Hot Tub Time Machine (4 Stars)

Be warned! When four men get naked and jump into a hot tub together strange things can happen.

The film was made and takes place in 2010 and centres around three middle-aged friends, Adam, Nick and Lou. All three are stuck in dead end jobs and have relationship problems. Adam has just split up with his girlfriend, Nick's wife is cheating on him and the only girls Lou can get are hookers. After Lou makes an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Adam suggests that they spend a weekend at the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort, the place they used to go when they were young. They take Adam's nephew Jacob with them.

Unfortunately the resort has fallen on hard times. There are very few guests, and most of the shops in the town have been boarded up and abandoned. The three friends jump naked into their hotel room's hot tub, and Jacob grudgingly joins them. Due to Jacob spilling his can of soda on the controls the hot tub malfunctions, and when they get out they're in 1986. The three friends are occupying the bodies of their younger selves, even though they see themselves in their older forms. Jacob (who wasn't born in 1986) remains the same.

A mysterious hot tub repair man tells the friends that until he has fixed the tub they should re-enact the same things that they did on this evening in 1986 to prevent time ripples that could destroy the world. At first they decide to follow his advice, but then they realise that it would be more fun to do things better the second time round.

The whole premise of this film is ridiculously silly, and yet it works. The friends, played by John Cusack, Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson, are so likeable that their bubbly personalities disguise any plot deficiencies. It's a fun film that was deservedly a big box office success. Sure, the humour is homophobic and misogynistic, but aren't those the funniest films?