Starring: John Cusack, Clark Duke, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry
Director: Steve Pink (Accepted)
Running Time: 1 hr 40 min
Release Date: March 26, 2010
Budget: $36 million
Critics Thumbs Up: 68%
“merrily idiotic” Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
“loud, disjointed and not terribly funny” Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
The bizarre title of Hot Tub Time Machine perfectly befits the wacky tone of this raunchy but fun comedy. Cusack leads a trio of middle-aged guys dissatisfied with their lives who are inexplicably transported back to a fateful night in 1986 via the titular hot tub. As the guys relive and debate over altering key moments, 80s pop culture references like Alf and gross-out gags too explicit to describe abound. Far from family-friendly, Hot Tub is reminiscent of – though inferior to – The Hangover in that it’s a rollicking fun time for those amused by silly, stupid humor. Corddry steals the show with his unabashed manic behavior, followed closely by the 24-year-old Duke who offers a hilariously deadpan view of the 80s as Cusack’s geeky nephew.
