Tom Reviews "Hot Tub Time Machine"

Tom's Corner:

Hot Tub Time Machine
(2010, Steve Pink, director)

“Back to the Future” was my gateway drug. From there I got into things like old “What If” and Chronos comics (and I just have to add in here that Chronos was a criminally underrated character and John Francis Moore deserved awards for his writing), “Star Trek IV”, “Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure”, the first two Terminator movies and the mighty “Army of Darkness”. When “Back to the Future 2” came out, it blew my fucking mind. I guess what I'm trying to say is I love me some time travel movies. Does “Hot Tub Time Machine” live up to the traditions of these awesome time travel films? Is it a new chapter in comedic time shenanigans? Can a puke covered squirrel royally fuck up the future? The answer to all of these: You bet your ass!

The first essential ingredient for a successful comedy is the right stars. This movie has those. John Cusack plays Adam, Craig Robinson plays Nick, Clark Duke plays Jacob, and Rob Corddry plays Lou. I've been a big fan of Cusack and Robinson for some time now, and Rob Corddry was always a welcome addition to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”. I'd never seen Clark Duke in a starring role, but he was pretty good here. The supporting cast, which includes Crispin Glover and Lizzy Caplan, was equally exceptional. And get this, William “Kobra-Kai” Zabka makes an appearance!

Anyway, you can't have a comedy without ingredient two: characters who need a change in their lives. Adam just got dumped by his girlfriend, Nick has a horribly embarrassing job, Lou's a drunken loser, and Jacob never leaves the house, instead spending all his time on a computer (take THAT, all of you reading this. Get outside and DO something...after reading more fine articles on this fine blog, of course).

Ingredient three is the method to change their crappy lives. In this case, a trip to Kodiak Valley, which has fallen on hard times since their misspent, drug fueled youths there. After a night of drinking in the hot tub, they wake up in 1986, and in their old bodies. Oh, and the time machine is trashed. While they wait for the mysterious repairman (Chevy Chase) to fix it, they are faced with a choice. Do they relive everything they did, even the mistakes, or do they change time for the better? Oh, and will Jacob be born, since it appears he was conceived on that very ski trip?

See this movie. It won't change your life, but it was about the funniest comedy I've seen in a while, and definitely the only one with a Poison tribute band in it.

- Tom

Here is the Trailer: