Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Hot Tub Time Machine was a freebie rental from Microsoft video in preparation for the theater release of Hot Tub Time Machine 2 later this week, but you can also catch it on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.  I caught it this time on the XboxOne, but it was a little glitchy.  The subtitles actually started during the previews so it was like they were predicting the future.... don't let them try to tell you it was on purpose.

Adam (John Cusack, "The Frozen Ground"), his nephew and two high-school buddies are all having a rough time of it, and decide to recapture their youth up at a ski resort where they spent the best times of their lives.  When they arrive, it's
run-down and terrible, but they go ahead with their plans and decide to party in their room's hot tub.  Someone spills a Russian energy drink with a mystery ingredient on the tub's controls, and they are suddenly transported back to 1986.  Bright colors, bad hair, and everything.

I do sigh for the days when Rock music energized you rather than depressed you.

This romance/comedy/time-travel movie skirts the edges of the kind of humor I can't stand... gross-out humor.  Vomiting on a squirrel?  Didn't care either way, and it does play a bit of a part in the plot later, so I'll allow it was necessary.  The hospital scene with the catheter literally made me gag... and I'm using the word literally correctly.  I was also not amused by Chevy Chase's fart (what happened to pratfall Chevy Chase?  I miss him), or the soap scene in the bathroom.

However, if you're nostalgic for the '80s, or love time-travel movies that deal with regret and changing the past, then you might still love this movie.  When Nick (Craig Robinson) and his band play, the homage to "Jessies Girl" made me groan, and his "invention" of "Get it Started" was as silly as Marty McFly playing at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, but I found it a bit endearing.  It makes up for calling his then nine-year-old-wife later.  A bit.

Lou staying behind plays into everyone's fantasy of being a child while knowing then what you know now.  Me?  I'd save money.  I'd tell my sixteen year old self to hold onto that shit like I was pre-Christmas scrooge.  And buy Google, or in the case of this movie, "Lougle".

Only four LOLs, but I have seen it before.  I put down the crochet a couple of times (moved on from the complicated lace to a predictable crochet doily) but only to concentrate and take notes for this review.

All in all, I give it three and a half out of five.  I don't know if I'd recommend it for crafting on your first viewing, as there are a lot of '80s visual details you might miss if you're not looking (Frankie Says Relax tee shirts, that kind of thing), but if it's a second viewing or more, go ahead.  The music is kind of fun.