My new post is a film review for the comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, enjoy...
Adam, Nick and Lou are all old school friends and now they are men they are all suffering from problematic and boring lives. Lou has an accident and ends up in hospital where the doctors think he tried to kill himself and as a result his friends have to step in to help him.
The trio along with Adam’s nephew Jacob head off on holiday to a resort they last visited in 1986 and try to relive some of the memories. They make use of the hot tub which the suit has but things go wrong and they end up going back in time to 1986. They soon learnt hat they must try and make sure they do things exactly the same way as they did before or they face changing the course of history.
Can the men try and relive the past or will they alter their futures and what will it mean for Jacob who is not yet even born?
To be perfectly honest this film never really appealed to me but hubby quite fancied it so I decided to give it a watch. I was actually quite surprised by the film and found some of the parts quite funny. The story was good but nothing very new and original. I think it was helped along with the humour and some good acting. I think I would have liked a little more from the story though because as it stood I did find it was very predictable and I had worked out the ending from half way through the film. This may be a good thing for some as it means you don’t have to concentrate fully on what is going on but for me I would have liked another twist or big event to have happened at the end of the film.
The acting was pretty good. John Cusack played the lead role of Adam and I felt he did a good job. He came across in a good way and was easy to get to know. I liked his way of living and felt he handled the whole time travelling very well. He seemed at ease with his lines and even the humour and he did give me a good few chuckles. The role of Nick was also a strong one, played by Craig Robinson, he came across as quite weak at times with what was happening in his life but he acted this way very well and I did at times feel sorry for him. I like how he was also able to take the serious nature away from his problems with his comedy timing. There was the role of Jacob which I did enjoy too, he was played by Clark Dude and he seemed the only sensible one in the film. He was strong and I loved how he would be shocked by some of the antics which went on. I though he handled the comedy timing with ease and think he has a bright acting future ahead of him.
There was one role which I really did not like in the film and that was Lou, he was played by Rob Corddry. He was always drunk and full of self pity. I hated him right from the start of the film and could not warm to him at all. I think they played too much to his weaknesses and maybe if he was made slightly stronger and more caring I would have got to like him. He did also have some very good support actors in the film and I felt they were good and gave a little depth to the story.
The film was set in the present day at the start but we soon moved back to 1986 and I did enjoy this aspect of the film. The clothes were hilarious and the appearance of the men was also very funny. I loved how the old fashioned ways were shown and how there was very limited technology. I felt they were able to bring a lot of laughs from the year of this film and don’t think it would have worked as well had this been set in a different year. I felt the props, sets and costumes were all very fitting and worked very well indeed. I have to say that due to the year of this film we got an excellent soundtrack. I felt the modern songs were all good and lively and then when we moved to the older soundtrack I had to ask hubby to stop toe tapping and singing along, this was his era, as it was quite annoying. I did enjoy all of the tracks used and feel this would be a very good soundtrack for all fans of the 80’s music.
I did find the humour a little mixed. We had a lot of spoken gags which all had perfect timing and the actors were able to bounce of each other with ease and this all worked. Then we moved to the visual gags and some of them did not work. I felt the majority were good and fitting for the film but one or two, the ones which involved the character of Lou were a little out of place and not needed. I felt they made the film go towards a teen comedy film and they were a let down. The projectile vomiting scenes really was not needed and it did actually make me feel sick rather than make me laugh.
This is a film only review so there are no bonus features to speak about. The running time of the film is 101 minutes and I felt this was more than long enough. The rate is a 15 and I do agree with this as there is a lot of swearing right from the start, nudity and sex also feature a lot in this film so it is certainly not suitable for the younger audience. The DVD can be widely bought and is priced at around £7. The film is currently being shown on Sky Premier and Anytime TV so try to catch it there is you can.
I am happy to recommend this film and give it 4 stars. I enjoyed the story and had a few good laughs. I did however feel some of the gags were not fitting for the film and there was one weak character. The ending is good but very predictable. Overall this is a good film which deserves a watch but try to get the best possible price or catch it on sky for free.
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