Hot Tub Time Machine

Directed by Steve Pink

(R)

***

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Hot Tub Time Machine “offers a merrily idiotic movie to go with its willfully idiotic title,” said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. John Cusack, Craig Robinson, and Rob Corddry play 40-something friends who have returned to a ski resort where they misspent part of their youth. There, they climb into a hot tub that transports them back to 1986. The premise is ludicrous, but the “shrewdly chosen” cast and Steve Pink’s deft direction keep the film from sinking. In fact, this is a comedy so stupid it’s brilliant, said Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post. Hot Tub Time Machine overflows with gross-out gags, politically incorrect jokes, and illogical special effects, but it also delivers a billion laughs. The script’s “sharp riffs” on what was goofy about the ’80s (ALF, leg warmers, Marty McFly) play well alongside its jabs at Twitter, Viagra, and other contemporary targets, said Lisa Schwarzbaum in Entertainment Weekly. Even so, don’t think comedy classic. Consider Hot Tub “a fun dip into a pool of memories that are best forgotten again once the booze wears off.”