"Do I really have to be the asshole that says this thing is some kind of time machine?"
Call it my being an elitist douchebag (you wouldn't be the first) but comedies tend to be one of the genres that I gravitate toward the least. I know, I know, you're saying "Who doesn't like to laugh?", and that's not it. Lots of things in movies and television make me laugh tend to not be things in straight comedies, but funny moments in non-comedic films or shows. Moments that spring to mind include Vincent accidentally shooting Marvin in the face in Pulp Fiction and Farnum screaming "How have I given offense?" as Bullock beats the ever-loving shit out of him on Deadwood. Humor, for me, comes from character (violent characters, apparently) more than situation, so when I go to see a straight comedy, I'm often more interested in the people involved than I am in the premise. Hot Tub Time Machine promised both a hilarious cast and premise. The former succeeds more than the latter, but we'll get to that.
One of the more upfront jokes in this movie is it's title, which conveys it's ludicrous plot with amusing simplicity. Three middle-aged best friends (John Cusack, Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson) who have drifted apart into separate shitty lives, return to a ski resort where they spent the best weekend of their life in 1986. Tagging along is Cusacks loser nephew, played by Clark Duke. They arrive to find that the place has fallen to ruin in their abscence. Then they go back in time. Because of the hot tub. Wacky time-travel hi jinks and much finding of oneself occurs as our heroes try to return to/not destroy the present.
I'll cover the bad first, since I did ultimately like this movie (meta-spoiler alert) and would like to leave you thinking well of it. It strikes me that comedies allow for looser plotting than most other types of film, typically because the stakes are relatively low and there's lots of humor to be found in characters screwing around in situations that ultimately aren't that important. One could successfully argue that many romantic comedies follow strict formulas and are required to hit certain plot beats like clockwork, and I really wouldn't argue with that. However, the recent reign of successful Judd Apatow films seems to indicate that as long as you have a decent premise and funny actors/characters, it is acceptable to make loosely plotted comedies in which the characters sit around and bullshit with each other or engage in wacky hijinks that serve no narrative purpose other than providing humor. Hot Tub Time Machine seeks to fuse these two styles and ends up being pretty sloppily plotted, even by the standards I just mentioned.
Again, I can hear you thinking, "Who gives a shit about the rules of narrative in a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine?". And normally I'd be with you. But when structural problems prevent a comedy from being as funny as it could be, then you kind of need to give a shit. The problem which struck me as I was watching the movie (which in my book makes it one of the biggest problems) was Chevy Chase's character. In the film he plays the handyman at the resort who may also be some kind of time lord. He is clearly aware of the situation the main characters find themselves in and is there to act as an amusingly unhelpful guide on their journey to the past and their efforts to get back to the present. As far as perfunctory plot points go, its not really a problem. The problem comes in the fact that its really not that funny. Chase doesn't seem particularly invested in the role and the majority of his characters dialogue is so vague and nonsensical that it's never really able to make the leap from annoying to funny.
As if wasting Chevy Chase wasn't bad enough, the writers tied most of Clark Duke's storyline to him, effectively wasting him too. See, since Clark Duke didn't exist in 1986, he has no past to revisit and since he finds out that he may have been conceived that weekend (a subplot/mystery that's almost stupidly obvious), he is the most worried about observing the rules of time travel and getting back to the present, lest his own existence be undone. So while the other three main characters are off having character arcs and doing funny things, Clark Duke is basically running around trying to find Chevy Chase and then having repetitive conversations that involve Chase telling him nothing and Duke being pissed off about it. This strikes me as a giant waste of potential for not only Chevy Chase, but Clark Duke, who I've really liked in the few things I've seen him in. He was pretty much the only reason I don't regret seeing Sex Drive and he was a funny balance to Michael Cera in those Clark and Michael internet shorts they did a few years back. His effective blend of subdued Michael Ceraesque nerdiness and Jonah Hill's smart-ass overconfidence has made me hopeful that he'll carve out a little comedy niche for himself the way the others have. Alas, not in this movie. The trailer even lured me in with a false subplot for him. There's a joke in the trailer where he's dancing with a girl and asks how to get in touch with her later, which leads to a gag about the girl not knowing what Twitter or the internet is. That scene as you saw it in the trailer is the entirety of what appears in the movie. I'd have much rather watched Duke's fumbling attempts to connect with a girl a generation removed from him rather than watch him be fed up with Chevy Chase.
I was also hoping the movie would do a bit more with the deconstruction of time travel as its often presented in fiction. Aside from one (admittedly funny) coke-fueled analysis of the Terminator series by Craig Robinson, the movie seemed more content to make fun of the 80's rather than the more sci-fi aspects of time travel. This is probably a personal quibble given that I'm a giant time travel geek, but I felt there was room for it amid all the "The 80's were retarded and brightly colored" jokes.
Alright, let's jump back to what I liked about the movie. The main cast, which is kind of random when you think about it, works really well together. Despite being wasted overall, Clark Duke does work really well in his scenes with the older actors, his kind of bemused mocking of their idiocy standing in well for the audience. Craig Robinson is just great in everything I see him in whether he's playing a more manic character or, as in the case of this movie, a passive sad sack. There's just something about the way he delivers his lines that always strikes me as funny. Rob Corddry essentially steals the show as the sort of mean-spirited, fun-loving douchebag character that Jack Black probably would have played were this movie made ten years ago. It's an easy part to run with and he's given the best lines ("If I tried to commit suicide I'd be awesome at it! Shotgun to the dick!"), but he's also charismatic enough to make you sympathize with a character that is essentially a complete piece of shit.
Jon Cusack ends up being the wildcard of the bunch, weirdly enough. Despite having an overall background in comedies, I feel like the genre has changed significantly since his hey-day and I was pleased to see that he managed to keep up with everyone else. As the protagonist, we are supposed to be the most invested in his character, and he ends up being a wise bit of meta-casting for the role of a guy looking back on the 80's as a time when his life was better. Obviously John Cusack has done well for himself since the peak of his popularity, but the dramatic aspects of his character make it easy to imagine how his career could have easily taken a turn for the worse and left him washed-up and burnt out like he is in the film.
The supporting cast is as effective as they need to be. Crispin Glover as the hapless bellboy has a fairly ridiculous subplot with a decent enough payoff and the extremely charming Lizzy Caplan (although she's barely in it) is welcome in pretty much anything as far as I'm concerned.
I find myself at the end of this review thinking that I've talked more about the movies flaws than its merits, but it did keep me laughing consistantly and, despite some of the sloppy plotting, never felt prolonged or padded for the hour and a half that it lasted. If you laughed at the trailer you'll probably enjoy the movie. I just felt that with a little more effort it could have been on par with The Hangover, which it definitely isn't.
Again, I can hear you thinking, "Who gives a shit about the rules of narrative in a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine?". And normally I'd be with you. But when structural problems prevent a comedy from being as funny as it could be, then you kind of need to give a shit. The problem which struck me as I was watching the movie (which in my book makes it one of the biggest problems) was Chevy Chase's character. In the film he plays the handyman at the resort who may also be some kind of time lord. He is clearly aware of the situation the main characters find themselves in and is there to act as an amusingly unhelpful guide on their journey to the past and their efforts to get back to the present. As far as perfunctory plot points go, its not really a problem. The problem comes in the fact that its really not that funny. Chase doesn't seem particularly invested in the role and the majority of his characters dialogue is so vague and nonsensical that it's never really able to make the leap from annoying to funny.
As if wasting Chevy Chase wasn't bad enough, the writers tied most of Clark Duke's storyline to him, effectively wasting him too. See, since Clark Duke didn't exist in 1986, he has no past to revisit and since he finds out that he may have been conceived that weekend (a subplot/mystery that's almost stupidly obvious), he is the most worried about observing the rules of time travel and getting back to the present, lest his own existence be undone. So while the other three main characters are off having character arcs and doing funny things, Clark Duke is basically running around trying to find Chevy Chase and then having repetitive conversations that involve Chase telling him nothing and Duke being pissed off about it. This strikes me as a giant waste of potential for not only Chevy Chase, but Clark Duke, who I've really liked in the few things I've seen him in. He was pretty much the only reason I don't regret seeing Sex Drive and he was a funny balance to Michael Cera in those Clark and Michael internet shorts they did a few years back. His effective blend of subdued Michael Ceraesque nerdiness and Jonah Hill's smart-ass overconfidence has made me hopeful that he'll carve out a little comedy niche for himself the way the others have. Alas, not in this movie. The trailer even lured me in with a false subplot for him. There's a joke in the trailer where he's dancing with a girl and asks how to get in touch with her later, which leads to a gag about the girl not knowing what Twitter or the internet is. That scene as you saw it in the trailer is the entirety of what appears in the movie. I'd have much rather watched Duke's fumbling attempts to connect with a girl a generation removed from him rather than watch him be fed up with Chevy Chase.
I was also hoping the movie would do a bit more with the deconstruction of time travel as its often presented in fiction. Aside from one (admittedly funny) coke-fueled analysis of the Terminator series by Craig Robinson, the movie seemed more content to make fun of the 80's rather than the more sci-fi aspects of time travel. This is probably a personal quibble given that I'm a giant time travel geek, but I felt there was room for it amid all the "The 80's were retarded and brightly colored" jokes.
Alright, let's jump back to what I liked about the movie. The main cast, which is kind of random when you think about it, works really well together. Despite being wasted overall, Clark Duke does work really well in his scenes with the older actors, his kind of bemused mocking of their idiocy standing in well for the audience. Craig Robinson is just great in everything I see him in whether he's playing a more manic character or, as in the case of this movie, a passive sad sack. There's just something about the way he delivers his lines that always strikes me as funny. Rob Corddry essentially steals the show as the sort of mean-spirited, fun-loving douchebag character that Jack Black probably would have played were this movie made ten years ago. It's an easy part to run with and he's given the best lines ("If I tried to commit suicide I'd be awesome at it! Shotgun to the dick!"), but he's also charismatic enough to make you sympathize with a character that is essentially a complete piece of shit.
Jon Cusack ends up being the wildcard of the bunch, weirdly enough. Despite having an overall background in comedies, I feel like the genre has changed significantly since his hey-day and I was pleased to see that he managed to keep up with everyone else. As the protagonist, we are supposed to be the most invested in his character, and he ends up being a wise bit of meta-casting for the role of a guy looking back on the 80's as a time when his life was better. Obviously John Cusack has done well for himself since the peak of his popularity, but the dramatic aspects of his character make it easy to imagine how his career could have easily taken a turn for the worse and left him washed-up and burnt out like he is in the film.
The supporting cast is as effective as they need to be. Crispin Glover as the hapless bellboy has a fairly ridiculous subplot with a decent enough payoff and the extremely charming Lizzy Caplan (although she's barely in it) is welcome in pretty much anything as far as I'm concerned.
I find myself at the end of this review thinking that I've talked more about the movies flaws than its merits, but it did keep me laughing consistantly and, despite some of the sloppy plotting, never felt prolonged or padded for the hour and a half that it lasted. If you laughed at the trailer you'll probably enjoy the movie. I just felt that with a little more effort it could have been on par with The Hangover, which it definitely isn't.
This is great. Would you be up for requests? Even if it were a movie you'd normally NOT think about go seeing? That'd be pretty entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI was actually considering taking requests. If I think it would be worthwhile and it wouldn't completely destroy my soul to watch it, I'll try to get it in on my Netflix within a reasonable amount of time. It better not be like, Hotel For Dogs or some shit. I know you Steph.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about the requests thing too. I was going to ask you to watch Splendor in the Grass because I know you haven't seen it and I would be interested to read your review about it. I have it so when I come home you can borrow it or somethin'.
ReplyDelete