Hot tub time machine bellhop5/30/2023 ![]() The screenplay was originally written by first-timer Josh Heald, then underwent rewrites by Sean Anders and John Morris ( “Sex Drive”). Lou is going to stand up to that preppie jerk Blaine (Sebastian Stan) this time around, Adam isn’t going to break up with his girlfriend (Lyndsy Fonseca), and Nick’s band is going to give the concert of their careers! Meanwhile, Jacob - who shouldn’t exist in 1986 at all - tries to get straight answers from a mysterious hot tub repairman (Chevy Chase) who only speaks in riddles. Then, as with most elements in this scattershot film, they change their minds and decide to make the future better. To avoid screwing up the future, they vow to let everything happen as it originally did. I don’t blame them, though it does violate the rules of pretty much every time-travel story. I assume this is because the filmmakers didn’t want to deal with the complications inherent in characters meeting past versions of themselves. That’s what they see when they look in the mirror, and it’s what the people around them see. For some reason Adam, Lou, and Nick actually become their younger selves. And when I say it’s malfunctioning, I mean that when they get in, it sends them back to 1986.Īs 17-year-olds, they were at Kodiak Valley this particular 1986 weekend - well, not Jacob he wasn’t born yet - but there’s no danger that they’ll run into themselves. With Adam’s 20-year-old loser nephew, Jacob (Clark Duke), tagging along, the group returns to find the place rundown and seedy now, with a surly one-armed bellhop (Crispin Glover) and a malfunctioning hot tub. Surely this will lift their spirits and rekindle their friendship. This is all the pretense the movie needs for Adam to suggest they take a trip to Kodiak Valley, a ski resort they visited in their youth that holds many good memories. Lou is a dangerous alcoholic - if this is “The Hangover,” which in many ways it is, he’s Zach Galifianiakis - who lands in the hospital after what may have been a suicide attempt. Nick, once a musician, now works for a dog groomer. Adam’s a sad-sack insurance agent whose girlfriend has just left him. Encountering your parents while they’re conceiving you? “Hot Tub Time Machine.”Īdam (John Cusack), Lou (Rob Corddry), and Nick (Craig Robinson), best friends in high school, have grown apart now. Encountering your parents before they conceived you? Normal. As for the time-travel paradoxes, you get the feeling they made a list of all the ones in “Back to the Future” and then came up with ways to make them filthy. ![]() ![]() The closest the film comes to “science” is mentioning that the hot tub became a time machine because someone spilled a can of Russian soda in the controls. ‘Tis a comedy, of course, not a science-fiction adventure. Then again, time travel in a hot tub is no dumber than time travel in a DeLorean or a phone booth, and at least “Hot Tub Time Machine” tells you up front. The title gives you permission not to watch it if you think it sounds stupid. When the movie-title hall of fame is built, surely “Hot Tub Time Machine” will be honored in the same wing as “Snakes on a Plane.” What is “Hot Tub Time Machine” about? It is about a hot tub that is also a time machine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |