Director: Steve Pink (Accepted)
Screenplay: Josh Heald, Sean Anders
Starring: John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Clark Duke
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 100 min.

(3/5)

When one heads to the theater to see an R-rated dude-centered comedy called Hot Tub Time Machine about a group of guys at a ski resort who travel backwards in time to the 1980s, there are going to be certain expectations. It’s going to be raunchy. It’s going to have beer and boobs. Most importantly, there will be plenty of fluorescent and Culture Club. Hot Tub Time Machine delivers on all of these expectations.

The movie opens up by introducing us to the four characters who will find themselves displaced in time. There is Adam (Cusack) a self-absorbed and discontent workaholic who comes home from his job one day to find that his girlfriend has moved out. Jacob (Duke), Adam’s socially awkward nephew, lives in his basement playing video games online all day with no ambition to get a job or go to college. There is Nick (Robinson) who once had dreams of being a rock star, but now works unhappily grooming animals. Then there is Lou (Corddry), the alcoholic party-animal childhood friend who is estranged from the others due to his unwavering asshole ways.

When Lou is hospitalized in an apparent suicide attempt, Adam and Nick decide to take Lou (and drag along nephew Jacob) to their old ski resort vacation town stomping grounds, where they had what they all believe to be the best times of their lives. When they find the once popular destination deserted, they try to make the best of it and proceed to get extremely drunk in their resort room’s hot tub. Waking up the next day and finding the slopes packed, they soon discover that they have somehow traveled back to the 1980s. This is where the story really begins.

Of course, the story really doesn’t matter. It’s apparent by Craig Robinson’s (allegedly improvised) wink at the camera while saying “It must be some sort of… hot tub time machine” that the movie is completely self-aware of its ridiculousness and that it was probably a movie idea that came up while the writers were all sitting around drunk in a hot tub reminiscing over their younger years. The movie never even bothers to explain why in the hell there is a time machine installed at this ski resort or who the all-knowing mechanic (played by Chevy Chase) really is, something some may find irksome, but I find all the more amusing – because none of that really matters. In other words, this movie’s intentions are not so dissimilar to last summer’s The Hangover. You should have a bunch of friends sitting around and drinking beer to watch it.

It’s low on plot, high on hijinks – and frankly, a lot of the hijinks work. It’s a pretty damn funny movie full of self-aware winks, much of it playing off of nostalgia of a decade full of terrible fashion and pop culture that confuses our 21st century sensibilities. The majority of the credit goes to the cast though, as the movie relies on the likability and charm of its four leads (not to mention a bizarrely amusing supporting role by Crispin Glover), all of who have great comedic timing and each bring their own dynamic to the quartet. Really, all four of the leads are great, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Craig Robinson (who is equally hilarious in small role in the US version of The Office) sees an explosion of popularity, much like Zach Galifianakis’s after the success of The Hangover. The guy is just plain funny.

You’re not going to get the heart of an Apatow comedy with this. It’s structured much like the comedies of the decade it parodies. It’s immature and mindless and completely unconcerned about its silliness. If you miss it, I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to lose sleep over it – but if you can lower your brow for a couple of hours (and find a theater that serves beer), I’d recommend rallying a few buddies together and checking this out. I laughed and many times laughed very hard. To me, that makes it a success.