The Red Right Hand
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HOT TUB TIME MACHINE
Take A Spin

Director
Steve Pink

Starring
John Cusack
Clark Duke
Craig Robinson
Rob Corddry

With a title like Hot Tub Time Machine and a brief premise of three guys reliving their youth in the 80s, you almost know exactly what to expect. After the initial trailer I was genuinely excited by the prospect of this release; a reflective look at the 1980s with a handful of decent comedians led by the almost unfaultable John Cusack? Sounds like a brilliant movie! Unfortunately not. In fact, I left the cinema so annoyed that I couldn't even talk about the film -- for anyone who knows me well enough to have watched a movie with me, the first thing I do when I get out of the cinema is talk without pause or punctuation for a solid ten minutes. So, not the best of signs.

The three leads, Lou [Corddry], Nick [Robinson] and Adam [Cusack] are far from living their dream lives; they get by but are ultimately unhappy. After Lou fails a suicide attempt, Adam and Nick pile him into a car and drive up to the ski resort of their youth, Kodiak Valley. Along for the ride is Adam's technology hooked nephew, Jacob [Duke]. On arrival, the whole resort has become a boarded-up ghost town. Drunk and miserable, they all decide to take a dip in the hot tub - don't ask why, most of this movie requires immense suspension of disbelief. After an illegal Russian stimulant drink spills onto the controls the four men are transported back to 1986. Cue some amazing retrospective observations and jokes about the whacky trends of the 80s? Right? Like the first Back To The Future movie? Right!? WRONG! Granted, there are a great deal of comical observations but they're abandoned so quickly for cheap laughs, raunchy setups and romantic links that leave the movie feeling like a hollow, one-note joke played over-and-over.

Unlike The Wedding Singer, the jokes appear to be written by people who were really too young to remember the actual 80s, instead they're living a dream of what the 80s looked like on film. On top of that, the entire effort is hindered with sloppy editing, a lot of phoned-in performances, extremely poor writing and naff quick-fixes. At the end of the day, the reason this film irritated me so much was the lack of real insight into the 80s as a decade. Rather than truly mocking and parodying the culture of the time - neatly casting a critical light on the present decade at the same time - what we end up with is a loose collection of honest laughs and downright lazily written conclusions. Sure enough, there are plenty of extremely amusing moments and exchanges but the overall lack of consistency and unnecessarily contorted view of the space-time continuum irritated me. On the plus side, it made me want to watch Better Off Dead and that's never a bad thing.

Release Date:
7th May 2010

The Scene To Look Out For:
To be fair, there are plenty of exceptionally amusing scenes. If anything, this film felt like the return of Family Guy after its cancellation. For those that don't know, after Family Guy was restored, they decided to bring it back with a feature length movie that was essentially three episodes strung together. Several standalone parts were rather funny but overall it was very forgettable -- the exact same thing could be said for Hot Tub Time Machine. Having carried the knowledge that his wife had an affair, despite his undying loyalty, Nick feels the need to confront her. Unfortunately, she is only nine years old at the time and his drunken phone call terrifies the little girl.
**spoiler comment**
On second thought, I actually want to talk about the finale. I hated the end. At one point the movie addresses altering the past for your own benefit and how it actually changes things (point in case, John Elway drops the ball) but during the final ten minutes all of that is completely dismissed. There was simply no real sense of justice. This one goit had gone back in time, remained there and fracked with everything for his own personal gain, becoming the lead of Motley Crue (I bloody HATE Motley Crue!) and inventing Google - dubbed Lougle now. I just.. I don't know.. I wanted Chevy Chase to turn up and slash a scythe through them all for messing with the timeline or something!

Notable Characters:
John Cusack is one of those actors that I feel can do no wrong. Even if everything around him is falling apart and the supporting performances are mediocre at best (sounds like a summary of 2012), he remains continually impressive. However, in this release, Craig Robinson seemed to be the major scene stealer. I know a lot of other reviews seemed to favour Rob Corddry's over-the-top antics but in all honesty, I just felt he came off as annoying.

Highlighted Quote:
LOU: It's the fucking 80s guys! Let's do what we want to do! Free love!
JACOB: That's the 60s dipshit
ADAM: We had Regan and AIDS, let's get the fuck out of here!

In A Few Words:
"An incredibly disappointing movie with a base concept that should have been hilarious; what a waste"

Total Score:
4/10


Matthew Stogdon