Visiting Lou in hospital, Adam and Nick take him and Adam’s nephew Jacob to the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort, a place they enjoyed in their youth. The resort however is completely run down and deserted. The foursome however get drunk in their hot-tub which transports them back to the year 1986m, where wackiness ensues……………
There is a lot of fun to be had with this movie. The time-travel aspects and the 1986 setting is host to a whole realm of possibilities. This movie has a funny but very sick sense of humour. The jokes consist mostly of gross-out gags and extreme language then anything else. The ongoing gag with the one-armed-man is so sick that it is hysterical, as is the bout of gambling that soon goes north.
The movie reflects middle aged crisis amongst a group of friends who are mystified at how their lives, and their friendships, went so wrong compared to the optimistic future their young selves held. The movie does a good job of being quite poignant as well without being overly cheesy and corny. This is helped by the characters’ awareness of how silly a hot-tub-time-machine, and their collective predicament is.
John Cusack enjoyed a popular career in 80’s teen comedies, but he seems to take a back-seat here, although the ski-lodge setting and the alpha-male ski-instructor bully are direct references to his earlier comedy, Better Off Dead. There are other 80’s stars here serving as cameos: if you didn’t know them however you will miss them.
The 80’s held host to many teen comedies that were a direct result of Animal House which led to Porky's Revenge of the Nerds and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The fusion with science-fiction then gave us My Science Experiment, Weird Science and of course the original Back To The Future.
Unfortunately, the movie is pretty much set entirely on an internal sound-set, with set camera angels which gives the outdoor scenes a dark, unnaturally sterilized image, which makes it look lonely, gloomy, empty and, of course, fake.
For a movie set in the 80’s references to the decade are surprisingly few, and when there is some, they seem sparsely staged instead of being all encompassing. Perhaps the decision to have the movie set in a ski-lodge was persuade as opposed to the cost of decking out an 80’s city-scape.
All in all, Hot Tub time machine is very enjoyable, although its audience would be quite limited I would guess. Fans of the 80’s will enjoy it as a nostalgic trip, however, there are plenty of 80’s classic teen comedies available on DVD, and, the Not Another Teen Movie is a more recent, more obvious reference to past 80’s rom-coms. Those not familiar with the 80’s will enjoy it as a gross-out comedy more than anything else.
Check out the film at IMDB, see what Margaret and David have to say, and check out the trailer.
