This is a difficult movie for me to review. First, most time travel movies make no sense, including the best one, Back to the Future. The gaping holes of logic are a serious problem. But Hot Tub does not pretend to follow logic, nor care. On the one hand, I have to respect the movie's lax attitude. On the other, illogical plot devices piss me off with their laziness.
Hot Tub Time Machine follows three friends, Cusack, Craig Robinson, and Rob Corddry, who've gotten old, grown apart, and whose lives are varying degrees of awful. Corddry almost dies while jamming to 80s music, revving his car engine in a closed garage. This spurs the three to go on a trip to their old ski mountain, bringing Cusack's shut-in nephew along for the ride. Long story short, they get into a hot tub that goes crazy and sends them back to the 80s, when life was awesome. While waiting for Chevy Chase to fix the hot tub, they have to attempt to relive their lives as teenagers in the 80s, which they royally mess up.
So many things to complain about. Let there be a list
1. 20 year old shut-in being able to snowboard a black diamond.
2. The group gets to the top of the ski mountain without noticing any of the things they see at the bottom.
3. Random things from the future travel back with them, like a snowboard, iPod, and Rob Corddry's backpack. Meanwhile, all their other luggage turns into their 80s stuff.
4. A person in a bear suit randomly shows up in scenes set in the 80s and in the now. Is this a Dancing Bear porno?
5. The obvious time travel problem: people changing their lives but retaining the memory of their old one. If everything about the character's lives changed, their memories should also completely change. This is also the problem with Back to the Future.
Aside from glaring plot problems, the movie is enjoyable. There's a light, feel-good vibe and some solid dirty humor. I really enjoyed the running gag with Crispin Glover, cause who doesn't love Crispin Glover. The ski patrol is cute, but under-utilized if you truly want to mock 80s movies. Not that Hot Tub could touch South Park's skiing episode, but asshole ski instructors are always good for a laugh.
There are two "comedic" moments that bothered me. The Michael Jackson black/white joke never was, nor will be, funny. If you think it's funny, you're wrong. I'm also very tempted to deduct 5 points from the total Drake Factor score for using "Let's Get Started." One of the worst songs ever written, behind "Fergalicious."
It is a very 80s movie, in all facets. Ski slopes, implausible plot devices, inexplicably enjoyable. We'll see how I feel in a couple years, but for now, it's entertaining enough.
First Review: 2+1+2+2+3 = 10