Review of Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) by Jacob S — 07 Nov 2012

With such a fantastic title, one would have hoped for an inventive script filled with wit and one liners. Sad to say, there's way too little in the wit department, although there are one or two laugh-out-loud lines.

Consider this - there's a running joke about a one armed porter, who, when the group goes back into the 80's, sees the same porter bi-limbed. Of course the coarsest of the group, drunken wimp loser Lou, can't wait to see the poor porter lose his limb. Ha Ha Ha - well, mildly amusing, but the payoff really doesn't do the setup justice.

The direction of Steve Pink (probably hiding his real identity with that fake non de plume), is way off base - terribly uneven, and lacking focus. The film starts with a bang, showing one of the "travelers" in his dead end job at a dog grooming facility called "Sup Dawg", but then quickly goes into travel log mode and an absolutely lame bit of skiing camaraderie (I doubt that these middle aged losers, especially the drunk, can even find ski bindings let alone race down the slopes).

A further indictment of weak direction is the over reliance on spewing vomit - using it frequently and almost insisting that the viewer regard this as humor - here's a subtle hint: I've never ever thought that viewing vomit, in any way shape or form, to be funny.

Acting wise - John Cusack is totally wasted here (and wtf - he gets wasted and then is totally unphased by all he has ingested and smoked a mere manner of moments later), and Rob Corrdry is vulgar and way too manic - spitting out his lines (and yes, vomit) as if his life depended on it.

The film does have a saving grace - a very strong cameo by Chevy Chase - who utters some truly profound nonsense... an exhibition of writing that far outstrips the rest of the script and makes you wonder if Chase didn't just ad lib the entire thing.

About the only other laugh out loud moment involves the divine intervention of a "magic squirrel", though I will give the writers credit for calling Corrdry's Lou character's band Motley Lew.

Yes, this is a misogynistic guy flick, but that's no excuse for a weak script and a crass equals funny directive. To belabor the obvious, I wish I had a hot tub time machine, so I could recover the 2 hours lost by watching this decidedly mediocre attempt (and gee, isn't that some witty repartee on my part???).