But I did promise to finally give you some brief thoughts on Hot Tub Time Machine, which I saw waaaaaaayyy back in April, and here they are:
After much stewing and considering (and re-considering), I can't really say that I like Hot Tub Time Machine. I laughed in the theatre, and it has an amusingly vulgar charm, but there's no "there" there. It's a good "one time" movie with a great cast and one pretty clever running gag involving the always watchable Crispin Glover, but the problem is that it's a lousy time travel movie.I know what you're about to say, which is "what did you expect from a movie called HOT TUB TIME MACHINE?" but the truth is that both sets of writers did try to make the movie more ambitious in its time travel story than just throw things together. The problem is that it still doesn't add up, even if you lower your expectations. For example - and this is a pretty glaring one - if Rob Corddry's character changes everything, he cannot also be the impetus for the four of them going to the ski lodge in the first place. Even if it splits off into an alternate future where our heroes magically replace better versions of themselves at the end, the fact that Crispin Glover's Chip knows who they are when they return to the present means they went back in the first place and all of that happened, so how did they go back?
Anyway, I've considered watching it again but I'm not sure that I'm terribly interested in doing so. Knowing where most of the good jokes are is likely to dull their impact, since things like the "soap on the mouth" gag works because you know as much as Craig Robinson does when he wakes up in the bathroom. I sense that I'd be less impressed with the film in another go-round, but maybe I should try. Time has not been kind to my opinion, so perhaps a second viewing is necessary.
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Okay folks, I'll see you on the other side of the country in a few days...
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