Back in Time

Hot Tub Time Machine
(Steve Pink, 2010)

3 Stars

The eighties. The decade of great comedy and terrible outfits. Mix the two together, add a little John Cussack and a magical Jacuzzi, and you have the recipe for the fun-tastic blast from the past Hot Tub Time Machine.

Taking inspiration from Back to the Future, this enjoyable, if not at all original, comedy sees Cussack and his friends sent back to their eighties hey-day to both mess up and sort out their present day problems. Cue plenty of sexual shenanigans, and, the films most amusing joke, a running gag involving Crispin Glover’s right arm getting into various scrapes.

Cussack is, as ever, on fine stoic form as the unlucky in love lead. Clark Duke is great fun as his hopeless nephew, offering all important obvious exposition whilst fighting for his own existence as he re-treks the path of Marty McFly in trying to get his parents together. Craig Robinson meanwhile provides one of the film’s only real laugh out loud scenes in which he calls his nine-year-old wife a cheating whore. His rendition of “Let’s Get it Started” by the Black Eyed Peas is also a highlight. The only real letdown in the cast is the suicidal Rob Corddry, who is simply too crass to really care about.

This is a movie that, with the wrong cast, could have gone down like a lead balloon. Fortunately, however, it manages to keep momentum, and is well worth a few decent giggles. Plus, it’s called Hot Tub Time Machine. What more reason do you need to see it?