The water’s fine in the HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (2010)

Posted by Daniel Metz

There are a few moments in popular cinema history when titles are so perfectly transparent, so ridiculously stupid, and so unpretentious that popular culture recognizes them as genius. The perfect example is the 2006 aviation-thriller Snakes on a Plane, but other recent examples include Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle; The Men Who Stare at Goats (although this is admittedly a more oblique title); and the remarkable Dude, Where’s My Car? This year we’ve got Hot Tub Time Machine, a title so beautiful in its vapidity that it is truly brilliant.

Director Steve Pink’s previous effort was the film Accepted. That break-out hit launched the careers of two of the best SNL hosts in recent memories, comic genius Jonah Hill and beauty Blake Lively. This, his sophomore effort in comedy filmmaking, is a far superior product.

The group is hesitant: an existential crisis.

Hot Tub Time Machine concerns a group of four friends who accidentally travel back in time (via the titular hot tub) to 1986, a time when all of their lives were full of promise and potential. They realize they are back at Winterfest ‘86, a night that forever changed each of their lives, and while they look like their 21st century selves to each other, they outwardly appear as teenagers.

Chevy Chase appears as the hot tub repair man, and tells them they mustn’t change history; the characters, then, are doomed to repeat exactly what they did so many years before. Obviously, this doesn’t go well, and their actions change the course of history forever.

The film stars John Cusack, Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson. I have been searching for days to find the best analogy, and here is what I have come up with: Craig Robinson is this generation’s Bill Murray. I am not sure that is the best fit, but let me know in the comments if you can fill in the blank better.

Nice union suit, Craig Robinson. He just took a bunch of cocaine in this scene.

Regardless, what is clear from this film is just how funny Craig Robinson is. It is unfortunate that Robinson has not yet had the chance to lead a film, but maybe he is best in the bite-sized portions that always leave us wanting more. His role here is inspired and wonderful. He oversees the climax of the film by introducing the Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get it Started” to the 1980s audience as his own song. The moment is splendid, and Robinson’s appeal as a performer is made very clear. In fact, his stand-up act often includes music, so this scene is basically just Robinson stretching his muscles.

Hot Tub Time Machine is not the greatest comedy in recent memory. Films like I Love You, Man and Pineapple Express are much more substantial treatments of the “bromance” genre that this picture brinks on, and also contain much heartier and more heartfelt laughs. Nevertheless, it does contain some pretty great comedy moments.

What this film lacks in sociological depth, however, it makes up in genre-rehashing and pastiche. Hot Tub Time Machine so perfectly recreates the feeling of a 1980s (romantic) comedy while simultaneously forcing a distance through its stylistic and thematic separations. The aesthetic, the characters, and the references creep you into a world you are familiar while maintaining an alien quality.

What decade is this image from?

Probably its immediate reference is the film Better Off Dead, which (coincidentally?) also stars John Cusack. I don’t remember much of that film because the only time I watched it I was too busy getting an HJ from my high school girlfriend to pay attention. What I do recall, though, is a ski-lodge based, coming of age film with suicide and a morose, post-breakup protagonist.

Much like last year’s marvelous The House of the Devil, this film is steeped in 1980s cinema style. I should make clear, though: Ti West’s feature is much better, as it recreates the style of early 1980s horror with a wit and humanity that is not present in Hot Tub Time Machine. Nevertheless, we may be on the brink of a 1980s cinema revival.

If so, while I can enjoy it immensely for the horror film homages, I am concerned. The 1980s is generally a wretched decade for films. The comedies and dramas are basically cornball and hyper-commercial. If this current generation’s filmmakers must return to their childhood’s cinema, let’s hope they find classier films to pastiche. Instead of remaking Better Off Dead, how about Blue Velvet? Now that would be a good movie to watch with Craig Robinson in a hot tub.