Hot Tub Time Machine

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The movie itself is a nonstop barrage -- somewhere between a riot and an orgy -- of crude, obnoxious gags and riffs. If you are a connoisseur of sexual, scatological or just plain stupid humor, you will find your appetite satisfied, even glutted.

Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey

About a billion laughs (though "Hot Tub" is not for the faint of heart or anyone even slightly concerned with what's happened to common decency these days).

Premiere Jordan Burchette

Why John Cusack stopped doing this kind of movie remains one of the late-20th century’s great mysteries. Teaming him with contemporary comic vanguards Corrdry and Robinson is equal parts welcome and unexpected as the three relive the social, sexual, and Soviet fears of the era.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Accomplishes what "Snakes on a Plane" did not: It offers a merrily idiotic movie to go with its willfully idiotic title.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The movie's as casual as its lead characters' approach to changing history; it's also lewdly and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious -- especially if you wasted any of your youth watching a certain brand of '80s comedy schlock on HBO at 2 a.m.

Time Mary Pols

The movie made me laugh as much as anything since "The Hangover" or the love scenes in "Avatar."

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

In Rob Corddry's hilariously manic turn, it has the most memorable showcase for a goofball co-star since Michael Keaton in 1981's "Night Shift."

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Succeeds beyond any expectations suggested by the title and extends John Cusack's remarkable run: Since 1983, in 55 films, he's never made a bad one.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

With sharp riffs on the intersection of '80s pop culture (ALF, Kid 'N Play, Ronald Reagan!) and 21st-century culture (Twitter, Viagra, Second Life!), this Time Machine is a fun dip into a pool of memories that are best forgotten again once the booze wears off.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The raunchy, guy-centric comedy Hot Tub Time Machine makes a vertiginously high-concept bid to be this year's version of "The Hangover" and darned if it doesn't succeed.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A raunchy, endearing and often hilarious cross between “Back to the Future” and Reagan-era cheese-fests such as “Hot Dog: The Movie.”

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

But lowbrow or not, it is, like, totally tubular in its own right. To the max. Fer sure.

Christian Science Monitor Andy Klein

Has there been a more upfront title since “Snakes on a Plane”?

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

A lunatic cast energizes this comic fantasy.

NPR Ian Buckwalter

Admirably turns a potentially one-note joke into a consistently funny package.

Village Voice Dan Kois

A fundamentally lazy comedy that will probably make you laugh like an idiot.

Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz

It is a question that has vexed lovers of fine cinema for years: What if you made a teen sex comedy with grown-ups? And now, thanks to Hot Tub Time Machine, we have our answer: It would be pretty cool.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

At its best the film is blissfully, anarchically funny, and director Steve Pink keeps the pace crackling.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

If time and space hooked up and got so hammered that they staggered beyond inebriation into delirium, the result would be Hot Tub Time Machine.

Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore

A sloppy, raucous, time travel farce in the grown-men-gone-wild "Hangover" style, it’s a surprisingly satisfying, if not exactly LMAO, riot.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Hot Tub Time Machine should have been better than this. It could have been poignant.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Depressingly, and in keeping with the stringent rules of bad-boy shock-comedies, all the women here are bimbos, shrews, and slutburgers except for one cool chick -- Cusack’s love interest, played by Lizzy Caplan -- who acts like a guy.

Time Out New York David Fear

Like the "Scream" series, Hot Tub Time Machine is a cake-and-eat-it-too experience; you get both a vintage Brat Pack comedy, albeit one regrettably drenched in post-Hangover raunch, and an ongoing metacommentary at the same time.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Engaging enough, but its characters’ path to redemption would be more satisfying if it weren’t greased with authentically ’80s-style casual sexism, gay panic, and frat-comedy clichés.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Cannot sustain the level of comic insanity the filmmakers hoped for -- no movie could -- although it's bound to play much better on late-night cable TV, especially when accompanied by a few beers and the occasional bong hit.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Even by recent standards for mainstream comedy packaging, "Tub" looks dull and ugly.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A loud, disjointed and not terribly funny comedy, which probably is what one expects with a title like that. The unfortunate thing is, it didn't need to be.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

Hot Tub Time Machine isn't a good movie, but like a bubbling bath it keeps pounding at us until our resistance wears down.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A lot of what's intended to be funny falls flat, in part because it's too obvious and in part because director Steve Pink is clumsy when it comes to comedic timing.

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

Most of its screenplay is far too vulgar to recount. To paraphrase Mary McCarthy, every word is an obscenity, including "and" and "the."

USA Today Claudia Puig

For hilarity, characterization and clever structure, "The Hangover" is far superior. Still, there are some laughs in this uneven but good-natured raunchfest.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Funnier than any movie called Hot Tub Time Machine has a right to be. And how funny is that? Not very, but a little, occasionally – just enough.

Slate Dana Stevens

The title is so genius! My standards were so low! All this movie needed to make me laugh were four guys in a Jacuzzi, a fuchsia/turquoise color palette, a steady stream of dumb jokes, and a little bit of heart. Unfortunately, the missing ingredient is the last.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

How bad must a movie be to be good fun? How dumb to be smart? (Or, in the case of "Dumb and Dumber," how pretend-dumb to be surpassingly smart?) Whatever the case, Hot Tub Time Machine doesn't make the cut.

Boxoffice Magazine Mark Keizer

One of Hot Tub Time Machine’s only genuinely nifty moves is getting John Cusack, Dobler himself, to topline the film.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Consider this yet another nail in the Eighties coffin.