Thursday, April 22, 2010

Review: Hot Tub Time Machine

Hot Tub Time Machine
Dir. Steve Pink
Year: 2010
Aus Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 100mins

Two weeks ago cinemagoers had Steve Carell and Tina Fey starring in Date Night, a movie with a plot that came directly out of 1986. This week fans of dopey comedies can, quite literally, go back in time to 1986 with Hot Tub Time Machine, a terminally unfunny piece of nostalgic time travel that throws everything except the kitchen sink into the hot tub resulting in nothing more than a soggy mess. When the title is the funniest thing about a movie, you know there’s trouble afoot.

Read the rest at Trespass Mag.


I had mentioned to fellow Melbourne film man Luke Buckmaster before the screening that I was not looking forward to this movie and, lo and behold, it turned out to be as bad as I expected. I truly, honestly did not laugh one single time. Say what you will about Date Night, I already did, but at least I laughed during that one in spite on how badly made it was. This one is just drab and uninteresting and doesn't even seem to raise a sweat, but here chugs along at its own pace and then ends. et voila. One thing I didn't get space to write about is Lizzy Caplan. She shows up in 1986 as a woman that steals John Cusack's heart, but then when we see her in 2010 (or whatever year it is set since the maths is way off) she looks exactly the same. In those 20 years did she invent a product that stopped aging? It was kinda scary. D-

3 comments:

Luke Buckmaster said...

It’s true, I can corroborate this: I don’t remember hearing you laugh once. Pretty sure you would’ve heard me, though. Don’t judge me Dunks!

Glenn Dunks said...

I was actually going to write "if you don't believe me then ask Luke!" but I figure I've sorta eviscerated the movie enough to make people believe that I didn't laugh. I did indeed hear you laughing though. I won't judge... much :)

Luke Buckmaster said...

BTW I also thought Dancer in the Dark was fucking hilarious.