Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Directed by Steve Pink
Four pals are stuck in a rut in adulthood: Adam has just been dumped, Lou is a hopeless party animal, Nick is a henpecked husband, and Jacob does nothing but play video games in his basement. But they get a chance to brighten their future by changing their past after a night of heavy drinking in a ski-resort hot tub results in their waking up in 1986.
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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.
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.
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.
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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?
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."
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.
That would be 1986, when another time-travel movie came out, Peggy Sue Got Married.
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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.