Three men and a barely post-teen virgin hit the slopes at a mountain resort and end up vacuumed into the time travel whirlpool that is their hot tub, sending them back to 1986 as their young selves, albeit, they only see their young selves when they look into a mirror.
The moments of trapped in the past recognition is, ah, tubular. The movie’s relish in bad taste is likeable for a few moments. The T&A shots are in full schwing. But the movie trades cool scores for blow chunks.
Eleven years after “American Pie” we have now arrived at what I think is the all-time grossest visual joke. (Spoiler alert) It involves a bet where the time travelers use their knowledge of sports history to their advantage, and the stakes are fellatio. If the time travelers win, a dude’s wife has to perform. If the time travelers lose (how could they?), they have to perform on each other. Let’s just say the butterfly effect (nods to the Ashton Kutcher flick “Butterfly Effect”), has changed the course of history.
The filmmakers didn’t forget the money shot, but one wishes they would have, and this being a turn of the 21st century comedy, of course there is going to be a nasty shouldn’t-have-gone-there money shot. Anyway, intermittently there are some laughs that are created out of that thing called witty dialogue. Not that it was likely that the script was sold on that virtue.
This doesn’t feel like a written screenplay although it is credited to three writers. It feels like a compendium of lewd jokes and pranks that the writers might have put together after crashing some fraternity parties. Perhaps the writers did most of their work during a 4 a.m. bender while “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder” was playing in the background.
On board in front of the camera are John Cusack, Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry who play three middle-aged friends all screwed up in their own formula-sealed ways. Right away, one notices that Cusack, with his low-key mood caught between hipster and neurotic, has the cleanest role in the movie. He is involved in less puke hi-jinks than anyone else. With titles like “Must Love Dogs” and “2012” on his recent filmography it is time for Cusack to get back to being a serious actor again.
As the gentle bear type, Robinson (TV’s “The Office”) is dealing with having become a cuckold, as in, his wife recently slept with another guy. When he blasts to the past, he feels guilty about cheating on his wife even though he has been the schlep. In an uproarious middle aged man whining episode, he calls his future wife (who is only 9-years old) and scolds the Dickens out of her. I also really liked another moment when Robinson channels the Black Eyed Peas on stage and the crowd gradually learns to pump to his (futuristic) jive.
The third guy, the loud mouth, belongs to Corddry (I enjoyed his intolerant government agent in “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay”) whose sliminess practically drools out of the corners of his mouth. He’s less propelled by the promise of returning to the present time than he is with tracking down sluts. Corddry would have a chance to be funny if he wasn’t so lecherously creepy minute-to-minute. I almost forgot the dork (Clark Duke) who plays Cusack’s nephew who is the butt of all of Corddry’s jokes.
Stealing scenes as the bellhop is Crispin Glover (remember George McFly?), whose predicaments cross silent film era shenanigans of Buster Keaton and a post-modern Asian Extreme movie – we keep waiting for him to literally lose his arm. Chevy Chase is in this too, but has no funny lines. With or without these guys I’d still have the same reaction to the movie: I can’t recommend “Hot Tub Time Machine” not because I was bored but because I was grossed out unwillingly too many times.
Go to the official site at http://hottubtimemachinemovie.com/
Grade: C+
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