Review: Hot Tub Time Machine

As a massive John Cuesack fan I was one hand looking forward to seeing a new film starring the man however Hot Tub Time Machine didn't seem to promise much. Cusack is joined by three men who have had minor success on the big screen but are more known for their small screen roles Rob Cordrry on The Daily Show, Craig Robinson in The Office and Clark Duke in Greek. The premise sees the four journey to the mountains where Cusack, Cordrry and Robinson went as teenagers after Cordrry's Lou is thought to have tried to commit suicide. However everything changes when the four men get into the afformentied Hot Tub suddenly they are transported into a world which resembles Cusack's 1985 film Better Off Dead. From there they must do everything that happened to them that weekend so Cusack must break-up with 'the one that got away', the married Robinson has to sleep with a groupie and Cordrry has to get beaten up twice. However each man's life hasn't turned out how they thought Cusack has just seperated from his partner, Robinson's wife has cheated on him, Duke is addicted to Second Life gaming and Cordrry is a loser so all four have a reason to try and change the course of their lives.

I went into Hot Tub Time Machine with quite low expectations but was rather pleasantly surprised. The three central characters have all got great chemistry and its easy to believe that they were all friends. There are also a lot of laugh-out-loud moments some clever but mostly stupid. There is a bit of a problem with the plotting mainly in terms of the reason that the characters were transported back to the 1980s in the first place. Although Chevy Chase's repair man is at the heart of the mystery we never really discover what that mystery is, there are also several issues with the time travelling element of the plot. There is also a big chunk of the film that has been taken from the Back To The Future films from Robinson singing a Black Eyed Peas song to Cordrry betting on sports events he knows the results to its kind of all been done before. BTF's Crispin Glover also pops up from time to time as a doorman who only has one arm in the present but in the 1980s has two and thre is a running gag which sees him almost lose his arm several times. The ending is especially sentimental but at the same time also has enough gags not to make you barf.

Of the actors Cusack is his usual laid back self although kissing a teenager seems a little bit wrong, its all part of the plotting. Cusack also seems to be reliving the films he starred in in his youth and his plot, down to the kooky love interest, seems to be taken largely from that. Craig Robinson also proves what a star he is, after being the only good thing in Zack and Miri Make a Porno and often stealing the show in The Office, his character provides a lot of the film's dry humour and he delivers the killer line about the Hot Tub Time Machine. Clark Duke continues to put in another journeyman performance that we saw in both Sex Drive and Kick Ass. However this is Cordrry's show, he steals the film from Cusack with his role as loser Lou who as Robinson describes him, 'he's an asshole but he's our asshole.' He manages to mix in a string of potty-mouth gags with a pretty decent performance of a man who's realised he has got nothing to show for his life.

Overall if you can get over the Back to The Future rip-off vibe from the film, then this is a very funny film sometimes a little too crude but always warm. It mixes fine performances, with quick wit and for me is one of the comedies of the year.