I like John Cusack. I have for a long time. I was just the right age to enjoy his farcical 80’s romps like Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer. He was great in Identity. His likeability made the over-the-top disaster flick, 2012, bearable. And so, with all that history between us, I settled in this weekend to watch Hot Tub Time Machine (HTTM, for short).
I have an affinity for time travel movies – as long as they provide a certain logic to the rules and consequences of time travel. The time travel aspect of the movie draws almost exclusively on the well-known rules established in the Back to the Future films. In fact, I think it was no coincidence that Crispin Glover, the elder McFly from Back to the Future, played a role in HTTM. Every mention of time travel came across as an homage to the BttF film trilogy.
The basic (spoiler-free) premise of the film is that three middle aged friends, plus one 20ish nephew, take a trip back to the scene of their high school glory days. While things have changed greatly in the decades since its heyday, they manage to enjoy themselves while drinking themselves into a stupor in the hot tub of their ski lodge. Given the name of the film, I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I mention that the hot tub is, in fact, a time machine.
Finding themselves back in 1986, the three friends find themselves in the bodies of their younger selves. The nephew doesn’t change from his 2010 appearance, as he would not be born for another nine months after their arrival in 1986 (leading to a revelation about his parentage that will surprise absolutely no one when it comes along). The heroes must fight the urge to change the past while trying to reenact exactly their activities in 1986 while seeking the key to returning to the present.
HTTM is silly and vulgar. It contains multiple scenes of drug use, over indulgence in alcohol, and a couple of gratuitous topless scenes. But it isn’t a terrible movie. It’s worth a rental if you’re willing to take it for what it is – light, escapist fun.
