In "Hot Tub Time Machine", those hungry for incendiary and organic comedic farce got just what they ordered, perhaps even a little more than expected. To be fair, it's formula-driven in the celebratory depiction of the anarchic male bonding experience that "The Hangover" has previously executed to a slighter better degree. Be that as it may, it remains clever in that the neuroses and groveling of the film's characters freshens the material, fueling their escapades as well as the actors' pitch perfect rapport with its absurdist, gleefully idiotic premise. Through its juvenilia, "Hot Tub Time Machine" - a film with one of the most ambitious working titles of late - serves up a raucous and hilarious parable on living and coping with regret, while grappling with the trappings of modern middle-age crisis in a poignant, yet not too self-serious manner. Am I sure I'm talking about "Hot Tub Time Machine"? Well, yes, I am.
The existence of the film's three 40-something men, Adam (John Cusack), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Lou (a brazenly unhinged Rob Corddry) becomes something of a wallowing, repeated drone. Adam arrives to a message on his answering machine from his girlfriend, presumably one of many who's laid the news on him that, basically, she's through. Nick may have had dreams of music stardom, but they're washed away by his "going in another direction", on a path that starts in abandonment of his young potential and ends in the depths of, um, a dog's behind. And Rob Corddry's Lou, the sort of kindred spirit of "Time Machine", simply can't acclimate to these conditions; his episodes of drunken, wild, raving self-disapproval are the personality of the material, with Corddry practically making the movie his own. Lou dishes out cold, insensitive banter that's probably displaced by the character's own self-loathing, and Adam's 20-year-old nephew Jacob (a quick, dry Clark Duke) straight-mans and sometimes drolly dispels it to casual, cutting effect. Duke has always had talent and a comic sensibility but played it safe in weaker, forgettable dunce vehicles like "Sex Drive", and even on the prim and packaged ABC Family sitcom "Greek". Here he totes some real comedic muscle.
The troupe assembles half-heartedly following a suspicious car accident with Lou behind the wheel. Whether it's a suicide attempt, we're not so sure. We get the feeling that Nick and Adam have known Lou far too long to be at all surprised if it were. Amidst desperation to regain the momentum of their youth, the guys attempt to impulsively break from the norm and head to their old self-mythologized stomping grounds, the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort, "K-Val!" as Lou lovingly recalls. From there, one night in their resort hot tub delivers exactly what the title promises, a campy, vulgar, coarse, but still clever comedy with discernible heart.
I won't give away too many of the plot's details, they're meant to be experienced like a throbbing, delirious headache of the wildly intoxicated expedition these men plow their way through. One running story line with the hotel's bell hop (Crispin Glover, 'Back To The Future''s George McFly), is a gag that creates a sporadic element among some of the movie's best scenes, and Chevy Chase as the enigmatic repair man grounds the film's sense of homage and gives it the goofy edge that makes the actors' initial deadpan so amusing. Director Steve Pink summons his both travestied and adored 80's decade, in a sendoff of just the kind of schlock that the younger mullet, flat top and mop donning versions of its protagonists must have watched over excessive recreational drinking, yearning to recreate the TOTALLY AWESOME times they immodestly depict. I've heard that "Hot Tub Time Machine" was born out of the idea to recreate 1984's "Hot Dog...The Movie", and though I can't quote director Pink on that statement's accuracy, I too felt as though I was watching the vapid, fun-loving spirit of "Hot Dog", "Ski School", and every other teen sex comedy that relished in heroizing 19 and 20 year old guys as the Hugh Hefners of their respective Winter-fests. Mr. Pink seems to be inspired by these films while maintaining just the right tone, and extracting the best parts of even the most low-brow palette.
Ambitious in its ski and skin sexploration and guy-centered fare, many are likely to be offended by how roughly our band of middle-aged retro-starved comrades conduct themselves, as well as question whether many of the gross-out sight gags are necessary. This film is not for those people, although if they were to ride out initial impressions, they might find that those gags do work. The hot tub's function - other than to be a time machine ignited by an illegal energy drink, of course - is to help center the sadness in Adam, Nick and Lou's seasick lives with perspective, and writers Josh Heald, Sean Anders and John Morris' blend of coinciding nausea and comic confidence makes for a film that is, well, nauseatingly funny. Likewise, so is this 80's decade, in its riotous, spandex, hair-metal, drug-induced glory.
★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Cast & Credits
Adam: John Cusack
Lou: Rob Corddry
Nick: Craig Robinson
Jacob: Clark Duke
Bellboy: Crispin Glover
Alice: Lizzy Caplan
Repairman: Chevy Chase
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents a film directed by Steve Pink. Written by Josh Heald, Sean Anders and John Morris. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R (for strong crude and sexual content, nudity, drug use and pervasive language).
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