsensical-as-Sarah Palin-quotes comedy zaps you straight to the mid-1980s, when cinematic orgies of pure hyperactive insanity such as Weird Science, Back to the Future and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off were not only possible but commonplace.
Twelve years later, in 1986, a young filmmaker named Edward Zwick (you know him for movies like Legends of the Fall and The Last Samurai) directed a film called About Last Night…, loosely based on Mamet’s play.
So yeah, the specifics of The Tomorrow War are less Primer (2004) and more Hot Tub Time Machine (2010).
Hot Tub Time Machine is a better time travel movie than whatever this is.