Hot Tub Time Machine Makes Us Warm, Wet and Happy

There’s a pantheon of raging comic performances. There’s John Blutarsky, there’s Dr. Lizardo, there’s Frank the Tank. You can now add Rob Corddry’s hyperactive, angry, sexually-dysfunctional bald-headed loser “Lou” from Hot Tub Time Machine to that list.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Hot Tub Time Machine is a smart comedy. It isn’t a great movie by any stretch, but it is a funny one which bends over backwards to find as many possible avenues for creativity. It maintains enough story elasticity to let its gifted comics shine while not running amok with the plot. In between chuckles and well-landed groans all I could think was, wow, these guys are really going the extra mile.

John Cusack, Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson are old high school chums who all took the road to loserdom once youth passed them by. When Cusack and Robinson think Corddry attempts suicide (he was just drunk and fell asleep listening to Motley Crue in the garage with the car running) they decide on a rejuvenating trip to the ski lodge resort from their teenage triumphs.

As so often happens when friends get together, they go back in time.

You know the premise, I’m sure – an excuse, really, to get our heroes trapped in a ridiculous '80s comedy. Those with a real familiarity with this genre will enjoy the Easter eggs – from the obvious ones like casting Crispin Glover, to the more obscure like a stashed poster of White Nights - while those too young can just groove on the “classic” score.

The zings fly immediately. The best repartee is between the repulsive Corddry and Cusack’s doofus nephew played by Clark Duke. Breaking news:  Some time between the awful Sex Drive and now Clark Duke went to funny school. He’s a surprisingly nimble straight man.

Hot Tub Time Machine wears its low-budget on its sleeve. The lodge looks like a redressed strip mall and a drive through town has some shockingly bad rear projection. The absurdity of the plot is played out to the nth degree (a pissed-off squirrel acting as butterfly effect to a famous John Elway drive, creating havoc on a sure thing bar bet) as is the charming fealty to the silliness of a 1980s comedy.

I’ll let you discover the charms of Hot Tub Time Machine on your own. On a personal note, I was impressed the “we’re in the writer’s room” one-upmanship. This doesn’t just mean gross-out stuff (though it is there) but a daring attitude to red herrings, absurd visual gags and meaningless catch phrasery.

Don't get me wrong.  Hot Tub Time Machine has faults.  There's a funny exposition scene - then, oddly, a second considerably unfunny exposition scene.  Perhaps someone was worried the audience would be confused.  There's a love interest plot that is crammed in with the subtlety of a baseball bat to the head and there's also an extended cameo from Chevy Chase that almost derails the film with unfunny.  Still, I recommend you, your friends and a bunch of beer go see this film.

Even though The Hangover made a bazillion dollars I dislike it and the type of comedy it stands for. It is a nasty, “cool guy” kind of humor made from a point of view of manipulation. Hot Tub Time Machine is not trying to impress or shock you – it is trying to entertain you. And it does a damned good job.