Review: Hot Tub Time Machine

Funny movie. Dumb movie, but still funny, sometimes really funny. John Cusack, Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry are three old friends who have lost touch, but they get back together when one of them – Corddry’s Lou – attempts suicide. Trying to cheer up their buddy, Nick (Robinson) and Adam (Cusack) whisk him off to a ski resort that was the site of many memorable youthful escapades. Problem is, the resort has become a dump, so they try to salvage their weekend by mixing a few cocktails and settling into a hot tub. Which is a time machine, which takes them back to 1986.

As a time travel movie, this picture has a lot of flaws, but as a wacky buddy comedy, it’s right on target. Rob Corddry pushes the edge of the comic envelope; if you think of him as a "Daily Show" correspondent, you are in for a rip roaring surprise – the guy is fearlessly hilarious. Cusack and Robinson are more underhanded in their humor – their funny lines sort of sneak up on you – but they both easily hold their own against Corddry’s onslaught. There are a lot of eighties jokes, but they are kind of beside the point; the real humor comes when these three guys confront their teenaged selves and have to decide what to do about it. With Clark Duke as Jacob, Adam’s twenty year old nephew who also gets swept back in time, and cameos by Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover; Glover remains one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood. He is terrific here. (Word to the weak of stomach: this isn’t a polite comedy. There are a lot of cringe worthy sight gags. I never had to cover my eyes but the guys in the audience often laughed a lot harder than me; sometimes they laughed really hard at things I didn’t know were funny. I’m just saying.) B