Hot Tub Time Machine

For those out there who never got to experience the 80’s, well, that’s just sad. It was a magical time of mullets, skin tight acid wash jeans, hair spray, glam metal, and unbridled enthusiasm for every ridiculous trend one could possibly imagine. Seriously, a friend of mine once started a thing where he wore sweat pants every day with one pant leg hiked up to his knee. Just one. It never really caught on, but you know what? Fuck you, he was an innovator.

The greatest thing about a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine, is that you already know what it’s about. The title is not a metaphor or anything. It is what it is and I LOVE that. It stars John Cusak (Adam), Craig Robinson (Nick) and Rob Corddry (Lou) as three former best friends reunited when Lou almost dies of carbon monoxide poisoning while rockin out to “Home Sweet Home” in his Pontiac Trans Am. Clark Duke is Jacob, Adam’s geeky nephew who tags along for the ride for shits and giggles, basically.

Look, if you really need a synopsis for a movie like this, you are not the intended audience and will hate it no matter how awesome it is. Just accept the fact you are wrong and toddle off now. The humour is immature, the plot is ridiculous, and the whole thing could have been filmed over a long weekend for beer money. Fact of the matter is, it works. The cast is fantastic – no one in Hollywood can make indignity hilarious like Craig Robinson. I want to see him in many many more movies and I don’t care if he winds up playing the same character in every single one of them because he is phenominal.

Know who else rules? Rob Corddry. Everything he does, every choice he makes, he delivers with an eagerness and enthusiasm that I find hilarious. I share his sense of humour, and he goes for every laugh like he is winning the lottery. He has a manic energy that he infuses with a healthy dose of evil and his character Lou is a masterpiece of awesome. He’s a live action Family Guy episode all on his own.

Supporting role shout outs go to Chevy Chase (finally funny again) and Crispin Glover; and I almost wet my pants when I saw the blue Chevy pick up truck from Red Dawn in there. This movie is best suited to guys who lived the 80’s and can remember them fondly, and for ladies who are patient and can tolerate locker room banter. There is a lot of foul language, a lot of crude sexual humour, a good amount of drug use, but most of all, hilarity.

I give Hot Tub Time Machine 7 mullets and a can of hairspray out of 10.