New On Netflix: Hot Tub Time Machine

Another movie in which the title is the pitch (a la Snakes on a Plane), Hot Tub Time Machine follows the adventures of a group of bored middle-aged dudes who are transported back to ‘the 80s (in their ’80s bodies, at that) so they can do things like go skiing and make out with girls who aren’t their wives. Yes, it’s absurd like you wouldn’t believe, but it also has a lot of heart (and a lot of laughs), and it’s nice to see John Cusack — a veteran of a few outrageous ’80s comedies himself — cutting loose and doing something funny again. You also get other ’80s comedy veterans like Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover in amusing supporting roles, as well as an attempt by Craig Robinson to explain the film’s inevitably contradictory time travel mechanics via that of The Terminator‘s. “It’s cyclical!”