Review: Hot Tub Time Machine

By Laura L.

The moment I saw the commercials for the new movie Hot Tub Time Machine starring Rob Corddry, John Cusack, and. . . two other guys, my friends and I jumped at the chance to see it. Not because it looked to be a fine piece of cinema, but as fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, we love making fun of craptastic movies. For the record, we have all also been to public showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a movie I cannot watch on my own because, let’s face it, it’s not that great on its own. [Blasphemy!—Ed.]

So we decided to make a movie night out of Hot Tub Time Machine‘s March 26 premiere. We chose a booze-serving theater to help us through this journey. First I consumed a rum and coke, then a margarita. (The daiquiris weren’t frozen. What’s a girl to do?) While not enough to get me buzzed, the drinks did help lubricate me adequately for the experience. And then the movie began.

So, what’s the movie about, you ask? Three estranged friends, plus a nephew of one of the friends, meet up at their old stomping grounds—a ski resort—one weekend. This is an attempt at rekindling their friendship after Lou (Rob Corddry), has attempted suicide (to the tune of Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home”).

They find that the resort is now in shambles, though, strangely enough, the hot tub still works. After a night of binge drinking and hot tubbing, they pass out, then wake up, only to find a guy on a Zack Morris-esque cell phone, another guy with (OMG!) a cassette-playing Walkman, and (no way!) smoking permitted in the ski lodge. Eventually, they realize they’re smack-dab in the middle of Winterfest ’86, which the three friends actually attended back in the day. They return to their room to find the hot tub repairman (played by Chevy Chase) informing them they basically must retrace their steps from that original 1986 weekend in order to get back to 2010.

I’d go into great detail about this movie, but I don’t care enough to do so. Essentially, there’s a Back to the Future-esque moment (aside from the casting of Crispin Glover as the bellhop) in which Nick (Craig Robinson) sings in a club. First he attempts “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield, and then he kicks it up a notch by singing “Let’s Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas (which the crowd, of course, LOVES). Meanwhile, Adam (John Cusack) finds the girl he could have had, while Lou is still a douchebag. When they do go “back” to 2010 (again borrowing from Back to the Future) they find their lives are better than when they left them.

I found this movie disappointingly OK. There wasn’t as much to mock as I thought there might be. I made cracks about the careers of both Rob Corddry and John Cusack, but even that got old.

Yet, there are two pros to this movie: 1) It’s got an awesome soundtrack, including New Order and David Bowie, among others. 2) It’s mercifully short (just over an hour and a half), although it drags in the beginning.

Hot Tub Time Machine will probably be in the dollar theater by the time this review is published, so go ahead and see it there. Otherwise, you should probably wait until it’s on cable or something.