The only question you’ll have after suffering through John Cusack’s soulless and forced “Hot Tub Time Machine” is what was uglier: the characters, tone, set design or cinematography? What a waste of a good title, and what an even bigger waste of a winning concept. A raucous time travel comedy about a group of forty-somethings given the opportunity to go back to 1986 and fix all the mistakes that set their lives on the path to quiet desperation sounds like a crude but nostalgic and heartwarming can’t miss. But miss it does, and by a wide mark, thanks to shoddy plotting and characters impossible to root for.

Director Steve Pink gathers the usual archetypes for this kind of thing. Cusack plays Adam, a business man whose girlfriend just moved out on him and his twenty-something nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), a basement dwelling, videogame geek; Nick (Craig Roberson), who had musical aspirations but ended up under the thumb of his wife; and Lou (Rob Corddry), a foul-mouthed, gonzo party guy who can’t get over the fact that the party ended when Adam and Nick stopped coming around.

After Lou is hospitalized for what might or might not have been a suicide attempt, the three disparate and now distant friends (with young Jacob in tow) decide to rekindle their relationship and lick some wounds with a nostalgic trip back to a ski resort where they hope to forget their problems through the magic of reliving those alcohol, drug and free-sex debauchery days that made high school the high point of their lives. (more…)

Some of the biggest movies of any year aren’t in wide release until January, so some of us don’t see all them until much later. As of this week, I think I’ve seen what passes for “everything” from 2008. Herewith, my list of the Top Ten for the year just passed:

10. Sex Drive. Hilarious, under-seen, low-budget comedy starring the creative partner of the funny Michael Cera. Defeated at the box office because of its name, it features a few show-stopping scenes with Seth Green and a live-action pair of Beavis-and-Butthead types who steal the whole thing. This’ll do great on DVD. (more…)