The Last Movie I Saw

Sometimes friends of mine complain because I like to think about and analyze the movies I see. They tell me that "it's just a movie" and therefore it's okay to just to sit back and turn off your brain and enjoy. But while I can appreciate that the goals of many movie-makers are not on a par with those of serious artists, and that sometimes there are significant virtues in simplicity and modest goals (like, to deliver a good time), that doesn't mean that something ill-conceived or badly made deserves a critical pass, even by the masses. The title of Hot Tub Time Machine (directed by Steve Pink) signals that it is meant to be mindless escapism, but despite a few laughs, it fails to live up to even that minimal level of entertainment. The problem, as is often the case in movies like this, is that it lacks the courage to go all out for trashy, raunchy fun and tries to shoehorn in some serious notes about choices, responsibility, and friendship (as if Back to the Future did not already exist-- that was a movie that had some brains behind it). All Pink manages to do is water down those elements that no doubt sold the movie to producers in the first place-- four guys go back in time to a wild ski weekend in the eighties. Right there, you've got plenty of ammunition for parody, but the inept director and tepid script leave the able performers (including John Cusack, Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry) mostly adrift in overly obvious situations, most of which are lamely foreshadowed so that there isn't even a mild element of surprise as things unfold. The movie also looks bad, with some of the murkiest photography I've seen in a mainstream movie, which is especially odd given it's attempted links to eighties style, which was generally bright and colorful. So, am I over-analyzing here? Maybe, but I went in with minimal expectations, just looking for some laughs, and the film mostly cheated me in that regard to push an agenda that was not what was promised; so I think I have a right to complain.