Director: Steve Pink
Writer: Josh Heald, Sean Anders
Release Date: August 30 2010
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Number of discs: 1
Region: 2
Price: From £11.93
Running Time: 95 mins
Certificate: 15
Starring: John Cusack, Chevy Chase, Clark Duke, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Lyndsy Fonseca, Crispin Glover, Lizzy Caplan, Collette Wolfe

Until 2012, Cusack could do no wrong – Hot Tub Time Machine sees his return to form, revisiting the 80s classics that shaped his early career in this enjoyable celebration of all things 80s.

After hedonistic Lou (Rob Corddry) nearly commits suicide his long-suffering friends, Adam (John Cusack) and Nick (Craig Robinson) reluctantly decide to take him away on holiday, revisiting a favorite destination of their youth with Adam’s nephew, Jacob (Clark Duke). Much to their disappointment Kodiak Valley ski resort is no longer a party town, the bell boy is now one armed and furious and their hot tub contains a rotting animal corpse.

Just as they are gloomily reminiscing about good times, the patio doors mysteriously open to reveal a clean fully operational hot tub. It’s amazing how much fun a hot tub can be and how it can inspire four grumpy guys to try and have a good time. Several drinks downed and spilt later, our heroes wake up in 1986 and spend much of the film trying to return to 2010 and escape a decade remembered for Reagan and aids. Hung up on the Butterfly Effect, believing that changing their future is futile and dangerous, they soon find actively trying to repeat history isn’t as easy as they think and must learn to “embrace the chaos”.

In a walk down memory lane, Hot Tub Time Machine effectively captures that distinctive 80s look through fluorescents, Miami Vice T-shirts, Poison, Alf on TV, Super Mario ruling the console, a “Dude rocking a cassette player” and brick sized phones. If this isn’t enough, the final deciders for our boys are the colour of Michael Jackson’s skin and the bell boy having two arms again. And no 80s film would be complete without the legendary Chevy Chase – here playing the mysterious ever-elusive hot tub mechanic. In a nod to the gophers in 80s franchise, Caddyshack, Hot Tub uses squirrels for on-running comedic effect.

Although our leads are from 2010, Lou displays the same riotous antics memorable in so many 80s flicks, playing the group “arsehole”. Arriving at the resort he is keen to get the party started: “I want an escort to escort our penises into her vagina”. Sex obsessed, he acts as the group’s disastrous accident-prone joker who gets himself into a situation with a girl who only does two at a time and is part of a hilarious bet where he is left dumbstruck, exclaiming: “It’s like Gary Coleman’s forearm – it’s impossibly black.”

Full of juvenile jokes like Lou contemplating combining Twitter and Viagra to create Twitagra and plenty of pleasing 80s references, such as onlookers believing the gang are “some kind of 21 Jump Street spies”, having seen their iphones and Russian red bull “Chernobyle”, Hot Tub Time Machine won’t win any awards but is certainly an entertaining and nostalgic journey.

***

Special Features:

  • Deleted Scenes
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Production: Acting Like Idiots theatrical promo spot (Blu-ray only)
  • Chevy Chase: The Nicest Guy in Hollywood theatrical promo spot (Blu-ray only)
  • Totally Radical Outfits: Dayna Pink theatrical promo spot (Blu-ray only)
  • Crispin Glover: One Armed Bellhop theatrical promo spot (Blu-ray only)
  • Digital Copy of the film (Blu-ray only)