Review: 'Hot Tub Time Machine' DVD

With a title as kitschy as Hot Tub Time Machine, you know pretty much what you’re walking into. Borrowing liberally from 1985′s Back to the Future (to the point it’s even set around the same year the movie was released), this comedy also combines elements of Old School, Groundhog Day, and last year’s monster hit, The Hangover. Starring John Cusack, the premise follows three middle-aged friends — Adam (Cusack), Nick (Craig Robinson), and Lou (Rob Corddry) — who, along with Adam’s nephew, head up to the ski lodge they used to frequent back in their heyday. As the beers pop open and one spills onto the hot tub’s controls, the water starts swirling in the hot tub and the guys suddenly find themselves transported back in time to 1986.

There, trapped in the era of Miami Vice, Reagan, and Poison, the three friends are seen by their friends of the day as their teenage selves. Adam is on the verge of breaking up with his sweetheart (who stabs him with a plastic fork) when, 25 years later, he begins to rethink his decision and wonders what life would have been like if he hadn’t. It isn’t long before they realize, like with Back to the Future, the serious effects they have on the future if they choose to disturb the past.

Although you’ve seen this all before, somehow it all still works, due in part to a terrific cast, including cameos by Chevy Chase and a stand-out performance by Crispin Glover as a one-armed bellhop. What’s surprising is how the film manages to charm you into accepting the goofy conceit despite your initial instincts. It’s not as if the actors elevate the material by their presence so much as it’s their commitment to the wafer-thin premise.

With a bouncy script by Josh Heald, Sean Anders and John Morris, and some tongue-in-cheek direction by relative newcomer Steve Pink, Hot Tub Time Machine succeeds by taking itself just seriously enough to get by. Just when you think the story is heading to the predictable, you find yourself caught off-guard by a left turn you wouldn’t have predicted.

For his part, Cusack is stellar in the role of Adam, as if playing the grown-up version of the character he played endlessly in the ’80s and ’90s. He looks like he’s having almost as much fun as Corddry, who chews the scenery with such delight, his enthusiasm is infectious.

Without giving away some of the film’s best gags, Coddry’s character is involved in a bar bet that ends badly and will have you doubled over in hysterics. It’s moments like these that elevate this Hot Tub to Hangover status.

Quietly released last year with little or no fanfare by MGM, this little comedy quickly proved to be a sleeper hit, generating mostly positive reviews and terrific word of mouth. Released on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, June 22, 2010, this above-average comedy will undoubtedly find a whole new audience, destined to become a modern-day classic.