Directed by: Steve Pink
Starring: Rob Corddry, John Cusack, Clark Duke, Crispin Glover, Craig Robinson
Rating: R

 

From left, Craig Robinson, John Cusack, and Rob Corddry star in Hot Tub Time Machine.(Courtesy photo)

Somehow the 1980s have become a heralded age of raunchy comedies. The odd thing is that very few of those comedies were very good. That makes them a strange inspiration for Hot Tub Time Machine, whose title is more reminiscent of the Troma films of the decade, like Surf Nazis Must Die and Class of Nuke ’Em High. There is quite a challenge for this film: it must meet the low-grade expectations of its tawdry, tantalizing title, yet exceed them in order to validate the movie-star casting. And somehow Hot Tub Time Machine does just that. It’s uneven, for sure, and takes a while to hit its stride. But once it does, Hot Tub Time Machine offers some of the most shamefully hilarious cinematic moments in a while.

Adam (John Cusack), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Lou (Rob Corddry) were best friends in high school, with their entire lives ahead of them. Now they’re all in their 40s and life has not been kind. In an attempt to recapture the old magic, the three head off to their favorite ski resort with Adam’s nephew, Jacob (Clark Duke), in tow. The place is falling apart, but luckily the hot tub miraculously works. Need I go into the scientific explanation of what comes next? After getting over the ridiculous clothes and giant cell phones, the guys discover they have to relive their night from 25 years ago exactly and fix the hot tub by dawn.

The inescapable paradoxes of time travel are always a problem in storytelling. Writers Josh Heald and Sean Anders solve this issue by constantly rewriting the rules to suit their needs. When the guys end up transported back to 1986, they look young to everyone else but the same to each other. Jacob, who is nine months from being born, still looks like himself. Why? Because. Obviously the guys fail to recreate their night, and the ultimate butterfly effects aren’t terribly surprising. What is surprising is the effort made at showing these four guys becoming friends again. The movie is neither as big nor as consistently funny as its inevitable comparison, The Hangover. But where The Hangover subverts character in service of laughs, Time Machine holds true to its characters. It’s a small distinction, but one that makes you root for this movie that much more.

At the same time, Steve Pink still has a lot to learn about directing. Cusack’s writing collaborator on two of the actor’s most intelligent comedies (Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity), Pink gives Time Machine a strangely cruddy feel. If you want to recapture the feel of ’80s late night cable, that’s fine. But you don’t need to bring back the bad habits as well. Time Machine lurches for the first half hour, which is a lot longer than the story needs to take with such a big clue in the title. Adam and Lou are such unlikable jerks, we’re not sure we even want to root for them. The movie doesn’t really find its groove until after the guys give up on reliving their night and challenge fate. Then it achieves about a half hour of sublimely ridiculous comedy.

Until then, the movie is held together by Craig Robinson. Robinson (The Office, Pineapple Express) has a gentle menace all his own. Nick is certainly the most likable of the foursome as written, but Robinson gives him added depth. It’s a great showcase for the slyly funny actor. Cusack follows the same trajectory as the movie—his moodiness weighs down the proceedings at first, but once he gets rolling, he’s the guy we loved 20 years ago. Rob Corddry could have played Lou in the same broad manner he played losers in movies like The Heartbreak Kid and Harold and Kumar. But Corddry commits so fully we can’t help but recognize Lou in some of our more obnoxious friends. Clark Duke (Greek) has some of the same wishy-washy appeal as his buddy Michael Cera, and does a nice job with Jacob. Crispin Glover really shines as an ill-fated bellhop, unlike the women in the film, whose roles are, strangely enough, not very well fleshed out.

For a movie that relives 1986, there should have been more clever ’80s references. But where Pink and company fare pretty well is in the ’80s movie references. There are more visual odes than I can point out. One of my favorites is the cameo by Karate Kid’s blond villain, William Zabka. Zabka, a notoriously nice guy in real life, still sets the gold standard for smarmy jerks. By the time the journey is over, a few story strands are left dangling and whole scenes that might have smoothed out the plotting have clearly been excised for time. Seldom has a movie seemed more primed for its unrated DVD cut than this one. But even in its current clunky form, Hot Tub Time Machine offers a fun evening of brainless raunch.

Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard readers for many years.