Crispin Glover.
Perhaps best known for playing Marty McFly’s dad back in the future-day, he steals every single scene he’s in and runs with it. As the one-armed bellhop of the now-times, he’s an angry misanthrope, but back in the 80′s he’s a happy-go-lucky goon with a knack for getting his unlucky limb in all manner of dangerous situations. He’s very good, and a stand-out act in an impressively funny movie.
The movie follows the story of 3 friends and a younger nephew trying to overcome their tepid lives, having allowed them to grind horribly to a halt as they entered their middle-age. Lou, played with wild-eyed fury by Rob Corddry, the ‘crazy’ one suspected of attemping suicide, needs to be supervised for a few days to make sure he doesn’t top himself again. Old friends Adam and Nick (John Cusack and Craig Robinson respectively) decide to take him to their old winter-haunt, ski-centre Kodica Valley for a break and a drinking session. For some reason, they also take Adam’s nephew, played by Clark Duke.
Then, a Hot Tub happens.
I went in expecting a ‘The Hangover’-lite kinda movie, assuming the best bits would be in the trailer bar a few jokes deemed ‘too hot’, wrapped around a formulaic ‘oop, we’re back in the 80s!’ plot. And to an extent, that’s what I got – it follows The Hangover closely, sending 4 stereotypes on a drinking binge and documenting the wacky antics that occur immediately following. As with The Hangover, the night the plot hinges on is dealt with in under a minute. The film quick-edits through buckets of alcohol as the four men drink themselves stupid in the titular Hot Tub, get a little messy, and wake up with a situation on their hands. Except, in HTTM, they don’t find a tiger in the bathroom and a quarter of their party missing, they find cassette walkmans and Alf on the TV.
Yep, as contrived and silly as it is, the Hot Tub Time Machine proves to be a wonderful MacGuffin to throw the characters back in time to deal with their former problems. They see each other as their 2010 versions, rocking beer-guts and receding hairlines, but the guests of the ski resort see them as they were in the 80s. Jacob is viewed as his 2010 self at all times, having not been born at the time in question. Don’t think about it, just accept it for now. I’ll get to that in a minute.
It’s a fun movie, not to be dwelled on. Continuity and logic are mostly thrown to the wind. Each actor has fun with their character, working within what would be expected of their persona and pulling laughs through simply having a good time of things. Clark Duke is quickly becoming the Michael Cera of comedy – awkwardly funny and generally the same character in each role, but it works well and doesn’t for a second seem forced or false. John Cusack is as excellent as he used to be and Craig Robinson plays Craig Robinson as well as Craig Robinson can.
It plays out through a collection of well-crafted set-pieces, cramming jokes, insults and one-liners in every available space, barely a second is wasted whilst the characters go about learning something about themselves and altering the course of history for their future-benefit. The plot from there revolves around getting bak home and making sure little Jacob gets born, which mostly works out okay in the end (sorry, *SPOILER*).
But here’s my only real gripe: It doesn’t make any sense. None at all. Whilst I can over-look most things, like how it asks you to simply believe the hot tub took them back in time and how their actions all worked out well for the future selves, I can’t help but think it all could have made a little more sense with a bit more work put in to the final third. In short, three of them go back via the hot tub and one doesn’t. That one stays behind, gets rich with his knowledge of coming events and makes a good life for himself. When the three remaining travellers get back in their correct time (2010), he’s the same age, has somehow avoided male-pattern baldness and has a yaught. In fact, all of their lives have improved greatly, but the film doesn’t even attempt to explain how they would suddenly cope with everything in their lives having changed – even for the better. For example Nick now owns a recording studio and is a talented producer – how does he know how to do that? Before the time travel he was a dog walker, now he’s famous. A good idea for a sequel would be them having to go back and fix everything, putting them back in their boring lives before whoever is paying Nick to do his new, fantastic job wants to kill him because he is suddenly terrible at it.
Anyway…lapses in sense aside, it’s very enjoyable. It might not take off and be the huge hit The Hangover was, but it’s almost as funny and well worth a watch.
My name is Chris and you’ve been a wonderful audience.
