Hot Tub Time Machine

Memo to all writers directors and producers who plan on coming out with a time travel movie from this point forward. As of this moment, all time travel logistics must be cleared by me before it goes up on a screen for public consumption. This may seem like a drastic and arbitrary move but after seeing Hot Tub Time Machine this weekend, I've simply had it and I've decided something has to be done. From this point on I am the Great and Exalted Defender of Time Travel Logistics.

Now you're probably wondering “What could this silly comedy have done so egregiously wrong that you are now declaring yourself The Great and Exalted Defender of Time Travel Logistics?” I'm so glad you asked.

The characters get transported back to what we believe is 1986. The strongest indication is that they discover they are at their favorite ski resort for Winterfest '86 so I'm placing it in February 1986. Then we see them flipping through the channels and one of the shows that comes on is Alf which did not come on the air until September 1986. A very minor infraction and one which I was only too happy to overlook. Then a little later they decide to take advantage of their knowledge of past events and make a very daring bet on the Cleveland-Denver football game involving John Elway's legendary performance known as “The Drive”. This game did in fact exist except in took place in January 1987. A little sloppier but I was willing to overlook this as well. Then came the mother of all time travel inaccuracies.

One of the four time travelers is Jacob (Clark Duke) who is introduced earlier as the 20 year-old nephew of Adam (John Cusak). However later we learn that it is at Winterfest '86 where the 20 year old in 2010 is conceived. Anyone sober, conscious, and over the age of seven can see that they aren't even trying to make the time travel stuff make sense. I am willing to shift the brain functioning down a level or two for a movie like this but I can't be expected to carve open my skull with an exacto knife, remove my brain altogether and bury it in the back yard.

My frustration with the idiotic time travel logistics comes not because I didn't like this movie but rather because mostly I did. Strip away the epic fail that is the time missteps and you have a fun, funny movie that is enjoyable to watch. It is like the slightly dimmer and less successful first cousin of The Hangover. Not as sharp but certainly in the ballpark.

Hot Tub Time Machine tells the story of three old friends who now in their 40's have lost touch completely. Adam is going through a painful divorce from a vindictive wife. Nick (The Office's Craig Robinson) is a former musician who is wallowing in a dead-end job and domestic issues of his own percolating. Adam and Nick are reunited at the hospital when they get word that their third amigo Lou (Rob Courdry) is hospitalized after an apparent suicide attempt. Though the friends have not hung out in years, they decide to take a trip together to their old haunt, Codiac Valley Ski resort, in an attempt to cheer up Lou. Joining the group is Adam's aforementioned (ahem) 20 year-old nephew Jacob.

At the resort they get in the hot tub and find themselves back in the 1980's. And here is where the movie seems to stagger and stumble a little bit. It succeeds in having fun with sending up the decade and sharing a laugh with the audience in how silly a lot of it was. Where it struggles though is it doesn't seem to know what kind of genie-out-of-the-bottle movie it wants to be. Once they discover the time travel phenomenon they all make a pact to do things exactly as they did in 1986 as to not introduce the butterfly effect. This is the idea that any slight change they introduce could dramatically affect the future. This leads to funny scene with Nick and a groupie in a hot tub. But eventually they abandon this pact and it becomes every man for himself. While this frees them up for comic misadventures, it also takes away the jeopardy for the characters. What are they now driven to do and what happens if they fail? We don't really know.

Two of the best time travel movies ever were Time After Time (1979) and Back To The Future (1985). Where these movies succeeded is they used the time travel aspect not just as a premise for the movie but as a central driving force of the story. H.G. Wells chases Jack The Ripper back to modern day San Francisco to stop this horrible monster who has been unleashed on an unsuspecting public. Marty McFly must get his parents to fall in love or he will cease to exist. In both cases, the protagonists have very clear missions where failure is simply not an option. I think this movie could have benefited by more careful consideration of what to do with those characters once they were placed in 1986.

And yet this film still has enough charm and laughs to skate by. There is a very funny running gag where Lou insists on seeing how the one-armed bellhop (Back To The Future's Crispin Glover) eventually loses his arm. The relationships between the male characters feel authentic and believable. The bottom line is we enjoy spending time with these guys and this is why the movie works despite its flaws.

And because the movie works I have to ask the question again – how hard would it be to make sure the time travel stuff made sense? Pick a time they go back to (say February 1986) and make sure all pop culture references pre-date that time period. So you show a clip of Miami Vice or Who's The Boss instead of Alf. The bet is on the Bears-Patriots Super Bowl instead of The Drive. Really this isn't rocket science here. But I know, I know. Who went and made me The Great and Exalted Defender of Time Travel Logistics?

Oh yeah, that's right, I did!