“Hot Tub Time Machine”

Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, nudity, drug use and pervasive language.

First off, let me describe “Hot Tub Time Machine”  as “raunchy” with a real hard “R” and a robust, guttural pronunciation of the “rau” sound…as if one has some phlegm caught in one’s throat. By the way, since I am writing about phlegm, allow me to share with you that projectile vomit and other bodily fluids play recurring roles in this film; nudity, although not terribly prominent, plays a few minor roles, but not enough of the latter to balance out the former. In short, this movie is like one, giant, stag party joke.

But what did you expect? Two words should have given you a hint. They are: “hot” and “tub.”

Three guys, in their forties, with their personal lives in shambles, are given a chance to roll back the years and try again; to get it right the second time, courtesy of the aforementioned hot tub and a very odd fix-it-man played by Chevy Chase. His character demonstrates the damage of hard partying and the abuse of legal and illegal drugs…and consuming drinks served with silly straws and sissy umbrellas.

Former high school buddies, insurance executive Adam (John Cusack), failed singer Nick (Craig Robinson), and slimy wannabe rock drummer Lou (Rob Courddry) have drifted apart. Adam’s girlfriend has left him and cleaned out his house. His geeky, twenty year old nephew, Jacob (Clark Duke), lives in the basement and, at twenty, has done absolutely nothing with his life but play on the Internet. Perhaps this is because his mother (Adam’s sister) was (and is) a promiscuous party girl and his father is unknown.

Lou is found unconscious in his garage after a drinking binge. Since the garage was filled with carbon monoxide, doctors assume he attempted suicide and so they call his former friends, Adam and Nick. To cheer Lou up, the “boys” decide to take Lou back to their favorite place (back in the day) of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll to relive, and perhaps revive their youth back in the 1980s, a “swinging” ski resort. Adam’s nephew, Jacob, comes along for the ride.

When they arrive in town, they discover that the community has pretty much collapsed (perhaps due to the economy) and the resort is a dump. After yelling at each other and lamenting their miserable choices in life, they discover a hot tub. They strip down and dip in. Amidst a night of drugs and drinking, they short out the electronic mechanism, and, as a consequence, wake up back in the 1980s — the swinging 1980s.

I will save you the trouble of reading further details and just inform you that all kinds of disgusting events happen — many of them wickedly funny — some just gross. Sort of like those naughty (and often nasty) jokes we all deny getting in our e-mail.

Of course, by the end of the film, things work out well for all concerned. “Hot Tub Time Machine” is sort of an adult version of “Back to the Future.”  Not that “Hot Tub Time Machine” even comes close to the quality or originality of “Back to the Future,” but there are similar funny situations and gags.

Cusack is one of those actors that can do just about anything and film-goers enjoy the performace. Rob Courddry plays “revolting buddy” to perfection. And Clark Duke represents, for the younger generation, the so-geeky-he-is-cool style of comedians.

However, “Hot Tub Time Machine” is just tepid, in my opinion. If your sense of humor is “stuck in time” and if you still are a middle-schooler despite your age, this film is for you. Hardly sophisticated or witty, it is just like a simple-minded, vulgar, sophomoric joke that you should be horribly embarrassed to e-mail to your mother, but funny enough to email to your buddies.

I suggest, however, that if seeing the backside of a plump middle age bald guy might ruin your date night, pass this one up.  I had to delay dinner by several hours to clear my visual memory of that disturbing sight. Thankfully, I don’t have enough mirrors at home to allow that to happen. Nor will I ever.

“Hot Tub Time Machine” earns two and a half bow ties out of five.