One word to sum it up: Different
Despite the fact that Hot Tub Time Machine looked like just another gross-out comedy, I still really wanted to see it. Maybe because I have this sort of thing for John Cusack. Okay, I really do like gross-out comedies, so of course I would want to see Hot Tub Time Machine. And it was one of the first comedies to be rated over 50% on Rotten Tomatoes this year...
Three friends on losing streaks: Adam (John Cusack), whose girlfriend dumped him, Nick (Craig Robinson), with a dead-end job and a cheating wife, and Lou (Rob Corddry), a suicidal alcoholic. To help Lou recover from car-exhaust poisoning, Adam and Nick, with Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), go to a winter resort that was their old party place. It's now a dump, but the lads rally for a night of drinking in the hot tub. Somehow, the hot tub takes them back to 1986, on a fateful night for each of them. Maybe if they do everything the same way they did that night, they'll get back to the future so Jacob can be born. There are serious temptations to do things differently. Will they make it back to their sorry lives? And what about Jacob?
Hot Tub Time Machine passes as a lesser version of The Hangover, but manages to take on a similar plot to The Butterfly Effect (which is referenced in the movie, by the way), and succeeds. To be honest, the 'psychological mind-flip comedy' probably shouldn't eventuate into an actual genre, because this film didn't exactly perfect it. However, the out come of it was charmingly funny and overall, a pretty good comedy. Those who long for the days of the 80s to come back, Hot Tub Time Machine is a perfect film to do some reminiscing with. It has every 80s reference in the book, including the fashion that I have come to fear in my lifetime. For once, the 80s look as cool as they did in Back to the Future.
Like The Hangover, this is the ultimate male bonding flick, as these already-friends became closer as the movie got on. It does lean a little too close to being a bit inappropriate, and the use of women is what is to be expected in a comedy of it's stature. The cast are a little different, but they all play the same admirable douchebags we have seen a few times before. John Cusack looks a little too weary in the film, probably a little tired from saving the world in 2012, but serves as a good lead and makes the most of an unlikeable character. The rest of the cast are inappropriately funny but manage to get the real belly laughs out, especially Rob Corddry, who's aggressiveness is just, well, funny.
The title is real silly, and the film matches that promise. It's silly, but it still manages to be a smart-ish comedy. I mean, it has this amazing message, which I can't help but feel defines our generation: If we went back in time, we would literally die without technology. Yeah, and some say comedies don't mean anything.
THE VERDICT: Pretty much a silly, but funny comedy, that won't fail to make your stomach hurt from all the laughing at some stage. It doesn't quite make it up there with The Hangover, but it is 2010's closest answer to it.
7/10
I saw this when it first came out in cinemas, and while it wasn't terrible, I did struggle to like it. I wasn't sure what audience it was targeting, since the gross-out comedy elements are more likely to please teens, but the nostalgic value would surely please those who experienced the 80s... and would now be in their 30s. Felt like a strange mish-mash.
ReplyDeletePlus, I think much of this film's appeal rides on Corddry - who I personally didn't find particularly funny.