Hot Dog Time Machine

"Hot Tub Time Machine," is at least in the general fairly typical of the time travel sub genre. A bunch of folk get thrown back in time and are warned not to change things. The devil, as always, is in the details, like the jagermeister in that last mixed drink you had.

Here we have a bunch of guys (Headlined by John Cusack) who are going back to where they had so much mindless fun as teens. Everything has changed though, the town is dying and the ski lodge is pretty much flat lined. They have changed as well, becoming hen pecked, alienated, or perhaps suicidal. So they put all that baggage aside for one night of the ol' debach in the hot tub. But as the title says it ain't no ordinary time machine baby so get ready to ride.

Ok, there are some funny funny bits here. And I love me some John Cusack, purely in a hetro man/bro way of course. Crispin Glover and Chevy Chase add some moments of high weirdness. Hey everybody let's give Glover a hand, don't worry you'll get that joke if you watch the movie. I like that it was sort of a form of psychic time travel in that they went back into their old bodies, except for the person who wasn't born yet who is having his own problems maintaining their reality. Just on a side nerd note one physicist says we can make a time machine, but we can only go back to the point where the machine is turned on. This is sort of the same in principle.

What I didn't like is that it went for the extra crass. I like a good old fashion eighties raunchy comedy as much as anyone but they went the double mileage with the bodily fluids. It's just something I'm not comfortable with. Also, it falters and loses itself in the middle for a bit. Just tries to do a bit too much. Still if you can handle a bit of grossness you might have yourself a pretty good time, even if its a bit nonsensical. Like there's the moment where one of our heroes makes a drunken call to his wife telling her off. Of course said wife is nine years old at the time. It is both uncomfortable and funny at the same time.

Sometimes that is the heart of humor.