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Semi-Movie Rec: "Hot Tub Time Machine"
"Hot Tub Time Machine" is a pretty stupid movie, but we saw it for free, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yebsiu9 enjoyed it. It was the kind of movie that had a few good ideas, and one good actor, but squandered a lot of its potential on dumb, none-too-subtle jokes. The only bright spot in the convoluted mess is Craig Robinson, who plays his character with a world-weary, not-quite-defeated-by-the-crazy-yet pathos. (In fact, Robinson brings a genuine human touch to just about everything he does, especially as Daryl on "The Office".) Other than him, the actors and the script can't decide where they want to go with the story: Look how lame things were in the '80s comedy? Coming of age story for the man-child within? Goofy sci-fi comedy? Romantic comedy/sex farce? (There is a lot of explicit sexual material, so much so that I was appalled that people ahead of me brought their 5-year-old with them. Just... no.) Goofy ski weekend shenanigans comedy? It's all over the place, and it never makes much of a point, except in two areas, which I will bitch about below:
1) A *man* changing *his* name when he gets married?! BLASPHEMY. One of the points of comedy is that Craig Robinson's character, Nick, has taken on his wife's hyphenated last name after they got married, but kept it a secret from his friends. When they find out, they promptly ridicule him and question his manhood, penis size, etc. This pissed me off to no end. One of the reasons I didn't not take my husband's last name was precisely because of this sort of bullshit: he refused to change for me, not even to hyphenate, and I ended up deciding that doing something I didn't feel comfortable with politically and personally was not a good way to start a marriage. This is just a comedy, but it's also a barometer of the stupid that still persists about equality in marriage, and it's damned annoying.
2) Men never get clinically depressed, and therefore, their suicide attempts are funny! One of the more loathsome character's suicide attempts is the act that spurs the action in this film, and it's played for laughs. But when you sit back and think about it, it's pretty pathetic to imagine this guy, all alone and drunk in his locked garage, revving the engine of his car and hoping he dies. Later on, he confesses that he'll just try again, with plans to succeed. I also noticed this sort of treatment of male mental illness in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", where the main male character's depression is, apparently, the thing that leads to the breakup in the first place. Later on, his sadness over the breakup is also played for laughs, but the problem really is that he's so lonely, and unable to articulate why he's sad in the first place. Mental illness can be good comedy fodder, but it takes a deft hand, and neither of these two movies had that. Instead, I felt like a heel for despising the loathsome character in "Hot Tub Time Machine" because he so obviously needed help, but was unable to ask for it because he's a MAN and if they ask for help, they're WEAK.
In sum: Hurrah for gendernorming! NOT. I guess, go see it if it's free, and you're looking to lose some brain cells, or have time to kill. Otherwise, save your money and go do something productive for the sake of the human race.
yebsiu9 enjoyed it. It was the kind of movie that had a few good ideas, and one good actor, but squandered a lot of its potential on dumb, none-too-subtle jokes. The only bright spot in the convoluted mess is Craig Robinson, who plays his character with a world-weary, not-quite-defeated-by-the-crazy-yet pathos. (In fact, Robinson brings a genuine human touch to just about everything he does, especially as Daryl on "The Office".) Other than him, the actors and the script can't decide where they want to go with the story: Look how lame things were in the '80s comedy? Coming of age story for the man-child within? Goofy sci-fi comedy? Romantic comedy/sex farce? (There is a lot of explicit sexual material, so much so that I was appalled that people ahead of me brought their 5-year-old with them. Just... no.) Goofy ski weekend shenanigans comedy? It's all over the place, and it never makes much of a point, except in two areas, which I will bitch about below:1) A *man* changing *his* name when he gets married?! BLASPHEMY. One of the points of comedy is that Craig Robinson's character, Nick, has taken on his wife's hyphenated last name after they got married, but kept it a secret from his friends. When they find out, they promptly ridicule him and question his manhood, penis size, etc. This pissed me off to no end. One of the reasons I didn't not take my husband's last name was precisely because of this sort of bullshit: he refused to change for me, not even to hyphenate, and I ended up deciding that doing something I didn't feel comfortable with politically and personally was not a good way to start a marriage. This is just a comedy, but it's also a barometer of the stupid that still persists about equality in marriage, and it's damned annoying.
2) Men never get clinically depressed, and therefore, their suicide attempts are funny! One of the more loathsome character's suicide attempts is the act that spurs the action in this film, and it's played for laughs. But when you sit back and think about it, it's pretty pathetic to imagine this guy, all alone and drunk in his locked garage, revving the engine of his car and hoping he dies. Later on, he confesses that he'll just try again, with plans to succeed. I also noticed this sort of treatment of male mental illness in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", where the main male character's depression is, apparently, the thing that leads to the breakup in the first place. Later on, his sadness over the breakup is also played for laughs, but the problem really is that he's so lonely, and unable to articulate why he's sad in the first place. Mental illness can be good comedy fodder, but it takes a deft hand, and neither of these two movies had that. Instead, I felt like a heel for despising the loathsome character in "Hot Tub Time Machine" because he so obviously needed help, but was unable to ask for it because he's a MAN and if they ask for help, they're WEAK.
In sum: Hurrah for gendernorming! NOT. I guess, go see it if it's free, and you're looking to lose some brain cells, or have time to kill. Otherwise, save your money and go do something productive for the sake of the human race.