Movie Review: Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Getting older sucks. It's not fun at all. You have marriages, divorces, kids, jobs that you hate, traffic and money problems. Somewhere in your thirties, you tend to look back at all of the bad decisions and missed opportunities in your life. Sometimes you just want to recapture the good times. When three friends who have grown apart try to do this, they realize that you just can't. At least, not without a hot tub and an illegal Russian energy drink.

Buy Hot Tub Time Machine on DVD or Blu-ray

Nick (Craig Robinson) and Adam (John Cusack) rush to the hospital to find their asshole friend Lou (Rob Corddry), who accidentally almost killed himself. They try to perk him up by taking him to a ski resort they used to visit in high school. They bring Adam's basement dwelling nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), who just fights with Lou constantly. The resort is a dump, and nowhere near the place they had all of their great times. In spite of their disappointment, they decide to get loaded and hang out in the hot tub. An accidental spill of a Russian energy drink shorts the mechanism, and the group is transported to a pivotal day in 1986.

I want to get into more of the story, but I don't want to give anything away. Everyone should see this movie. For some, it'll be nostalgic. I was ten years old in 1986, so I remember all of the silly fashions, the music and the attitudes pretty well. Hot Tub Time Machine shows all of it perfectly. From neon leg warmers to feathered hair to a two foot flattop, every detail was hilarious.

The casting was perfect, and all four leads each held their own. Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover play great supporting characters, and there's an amazing cameo from William Zabka, who played every 80s bad guy worth watching. The humor is crass and silly, and it's perfectly executed. I had fun from start to finish, and it was the kind of movie that you walk away from feeling good. It really put me in a great mood, and I'd happily watch it again.