Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Three unhappy guys in their 40s, and one of their nephews, are transported back to their 80s Glory Days. Hijinx? Fer sure, fer sure.

[metirish]

Should I rent it bucket?, didn't a movie just like this open recently starring Kevin James?

[Willets Point]

Part of me really wants to see this movie. I think it's that same part that made me watch "You Don't Mess With the Zohan."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I liked it even though it was stupid, lowbrow and predictable. Maybe that's why I liked it.

It was sort of a send-up and homage to 80s at once, with a whole "Back to the Future" thing going on (Crispin Glover plays a supporting role and there's a whole scene updating Marty McFly's "Johnny Be Good"). It's got John Cusack at a ski resort and an "I want my two dollars" joke, etc etc.

[smg58]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I liked it even though it was stupid, lowbrow and predictable. Maybe that's why I liked it.

That's pretty much exactly how I would describe it.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Also, it's got a hot tub time machine.

I'm embarrassed by how much I want to see this one (the pregnancy homestretch was the only thing that kept us away).

[Frayed Knot]

HTTM got surprisingly decent-to-good reviews upon its release - considering, y'know, how lowbrow, predictable, and stupid it looked to be.

The more recent and similar looking Kevin James movie mentioned (also starring every other available supposedly funny actor) ... ummmm, not so much.

[Edgy MD]

Sounds like The Spirit of '76.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Anyone here ever catch Wet Hot American Summer?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Stupid, lowbrow, predictable, medium-to-high awesome.

Perfect after a thirteen-inning loss while on late-night baby duty.

[TransMonk]

Surprisingly not bad. One of the better lowbrow comedies I've seen in a while.

Best Cusack film since...?

[Edgy MD]

Were the time travellers young and sexy?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

TransMonk wrote: Surprisingly not bad. One of the better lowbrow comedies I've seen in a while. Best Cusack film since...?

High Fidelity? Grosse Pointe Blank?

[metirish]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: TransMonk wrote: Surprisingly not bad. One of the better lowbrow comedies I've seen in a while. Best Cusack film since...? High Fidelity? Grosse Pointe Blank?

2012?????

SC all the way to 11

[TransMonk]

I'd say High Fidelity.

Cusack has been in some pretty cool movies in his day, but there are also some real head scratchers. 2012 may be the worst movie I've ever seen...and that's not an exaggeration.

[Edgy MD]

This film was demographically aimed right between my eyes, so how come I identified mostly with the nephew?

What's most eighties about this was the contained-environment aspect of it. Why would Poison play a ski resort? Why would SPIN --- still new, counter-cultural and college-oriented at the time --- dispatch a reporter to cover Poison playing at a ski resort? Because the producers got a ski resort and all action must definitively take place there, that's why. Very eighties.

Add a half a star for William Zabka content.

[Willets Point]

If

can play at a ski resort in the 1960's, it is no stretch for Poison to play at a ski resort in the 1980's.

[Edgy MD]

OK, let's look at anachronisms.

"Where's the beef?" as a catchphrase debuted and peaked in 1984, and it had already jumped the shark when Walter Mondale used it against Ronald Reagan in 1984. Any college-aged ski-resort partying white dude who'd wear it on a tee-shirt in 1986 would have been one arch ironisst.

Candy-colored hairband glam metal lite hadn't yet really asserted itself until 1987. College party dudes would have been rockin' out to U2, Peter Gabriel, and Robert Palmer --- and maybe a little Timbuk 3. If they had a dark side, they were rocking to the Cult, the Cure, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Rap had transitioned from DMC's ascendency to the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill. If they were stupid party animals, how does that music not make an appearance? Meanwhile --- big error here --- the coming of Kid 'n' Play and the introduction of the oversized stovepipe fade was still two years off.

Still enjoyed it more than other eighties flashbacks.

[A Boy Named Seo]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I liked it even though it was stupid, lowbrow and predictable. Maybe that's why I liked it. It was sort of a send-up and homage to 80s at once, with a whole "Back to the Future" thing going on (Crispin Glover plays a supporting role and there's a whole scene updating Marty McFly's "Johnny Be Good"). It's got John Cusack at a ski resort and an "I want my two dollars" joke, etc etc.

Saw this today. Thought of BTTF trilogy, which I love, a few times while watching. Missed the $2 joke thing. Rob Corrdry (Lou) was great. Good, funny flick overall. Gave it a sixer, could've gone seven, but stuck with six. Love that 'Spin' reporter girl. Forget where I'd seen her before. Cutesy.

[metirish]

Edgy DC wrote: OK, let's look at anachronisms. "Where's the beef?" as a catchphrase debuted and peaked in 1984, and it had already jumped the shakr when Walter Mondale used it against Ronald Reagan in 1984. Any college-aged ski-resort partying white dude who'd wear it on a tee-shirt in 1986 would have been one arch ironisst. Candy-colored hairband glam metal lite hadn't yet really asserted itself until 1987. College party dudes would have been rockin' out to U2, Peter Gabriel, and Robert Palmer --- and maybe a little Timbuk 3. If they had a dark side, they were rocking to the Cult, the Cure, and Siouxsie and the Banshiees. Rap had transitioned from DMC's ascendency to the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill. If they were stupid party animals, how does that music not make an appearance? Meanwhile --- big error here --- the coming of Kid 'n' Play and the introduction of the oversized stovepipe fade was still two years off. Still enjoyed it more than other eighties flashbacks.

I couldn't help but think of this post when I was watching the movie last night.......enjoyed it though , nostalgia for sure.

[Elster88]

Edgy DC wrote: Add a half a star for William Zabka content.

Yes!