"Hot Tub Time Machine" is a vulgar, raunchy, foul-mouthed knockoff of "Back to the Future." "Back to the Future" was made in 1985 in which Michael J. Fox played Marty McFly, a 1980s teen who was transported into a time warp he did not live through, but his parents did - the 1950s - and would see the future and no one else in that period would understand his 1980s sensibilities. One of the cast members of "Hot Tub" would be Crispin Glover, who played Marty's father, George McFly. Glover makes a cameo as a bellhop in the past and present sequences of <more> "Hot Tub" as he did in "Back to the Future.""Hot Tub" would feature three actors who grew up in the 1980s - John Cusack, an '80s staple himself, along with Craig Robinson and Rob Corddroy - and Clark Duke, whose IMDb bio lists him as being born in 1985, so he gets to play the nephew of Cusack who goes along for the ride and never fully understands the cultures of the 1980s.In the present day of 2010, Adam Cusack , Nick Robinson , and Lou Corddroy are in their 40s and not feeling so good about their personal lives. To escape, they, along with young Jacob Duke go to a ski resort where the three older men went back in 1986. When they get there, it is a ghost town. But they discover a jacuzzi where one inadvertently presses the digits and the four are automatically transported to the wild 1980s, a period of big hair, walkmen, spandex, Reaganomics, VHSs, the increasing popularity of heavy metal music, and the seeming lack of technology that would some day pave way to the Internet, Cell Phones, DVDs, Facebook, Twitter, Blackberries, and iPods. These guys know the words "Dot-Com," "Text," and "Facebook." No one else knows it yet. They also look the same as they do in the present era, but their mirror images appear younger, thinner, and more hair.There is a "Back to the Future" plot where Lou meets the girl of his dreams, the blonde Kelly, who is Adam's sister, and eventually marries her, producing Jacob as their son. Adam gets to marry April actress Lizzy Caplan , who during that period thought he was a dork and shoves a fork into Adam's right eyeball. Nick first gets to sing "Jessie's Girl," the popular 1981 Rick Springfield song, with his band, but goes 20 years ahead with "Let's Get it Started," which stuns the audience. In the end, the four go back to the present and learn that problems are in every era and they have to be dealt with and not to be escaped. They find they are happier more so today than they were as young men.The movie throws in a short but delicious cameo by comeback kid Chevy Chase, whose movie career soared during the 1980s with "Vacation" and "Fletch" movies. He is the wise old hot tub repairman who keeps warning the four if they are not careful, they have to go back to the present, thus constantly zapping young Jacob for his carelessness.If you lived through the 1980s, as I did, you can easily identify the numerous pop culture references and even some anachronisms, if you can pick them up as well. But if you didn't live through the 1980s, you might be a little confused. I wasn't around during the 1950s, but when "Back to the Future" came out, the 1950s references were easier to identify for those who didn't live through that decade."Hot Tub" may have a lot of swearing in every other sentence, but it is all creative swearing, which too many movies don't have. Most movies force the cursing for cheap laughs, but they don't come out too funny, such as in last year's "The Hangover," which I found overrated, bombastic, and unfunny. The 1970's Paul Newman hockey comedy "Slap Shot" is another example of creative swearing that is often funny and never offensive. More to the point, "Hot Tub" appears as shallow teen sex comedy, but it is more intellectual in the sense that it makes you think about how we deal with problems in every era, from the confused young adult to the physically pained middle-aged adult. Jump into this hot tub for good times and big laughs. I'm glad I did. <less> |