Hot Tub Time Machine

Here we go again. Another pretty good, if not new, idea that doesn't realise its potential.

Influenced I'd say by the success of films like The Hangover, Hot Tub Time Machine opted for crass over clever and instead of a witty, possibly black comedy, about the chance to revisit a time when you made choices and mistakes, we get a lowbrow (admittedly at times witty) comedy that really smacks of try hard.

It's got all the ingredients, including John Cusack, to be memorable but instead we get average.

Drawn together by an apparent suicide attempt by their friend Lou (Rob Corddry), Adam (Cusack) and Nick (Craig Robinson), along with Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke from Kick-Ass) revisit Kodak Valley, a place they holidayed some 20 odd years earlier.

Finding it rundown and virtually deserted the quartet wind up in the hot tub which, as the name suggests, turns out to be a time machine and whisks them back to 1986 and a pivotal night for the three who existed back then.

They really didn't do enough with the 80s setting here. Crispin Glover plays the bellhop Phil and the writers missed a brilliant opportunity for a funny moment. Lou says a line about wanting to get back to the present - I would have certainly written it as 'back to the future' in homage to Glover's presence in the film (he played George McFly in BTTF 1).

I must admit I had reasonable expectations.

Based on Cusack's involvement with director Steve Pink who wrote the screenplay for and co-produced the wickedly brilliant Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity. Of course both feature Cusack and I reckon if they aimed a bit for the former film then Hot Tub may have been a real winner.

Sure, if you like your humour crass, childish and obvious then this will be right up your alley. If you expect more from a team that has proven its ability to make standout films then you will just see this as a shade better than pedestrian.

I had a few laughs but the bigger, and slightly ignored, stories of friendship, destiny and putting the past behind you would have made a better film. Not to mention all the time travel paradox stuff about changing the past to affect the future.

A 7 out of 10 - but they could have easily made a 9.