Hot Tub Time Machine

There are slapstick comedies and there are slapstick comedies and then there are the slapstick comedies which are made for the heck of making a slapstick comedy. And if it is directed by a person who goes by the name of Steve Pink (eh?) then you can be even more certain of being given an average fare. That he has co-produced the likes of Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity (a movie that I had reviewed sometime back) are no reflection on his directorial skills whatsoever but would definitely go a long way to reinforce his complete and utter fascination or love for John Cussack. He has one more slapstick called “Accepted” under his belt. Which would probably explain why Hot Tub Time Machine (HTTM) really did not create too many waves at the Box Office in India. Having said that the movie does have some humour which would explain why I use the term average against the words horrendous or bad while talking about HTTM. Its one of those slapsticks that are barely watchable. For once I wasn’t complaining too much coz I watched it from a copy that was put onto my hard disk by my good friend Parikshit Dalvi (PD – thanks for saving me the money. Knowing me, I would have bought it off the shelf at quite a price).


Adam (John Cusack) and Nick (Craig Robinson) are close childhood buddies who are not too thrilled about their respective lives. Adam has been unsuccessful in love for as long as he can remember and has recently been dumped by his current girlfriend (wait a minute – is that the right way to put it? If he has been dumped then it would be his ex-girlfriend right? Whatever. You guys get the point right?). His nephew, Jacob (Clarke Duke) who is a video game addict. Nick Weber is a henpecked husband who works at a dog spa and has this morbid fear that his wife is cheating on him. They also have another person who completes their circle of friends. Lou (Rob Corddry) who is pathetic at investments and has lost a truck load of money leading him to be debt ridden. He is the true wild child who would rather be a rock star than anything else. When he comes back from a drunken night, he almost dies of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car thanks to a cheap thrill of revving his engine in a closed garage. But he is saved just in time. When Nick and Adam learn of this, they come to visit him and impulsively make a plan to revisit their teenage feral days where they once made a memorable trip to the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort. A very reluctant Jacob tags along. They reach the resort to find a hot tub in their backyard with a dead dog in it. But a few hours later, they find it cleaned and filled up and the night of random partying begins. They wake up the next morning obviously with heavy hangovers but much to their disbelief and surprise – in 1986 – 20 years back. Its now upto them to find out how this happened and more importantly, how they are going to make their way back.

Interesting concept. Could have been executed in a cleaner fashion but Steve Pink is obviously not too capable a director. The acting is again quite average – desperate would be the right word. Cusack should stick to either the acidic comedy genre or the romantic comedy one. Slapstick is just not for him. The only thing us men can look forward to in the uncut version is a fair bit of nudity. In a nutshell – nothing great. I would not give it more than 4 on 10. Watch it if u are a Cusack or a slapstick fan or if you really loved the likes of American Pie.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4173726745/

127 Hours

I think I have finally cracked the solution to make really really really big bucks. One has to do something that is super duper stupid under the pretext of having a “sense of adventure”. Maybe play with severely poisonous snakes or crocodiles like that guy from down under used to do. Or follow the footsteps of our protagonist and walk into the Grand Canyon. Alone. And make it a point that you don’t inform anyone – I repeat – don’t mention it to a soul as to where you are headed. They may just about prevent you from taking a step towards your first zillion. Just ensure that in the bargain you don’t kill yourself. Someone else will take all the money instead.

Aron Ralston (James Franco) in one adventure crazy dude. There is no other way I can describe him. His idea of a great time is to take off on the weekend and explore areas of the Canyon around Utah. Just random exploration. And he likes to take challenges that are otherwise not imaginable. If it has to do with the canyon then he would happily hop onto the band wagon and have a super duper time. And if he doesn’t have company – who the hell wants it anyways. He is perfectly capable of doing it on his own.

This particular weekend, he does exactly that and heads out to The Great Drop. A quick drive followed by about 20 kms on his bike and then a bit of a walk and he should be there. The bible for the Canyon has been written by Blue John (Fenton Quinn) who used to be the right hand man of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Blue John makes a brief appearance in the movie when Aron drops into one of his hallucinations). Now Blue John says it will take 4.5 hours to get to this spot but our hero would like to do it in under 3:45. And he seems to be on course. But en route some distraction of the female kind – Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn) – 2 damsels in distress who have lost their way. Keeping his aim for the record aside (I would if it were him and women looked like either Kristi or Megan), he decides to show the women a good time – which he manages successfully. Soon enough he finds himself on the way back towards the Great Drop. But a few minutes later, a large, extremely heavy loose rock also finds its way onto his right hand, rendering our man immobile. The count down to 127 hours has begun.

Now Aron Ralston is no fool. After he managed to get himself out (yes that’s the good news) of his mess, he decided to write a book about it. Its aptly titled, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”. And in 2010, one of the most over rated directors in the world, Danny Boyle, sees his opportunity to make a few million bucks by making a movie out of this example of rank stupidity. And what do you know – it gets nominated for a few Oscars as well. Danny Boyle has this knack of making his movies look and feel much larger than life like he did with Slumdog and The Beach (haven’t seen Trainspotting yet). Does he deserve an Oscar nomination over Christopher Nolan – definitely not. Is he going to give the heebeejeebies to his co-nomiated directors? Probably not. Superb editing has been the hallmark of all movies from Boyle’s table to date and that continiues. His use of brilliant sound and light is probably responsible for getting the nomination. Coming to the acting part, James Franco’s best performance to date, but it will not be able to push Colin Firth from being the favourite for the Best Actor Award. Rahman’s music is again not his best to date. Overall an enjoyable movie but not Oscar winner kinds. Above average on all counts but not the best on any. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi768149785/