A Comedy Paradox...

Hot Tub Time Machine
Starring: John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Crispin Glover
Director: Steve Pink
Rating: 3 (out of 5)

Summary: Three old friends decide to take a trip down memory lane by visiting the old ski cabin they used to holiday in during the 1980s. Finding that the old place just ain't what it used to be, a night of drinking, hot tubbing and time travel ensues...

This is a marmite film and the title alone will either be enough to get you in the cinema seat, walkman in hand, or it will have you running for the exit clutching your ipod. If you do decide to stay you may find yourself more disappointed than amused.

On the outside, Hot Tub Time Machine seems like it will take the recent run of bromance comedies and turn them on their heads by adding a sci-fi twist that is full of comic opportunities - and for the most part it does. The three middle aged leads have the right mix of morose regret and unbounded optimism that this opportunity presents andthe film pokes fun at elements of the 1980s like its auditing the decade - Cold War paranoia? Check. Black Michael Jackson gag? Check. A tendency to mix and match primary colours like a blind Cyndi Lauper? Check. Crispin Glover (Back to the Future's George McFly) in a starring role? Check.

It's surprising then that a film, in the first hour, wallows in the cultural garbage heap that was the 1980s with all the dark fearlessness of Teen Wolf rolling around in a Soda Stream induced piss, manages to become so blunt as it plays out the inevitable paradox inducing narrative arc and attempts to shoehorn a romantic subplot with all the subtlety of Max Headroom's scalp.

Gags about emailing and texting girls being interspersed with the occasional fellatio and ejaculation gag are too sweet and salty to be an effective mix, and the performance Rob Corddry is so manic that Cusack's lovesick puppy routine will start to grate as you find yourself pining for Corddry's swearing, pot puffing, self hating performance to light up the screen again. This is certainly his breakout performance.

A cameo from Chevy Chase as a supernatural janitor and Lizzy Caplan as the perfuntionary kooky love interest add nothing to proceedings. Caplan especially brings all the zeal of someone who knows she has been cast in another one of Zooey Deschanel rejections. However, you can't blame Caplan for a script that makes her the catalyst for Hot Tub Time Machine's loss of nerve in the last third. Whilst Chase's one note performance makes you wonder what happened to that madcap charm that he used to have in abundance during the 1980s.

You'll enjoy the time you spend with the perennial losers of the Hot Tub, but just like all good paradoxes you'll come full circle and struggle to explain your reason for doing so. As a piece of nostalgic fluff it is effective, having gross out gags that can stand toe to toe with any in the Porky's franchise, but it falls into the the 21st century trap of having to explain its actions and giving the main protaganists routine comedy cliches to achieve. Hot Tub Time Machine takes you back to that decade superficially but it doesn't have its subversive heart.