Hot Tub Time Machine

It's mainly about John Cusack, why I saw this movie. We're close in age, both Gen Xers, anyway. I feel I have watched him grow up onscreen. Sure, I also watched Ron Howard progress from Opie to Richie to famous movie director, but this case study hits closer to home. I watched Cusack in silly 80s films like BETTER OFF DEAD and ONE CRAZY SUMMER. A few years later, he starred in the more mature SAY ANYTHING. He started appearing in even more distinguished fare in his 20s, films like THE GRIFTERS. Then, in 1997, his character decided to attend his 10 year high school reunion in GROSSE POINTE BLANK. He did it so I didn't have to. A vicarious thing, and good enough. I felt a kinship with the guy. It was cemented when he made HIGH FIDELITY ten years ago. His character was a music obsessed romantic ruminating on his past loves. In early 2000, I was doing much the same.

Now he's in his 40s and playing a sad sack named Adam in HOT TUB TIME MACHINE. He's representative of many middle-aged shlubs who cry in their beer after yet another crappy day at work. They sit and think about their lives and lament the failures they most certainly are. Like Adam, many have been dumped by their girlfriends or wives and have jobs they loathe. This time, I can happily say that a Cusack role does not reflect my current state. Life is a blessing, filled with love and contentment. But it's still fun to go back and track the next blip on Cusack's cinematic lifeline.

Adam and his buds are far from content. Nick (Craig Robinson) spends his days fishing car keys from the anuses of pooches. He seems to be on short leash himself; his wife seems to wear those legendary pants you hear of. The poor guy even has his name hyphenated 'cos it's the new sensitive thing for 21st century men to do. What happened between the halycon days of youth and the sad present?

In even worse shape is the pathetic Lou (Rob Corrdry), a divorced, severely alcoholic case of arrested development who tries to end his life by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes while flooring his car in park in the garage. As he swigs on a bottle of something, he's got Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home" blaring. By the way, if you're a fan of the Crüe, you'll be outright tickled by some of the gags in this movie.

Lou's suicide attempt fails, and after the guys visit him in the hospital, it is decided that they will take a road trip back to their old getaway, a ski lodge. They will indeed make this journey, but not before a gross (but painfully funny) gag involving a catheter and not without Adam's teenaged nephew, Jacob (Clark Duke), a reclusive video-game addict. When the quartet arrives, they find their beloved haunt now a run-down shambles. A very surly one-armed belhop (Crispin Glover, and what great casting!)only adds to atmosphere.

The guys even get their old room, immediately trying to recreate some of the raunchy magic of their youth. They collect an impressive array of alcohol and dive into the hot tub out back. Things get crazy, and they don't notice that squirrel knocking a can of an illegally obtained Russian energy drink (don't ask, but it will become a major plot device later on as well) into the tub's circuitry. When they wake up, things look a bit differently, but not before Lou projectile vomits all over that squirrel (yeah, it's that kind of movie).

How differently? Frankie Say T-shirts. Banana Clips. Big hair. MTV is actually playing music videos, for pete's sake. When Nick asks a fluorescent, leg-warmer clad valley chick what color Michael Jackson is, it is soon apparent that the guys have traveled back to 1986. Thus, the door is opened for a set decorator's dream: all manner of 80s props, clothes, artifacts. Even if you weren't plugged into the pop culture of the day, even if you miss the rapid fire homages HOT TUB provides, if you were of age in the mid-80s, much of this film will provide at least a chuckle or two.

As with any time-travel film, there are discussions of how dangerous the situation can be. "What if we run into ourselves?" "If I do something differently, will it alter the course of time?" Jacob is especially concerned, as he hasn't been born yet and rightfully fears that if these bozos do anything differently, he'll be history, or, not. So our motley crew rack their brains and try to repeat what had orginally happened during a trip 20 + years earlier. Not fun stuff: Adam got stabbed in the eye with a fork after breaking up with his girlfriend; Lou got beaten up by a group of preppy fascists he insulted; Nick, meanwhile, had made it with a groupie (he was in a band), but feels if he repeats this event, he'll be cheating on his future wife. His future wife, by the way, was only 9 in 1986, and this will also play into an amusing plot twist later on.

Of course, things don't go as planned. There's also the matter of a mysterious hot tub repairman (Chevy Chase, wink wink) who seems to be some sort of celestial gatekeeper. He spouts engimatic pseudo-profundities as he tries to diagnose the problem. He does not, surprisingly, fire off wisecracks every 10 seconds like he did in so many 80s films (FLETCH, SPIES LIKE US, et al). His very presence in this movie will likely be enough of an in-joke for pop junkies between the ages of 30-50.

That is the age group at which I believe HOT TUB TIME MACHINE is aimed. The recognition of all things 80s will delight them. This includes, I think, the film's deliberate attempt to look like a poorly shot (and lit) presentation, reminiscent of countless youth comedies of the era. Then there's the crudity. Sure, those old movies were vulgar, but I never saw one quite as gross and profane as this one. In this age of post-modern comedic excess, after the Judd Apatow flicks and BRUNO and THE HANGOVER and its ilk, HOT TUB manages to be even more raw, with gags involving every imaginable bodily fluid, extensive profanity, drug jokes, male and female nudity, etc. etc. Lou himself is a poster child of inapropriateness, yet another heir to the throne of Bluto, the immortal slob as played by John Belushi all those years ago in ANIMAL HOUSE.

Such content was likely ramped up by director Steve Pink (a frequent Cusack collaborator) and the screenwriters for the younger audiences, but I think the mostly on-target jabs at the 80s would've been enough without all the manure. As with most of this genre, a warm fuzzy message is underneath the sleaze, so we're supposed to walk out of the theater feeling all gooey inside. But it's hard to forget all the raunch, especially when your stomach still aches from laughing. Yes, even against my more mature 40-something self's better instincts.