Hot Tub Time Machine

I can't explain how welcome a breezy broad comedy is in the wake of reviewing the deep, dark Oscar nominees. Hot Tub Time Machine is just that, a breeze blown in from the minds of young writers Josh Heald, Sean Anders and John Morris. Ever since Judd Apatow mined the gold that is the ironic buddy comedy, Hollywood has been keen to crank out like material (The Hangover, Role Models). Hot Tub Time Machine capitalizes on this in a unique way. It takes a respected and veteran actor (John Cusack) and essentially puts his ass in the back seat. This film belongs to Rob Corddry (The Daily Show, W, and I'm digging, folks) and Craig Robinson (Knocked Up,The Office). I had begun to so woefully miss Corddry that I started watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to have his brother Nate fill the void. Believe me, as much as I respect the brilliance of Aaron Sorkin, that hyper-intellectual tommy gun can be more than a little grating on the senses. But here we finally have a giant juicy bite of Corddry in all of his angry glory. As Lou, Hot Tub's resident jackass, Corddry is offensive and rude without losing any of the hapless charm he displayed as a Daily Show correspondent. When Lou questionably attempts suicide, his friends Adam and Nick (Cusack and Robinson respectively) decide to take him on a vacation. Along with Adam's young and nebbishy nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), the four return to a familiar ski town where they once raised Cain. The foursome come upon a hot tub, which they promptly jump into. With the help of an illegal Russian beverage and some serious drunken debauchery, they are transported back to the 1980's. I am going to stop relaying the plot now. Seriously. It would insult you as moviegoers if I were to continue describing the ludicrousness that is Hot Tub Time Machine. All I can say is: if you haven't seen it yet, go. Go now. Do a half-dozen shots of Jagermeister first, whatever gets you where you need to be in order to suspend that disbelief, babies. Craig Robinson's laid back delivery works perfectly in this continuous train of hilarity and newcomer Clark Duke provides both straight-man savvy and dirt-dry sarcasm. Cusack, while always a pleasure to watch in anything is really behind the eight ball here. We all know the plot is ridiculous, the motherfucking writers knew it was ridiculous when they took peyote and wrote it. But Cusack's character knows it and he can't stop indicating it to the audience. That is not acceptable from the ladies of Baywatch, let alone an uncommonly talented, highly intelligent, seriously seasoned pro like John Cusack. If you're going to do something light and unexpected, either just for the money or just for the fun of it, do it. But don't insult me by making a mockery of the acting process when all of your (much less compensated) co-stars give it their all and then some. Hot Tub Time Machine is hysterically funny despite John Cusack, not because of him. It deeply pains me to say this, as Cusack has always been the brainy girl's Mr. Right. Cusack tore up 80's and 90's hits like The Sure Thing and Say Anything with his angsty sarcasm and delightful vulnerability. His piece de resistance was absolutely 2000's High Fidelity. He took Nick Hornby's conception of Rob Gordon and made him every whiny music snob you were annoyed to know . His performance was nuanced and generous, allowing newer talents like Jack Black to shine a gorgeous light upon themselves. Cusack made all of us pretentious film and music mavens proud. The film also resonated with me personally, as it took place in a part of Chicago where I had honed some of those very pretensions. Cusack seemed to be gunning for more recognition in later years, particularly with the film Grace is Gone, about a father of two young girls trying to figure out how to tell them that their mother has just been killed in combat. The beautiful physicality he displayed in Being John Malkovich was on steroids in Grace is Gone, making it look like he was trying to grab an Oscar with his character's hunched shoulder blades.
Cusack has always been a study in incongruence; he maintains a home in Chicago because he claims to love it's people, but he is always extremely unapproachable and appears to want nothing to do with any of them. He bemoans the extra light shed upon celebrities and yet can usually be found dating them, a la Meg Ryan. But Cusack's work, either as an actor, or a writer and producer has always been excellent. In fact, Cusack can lend gravitas to a project that is lacking simply by adding his name to the marquee. But there is something about him in Hot Tub Time Machine that seems to be saying "I know this is a dumb movie. I did it for the money. A shit-ton of it. Please forgive me, and give me your money". He's almost mocking the audience that would come out in droves to see such a film. My Comment is really only about John Cusack, because he is a cultural icon. An icon that appears to have forgotten what a privilege it is to get to do something you love and make a (great) living from it. Director Steve Pink has worked with Cusack for a long time, and it's entirely possible that he has gotten burned out by show business and it's usual vapid players. But he needs to buck up, get down to writing again and show us the sharpness we first noticed in Sixteen Candles when he was still a gawky teen from Evanston, trying to break into the business that he seems so wary and tired of. If he doesn't, we will have lost one of film's truest talents.