Hot Tub Time Machine (15)

Reviewed,Anthony Quinn
Thursday 06 May 2010 19:00 EDT
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There is barely an original moment in this time-travel fantasy – cross bachelor-party antics with an 1980s nostalgia-fest – but it does have something none of the week's other comedies can muster: jokes that work. And how about that title for chutzpah?

John Cusack plays a recently dumped nice guy who takes his two friends (Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry) and nerdy nephew (Clark Duke) for a spot of R&R at their favourite old ski lodge. Following a night of debauchery in the hot tub they wake up to find it's 1986, and only by replicating exactly what they did then will they be able to return to the present. There is many a knowing nod and wink to the era, including cameos by definitive 1980s faces such as Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover, but what keeps it alive is the energetic profanity and a turn of surpassing grotesquerie by Rob Corddry as the most uncouth of the quartet. It's not quite The Hangover – what could be? –- but there are plenty of laughs to be had.

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