Man on Film: Hot Tub Time Machine

If ever there were a title that screamed for a movie to be seen, it was that of Hot Tub Time Machine, the newest film directed by Steve Pink. Serving as the ultimate example of the high-concept film, it is a raunchy homage to the still pleasing if not mostly predictable fare that is the '80s teen/college comedy.

Hot Tub Time Machine also marks the multi-tiered return of John Cusack. On the one hand, the audience is treated to a return to the fore in a successful comedy. On the other, he is returning to the mountain--the site of what some (namely, Adam Tecumseh Schwitters) would argue is the place where he reached his highest point as an actor. While I tend to think Cusack's best work didn't happen until the late '80s, there is an element of getting to see the young Cusack we all know and love in that familiar element here that gives HTTM an otherwise unattainable nostalgic essence.

And it really is a return to form for Cusack. Having spent the past few years bouncing back and forth between forgettable films like The Martian Child, War, Inc., and The Ice Harvest, and bigger budget numerically-titled films that are mostly below him like 1408 and 2012, Cusack gives us hope that maybe this was just a lost ten years. Where War, Inc. failed to rekindle the tone successfully struck in the fantastic Grosse Pointe Blank, Hot Tub Time Machine goes back to the well of Cusack's past successes and comes up with a perfect marriage between the Better Off Dead-era Cusack audiences fell in love with (hetero-/platonic love here, reader) and the High Fidelity/Grosse Pointe Blank riddled-with-pathos. The film's success owes largely to the fact that it finally puts Cusack back in a role fit for him.

Well, that and the fact that it is often uproariously funny. The laugh-out-loud descriptor is certainly apropos in the instance of Hot Tub Time Machine. Not only does the ludicrous premise richly lend itself to successful situational comedy, but the film outside of the time-period humor is legitimately funny. The most successful lines (not to give away too much, but they are related to Stargate and assholes) work entirely outside of the premise of the '80s homage. Clark Duke and Craig Robinson both deliver in their complimentary roles. Rob Corddry is pitch-perfect as the dickish, self-absorbed friend.

Most importantly, the film is entirely aware of its own ridiculousness. The time travel element of the narrative isn't taken too seriously. The shout-outs to the 80s movies it owes to are great touches, but all along this film is entirely aware of how brilliantly-dumb the premise of the Hot Tub Time Machine is, which is what enables the film to work. And work it does.

Man on Film: Kick-Ass

With a name like Kick-Ass, any failure to deliver on the name could only be seen as an utter embarrassment, leaving the film open to countless barbs incorporating plays on the title. With that in mind, I've got the following to say.

Fucking Hell this movie was fun.

For starters, the action scenes were kinetic, well-choreographed, and underscored with good humor. The deaths (and there were many) were always awesome and mostly hilarious.

Everything with Hit-Girl (whose introduction is in the red-band trailer below) was golden. Nicolas Cage* was pitch-perfect as her father Damon "Big Daddy" Macready. Their adorable if not a bit deranged father/daughter relationship worked exceptionally well. Their joking relationship is sweet but superbly counter-balanced with their righteous ass-kicking.

*By the way, this marks the sixth straight live-action Nic Cage movie that I've seen in the theater. He catches a lot of flak from a lot of short-sighted people, but I really feel like this point needs to be made again: Cage is the shit. He does whatever he movies he wants--always giving his all--but he chooses his films because he wants to make them, not because they'll somehow further his career. He secured the rights to The Wicker Man to get that film made because he wanted to remake it. Go back and watch the original. Holy fuck is that a weird, orgy-soaked film. Bravo, Cage. Bravo. This all has meant that Nic Cage has spent the past few years making movies that appeal to him, which in this case do not necessarily equate to films that the typical Oscar-winning actor appears in. And this has been a surprising boon to the moviegoer.

As for Kick-Ass himself, Aaron Johnson channels the everyman--er, everyboy--well, seemingly embodying the younger self of David Eigenberg (Steve Brady from "Sex and the City"). This would seem to be a conscious decision as he is actually quite British as is evidenced by this interview:

Johnson's turn as Dave Lizewski is an endearing one and would tend to point towards a bright future. His friends Todd and Marty (played by Evan Peters and Michael Cera's best friend, Clark Duke) are the complimentary pieces necessary to provide comic relief vital to this film's success.

Across the board, Vaughn & Co. have crafted a laugh-out-loud action-comedy with a healthy love for the superhero genre but a self-aware wit with as good a heart as is possible in a movie that makes you laugh at people getting killed by a little girl. The film never drags, and there really isn't a weak link in the cast or the narrative.

Most importantly, Kick-Ass lives up to its name.