1. Watchlist: Hot Tub Time Machine

    Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
    Directed by Steve Pink
    Watched 3/4/2010 (Advance Screening) - 1st Viewing

    Here we go… There’s a hot tub, a hot tub that’s a time machine, a hot tub that’s a time machine that four dudes get into one night and are magically transformed in time to the golden-oldie 80’s, where they learn the errors of their young ways by attempting to re-live the past. If you can’t wrap your head around the absurdity of that premise, read no further. If you can, have at it.

    Directed by two-timer Steve Pink (2006’s dud Accepted), Hot Tub Time Machine is a straight-up slapstick raunch-com, wrapped in a post-Hangover mystique. The film stars the recognizable by many (John Cusak, Chevy Chase), by a few (The Daily Show’s Rob Corddry, The Office’s Craig Robinson), and nobody (Clark Duke of the awesome Clark & Michael) as a foursome of dudes with little and lost direction in life. There’s a drunk loser, a marriage-whipped loser, a mid-life crisis loser, and a “on the path to being a loser” loser. Sound familiar? It should. But it’s not.

    It’s impossible for those who have not yet seen the film to NOT compare it to last years The Hangover - the trailer takes every opportunity to entice that film’s audience into the theater once again. But Hot Tub is no Hangover do-over, and it’s better for it. It’s more like a love letter to teen-comedies of the 80’s, with the pacing of today’s comedic giants. Time Machine spits the jokes as if, like in it’s vintage setting, everything is going out of style. The movie is impossible not to laugh through, despite the feeling that what is happening on screen should not be that funny.

    Is it the actors? The well-earned references to 80’s comedies of yore? The rapid-fire dirty jokes? Yes. Or no. I’m not sure. But it works.

    If you need more motivation, we reviewed Hot Tub Time Machine in full on Hot Tub Oscar Party, our latest podcast.

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