Production:

Theatrical: MGM

Blu-ray: MGM

 

Disc:

Region: FREE!

Runtime: 1:40:37:341

Disc Size: 37,026,419,461 bytes

Feature Size: 29,865,209,856 bytes

Video Bitrate: 39.58 Mbps

Chapters: 28

Case: Standard Blu-Ray Case

Release date: June 29th, 2010

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Resolution: 1080P / 23.976 fps

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

 

Audio:

English (DTS-HD Master Audio 3999 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3999 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit))
French (Dolby Digital Audio 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps / DN -4dB)

 

Subtitles:

English, French, Spanish, None

 

Extras:

• Theatrical Version (1:38:56)

• Deleted Scenes (11:48)

• Theatrical Trailers

• Production: Acting Like Idiots (1:36)

• Chevy Chase: The Nicest Guy in Hollywood (1:45)

• Totally Radical Outfits: Dayna Pink (1:34)

• Crispin Glover: One-Armed Bellhop (1:32)

 

Description: Hot Tub Time Machine hits the bull's-eye: it's a rude, crude comedy with enough smarts and emotional sweetness to make it completely entertaining. Seeking to bring some youthful optimism back to their failed, miserable lives, three middle-aged guys--Adam (John Cusack), Nick (Craig Robinson), and Lou (Rob Corddry)--go to a mountain resort where they spent some of their wildest days (reluctantly dragging along Adam's nephew, Jacob, played by newcomer Clark Duke). A drunken accident in the titular hot tub sends them swirling back to 1986, where each of them decides to risk changing the future (and possibly erasing Jacob from existence) by doing things just a little differently. A plot summary doesn't capture the movie's rambunctious, daffy spirit as much as… well, the ridiculous title: this is a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine! Any expectation you may have will be met and surpassed. John Cusack delivers another underplayed yet marvelously funny performance, his best since High Fidelity; Clark Duke, from the TV show Greek, proves a promising young comic talent. But the movie really belongs to Robinson and Corddry, who've been floating around the edges of tons of comedies--some have been good, some have been bad, but they've both been consistently funny even in crappy movies. Hot Tub Time Machine gives them center stage and lets them reveal the comic chaos they can deliver. It helps, but is not necessary, to have lived through the '80s to find Hot Tub Time Machine exquisitely silly. --Bret Fetzer

 

 

The Film:

If you hop a ride in the dudely new comedy "Hot Tub Time Machine," here's what you get: A reckless celebration of casual drug abuse and meaningless sex that makes vulgar sport of women with big hair, gay men in general, disabled people, dismembering injuries, members of Poison and Mötley Crüe, deceased pop celebrities, ski-patrol douche bags, Internet geeks and, most of all, the bruised egos of middle-aged guys. Beyond that, "Hot Tub Time Machine" takes the universal human longing to reimagine and relive the past -- which has fueled artists and poets from the Lascaux cave-painters through Proust and Fitzgerald -- and reduces it to cheap, foul and thoroughly amoral humor.

Don't get me wrong: These are the things that make "Hot Tub Time Machine" awesome....

At its best the film is blissfully, anarchically funny, and director Steve Pink keeps the pace crackling. As the jokes grow ever cruder -- a vomit-encrusted squirrel! An adult man making an obscene phone call to a 9-year-old! A same-sex blow job at gunpoint, ending in one of the most pornographic sight gags in cinematic history! -- and the snickering asides to the audience grow broader, the central threesome somehow retain the sense that they're decent and potentially redeemable guys beneath the thick layers of idiocy.

Excerpt of review from Andrew O'Hehir located HERE

 

 

Image:    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Sporting a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer with a MPEG-4 AVC codec, the visual quality for this release is one of the strongest to come out of MGM in the last few months. The vibrant 80s colors shine here, with neons and pastels littering the landscape. Watching the vivid colors in the release really reminded me of my childhood and brought back a lot of nostalgia that other children of the 80s may find as well. Clarity is extremely strong here; with fine object detail and contrast among the best in recent memory. There’s no sign of any artifacts or DNR, and should you choose to buy, you can do so with the confidence that you’ll be getting a great picture for your system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio & Music:

The film comes with only one option for an English language track (there’s also a non-HD French audio track mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1), in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. While this obviously isn’t the best that a film can sound, there’s really no room for complaint with this track. It has strong clarity and contrast, and the 80s soundtrack (with more hair bands than other genres of the day) really comes to life. The track is free of unwanted interference or artificial manipulations. There’s also optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

 

Extras:

Unfortunately there’s really not much to speak of on the extras front. We do get some fairly funny deleted and alternate scenes, but there’s not really anything worth mentioning beyond that. There’s a theatrical trailer and the original theatrical version of the film (for those that basically want slightly less raunchy cut) and a series of promotional shorts. These shorts are all under two minutes and offer no insight into the film whatsoever.

 

 

 

Bottom line:

The trailer for the film makes it look like silly fun,and that's exactly what we get. While it may not be the most consistently hilarious of the recent spate of goofball comedies, it nevertheless offers a good deal of laughs for your buck. When you combine this with the high quality AV of this MGM release, it makes this a great purchase. I highly recommend this release to anyone even mildly interested in it.

August 6th, 2010