On Bringing Back the 80s in Hot Tub Time Machine

The 1980s have seen a resurgence in the 00s decade across the board and particularly in film. Producers have plundered 80s concepts in an attempt to update them for a contemporary audience. This has been successful (Michael Mann’s Miami Vice (2006)), but mostly it results in heavy handed pastiche (Transformers (2007 & 2009)). Time will tell how Joe Carnahan’s The A-Team (2010) will fare.

Hot Tub Time Machine’s challenge therefore, was to parody a decade that we are currently paying homage to. A difficult task and one the film does not successfully achieve. On their return to the 80s, the four time travelers are greeted by classic 80s rock anthems, leg warmers, bright over sized clothes (including a Miami Vice sweater), archetypal 80s food and technology. This could easily be a (themed) college party and only a live Reagan broadcast convinces them the impossible has happened. However, this is not parody, it is a brief panorama of 80s memorabilia, designed to invoke nostalgia in an audience that only recognise the joke because of the current 80s revival. And in some strange, unintended twist, the film’s target audience are laughing at the presently fashionable because they have been told to and think they should, not because it stirs memories of the past.

Fortunately for them and for any audience members old enough to vividly remember the 80s, Hot Tub Time Machine quickly becomes like every other recent average obscene bromedy (a comedy focused on the heterosexual relationship of men). In fact, it probably falls below average as the majority of the jokes and performances fall flat. A scene involving a bet in a bathroom and an angry phone call represent the highlights. References to the 80s continue on a surface level only (there’s Chevy Chase; there’s Crispin Glover; there’s Poison and so on) without ever becoming a more resonant part of the narrative or even affecting the characters’ arcs. Would a man born in 1986 not be irrevocably changed and possibly damaged by a return to the year he was born?

Hot Tub Time Machine has nothing to say about the 80s decade other than spot the gimmick and if you look really closely, there may be a slight hint of John Cusack at his 80s comedic best. But you’ll have to look really hard.