Hot Tub Time Machine – DVD Review

Film, Reviews



Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our summer comedy for the year.

This is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a while. There are a lot of jokes for all types of people. There are quick throw away jokes that you have to pay attention to pick up on, and there are even more over the top, raunchy, hilarious jokes that hit the mark way more often than they miss.

John Cusack plays a recently divorced man whose nephew lives in and never leaves his basement. Cusack is friends with Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry even though they’ve all grown apart and never see each other anymore. After Corddry attempts to kill himself, the three take him to Kodiak Valley to relive some of the best nights of their youth. However, when they get to K-Val, the town is run down and nothing like what they remember. Their room does have a hot tub though, and you can guess what the hot tub does.

Once they’re back in the ’80s, the humor kicks up a ton and you’re hit with a few jokes a minute that leave you laughing. The group decides they have to do everything the same way they did it in the past to avoid messing with the butterfly effect. Cusack has to break up with a hot ex-girl friend he calls his “Great White Buffalo”, Robinson has to have sex with a groupie who saw him at one of his music shows. Robinson feels terrible about it because he gets married in the future and feels like he’s cheating on his wife. Corddry gets beat senseless by a ski patrol guy.

Cusack is the only one who doesn’t follow through with the way things went and that sends the other two off to do whatever they want to change the future. Even trying to change the future, they still stick close enough to their paths so they end back at the hot tub that night ready to go back home.

Corddry and Robinson have more prominent roles than they’ve had in the past and they both do fantastic jobs and will be memorable characters for quite a while, but the star of the movie for me was Clark Duke, the nephew. He’s always got a smart comeback and it seems like every time he talks you just have to laugh because of the line and the way he delivers the line.

The story drags a little bit in the middle and it seems like a longer movie than it feels like it should be. The fact that it’s all still pretty funny makes it worthwhile and not a major distraction.

They also do a pretty good job of setting the story up and building the character back story. It’s always nice having some back story on a character so you can understand why they would act the way they do and this one handles it really well.

Hot Tub Time Machine is presented in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio and Dolby Digital Sound.
Some of the green screen stuff looks really bad and some of the CGI’d stuff looks really bad. Enough where it takes a little bit away from the movie, but not much.

Not much on the Extra front.

Theatrical Version and UnRated Version

Deleted Scenes – Which in this case stands for Deleted/Extended/Alternate scenes.

Theatrical Trailer – I will never understand why they put trailers for the movie on the DVD.

A couple other movie trailers.
Cyrus – I have no idea if this is supposed to be funny or scary or just dumb.
American Dad Season 5 – I’m not sure this preview could be any shorter.
The 41 YEAR OLD VIRGIN who KNOCKED UP SARAH MARASHALL and felt SUPERBAD about it – Two things, that’s my favorite movie title ever. Second, this may be the worst movie of all time, it is going to be in Meet the Spartans territory.

This is going to be the funniest DVD released this summer. Possibly the funniest movie you’ll see this summer. The jokes and funny situations don’t stop throughout the movie. The unrated version isn’t all that different from the theatrical version, but the scenes that are extended are pretty funny. Buy it, rent it, Netflix it, whatever, just see this movie.


MGM Home Entertainment presents Hot Tub Time Machine. Directed by: Steve Pink. Starring: John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Dukee. Written by: Josh Heald, Sean Anders and John Morris. Running time: 99 Minutes. Rating: UnRated. Released on DVD: June 29, 2010. Available at Amazon.com.