It’s an amusing concept that goes wrong in theopening scene, which depends on dog turd for laughs. Hot TubTimeMachine is pretty much a dog of a moviein which all the funny parts were already shown in the trailer. Trying to gethis bearing in a world suddenly full of women in colorful leg warmers, all ofwhom resemble the Nagel posters on the walls, panicky Nick asks the firstpasser-by, “What color is Michael Jackson?” When she replies “black”matter-of-factly, Nick shrieks with the horrified realization that they reallyhave returned to the age of Thriller.It’s the best dialogue in the whole movie.
Don’t fault the cast. Robinson is a gifted comedianand Corddry adapts well to his role as a maniacal wild man, while Cusack playsa good straight man. But they are given little to work with in a moviegrounding its laughs in vomit, gay sex gags and the suspense surrounding abellhop who is fated to lose an arm. About the best that can be said for Hot Tub Time Machine is that the costumeand music team got the fashions and mix of chirpy synth-pop, airbrushed hairmetal and the occasional Replacements song just about right. Funny to thinkthat the Reagan era is made to look more fun than the 21st century. At leastback then people talked to each other instead of sending texts. n
