HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (Steve Pink, 2010)

With a title so blunt and to the point as Hot Tub Time Machine there's really no need to ask what the hell the movie is about, but for you noobs out there the film concerns four friends (John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry and Clark Duke) who take a little trip to their old favorite ski resort and are unwittingly sent back to 1986 after their, you guessed it, hot tub goes haywire. It sounds stupid, I know. But the movie is not.

It starts off rocky. The flick just seems to be hurtling all these gross-out gags at the audience to test their gag reflex, and most of them fall flat, becoming just a tepid comedy. But suddenly the film finds its calling, embraces its stupidity, and the jokes become more than inspired. The rest of the flick is just a raunchy good time and the sheer number of jokes that the script and the cast come up with at such rapid speed is something to be admired.

What Hot Tub Time Machine benefits most from is its immensely likable cast. 80's poster boy John Cusack is gung-ho for this kinda thing (he's even dressed in his Lloyd Dobbler outfit at one point, wink wink), Craig Robinson delivers his hilarious deadpan perfectly, Rob Corddry seems to just be having a blast being the "asshole" friend, and Clark Duke finally gets some well-deserved recognition after the amazing web series Clark And Michael (which you should watch immediately). Chevy Chase is also here, as well as George McFly himself Crispin Glover, who's given a really fantastic subplot that is worth mentioning.

Don't get me wrong, Hot Tub Time Machine is not perfect. There are plot holes. There are unnecessary moments. But in the end, the flick just does what it wants to do, and that is to entertain. And it does.

BOTTOM LINE: After a really rocky start, Hot Tub Time Machine finds its footing and, from its incredibly likable cast and the sheer number of jokes thrown at the audience, becomes a raunchy blast.