Hot Tub Time Machine

Wow.

Ok so I just watched Hot Tub Time Machine. It was hysterical, especially towards the end, but I got a lot more than laughs out of it. Watching it twice helps. I advise you all to watch it twice. No, seriously.

Without giving it away for those who haven’t seen it, it’s the story of three friends and a nephew who go on a trip to somewhere the friends have history. The place has lost a lot of its flair, but they make the best of it. They get SMASHED in the hot tub, some Russian energy drink spills all over the control panel, shorting it out, and they end up transporting back to 1986 – the year they were originally there.

Remember the term “gaylord?” LOL Im totally anti-slur, but it did take me back. While watching these guys be totally ridiculous, trying not to upset the time/space continuum, I was taken back by dozens of familiar eighties references that made me uber nostalgic. It’s the type of nostalgia much different than the one you feel watching The Breakfast Club or Beverly Hills Cop. The guys themselves are experiencing it with you, and littered with these random phrases like “he’s an asshole, but he’s our asshole,” it also makes you look at the dynamic of friendship, and your loyalty, even to those who appear not to appreciate it. There was a reference to Cincinnati and a fetus that I still don’t quite get, but I digress LOL.

I couldn’t help but think: what if I could go back in a time machine of some sort and relive some pivotal night of my life? What night would it be? I suppose it would be determined by the friends I get sent back with, you know, the night would have to have some common meaningfulness. But that’s good. I wouldn’t want the responsibility of having to choose. I realize that we tend to think certain things have had a greater effect on our lives than they actually have, and are oblivious to other seemingly insignificant incidents that were completely life-altering. The time machine would have to decide. But knowing what I know now, I wonder if I would have the strength to NOT change an occurrence that I may have regretted all my life. I really don’t know. I guess it would depend on the situation. Either way, how fucken FUN would that be??? I was kinda doing my own thing at nineteen and twenty – the age these guys went back to - but the friends I had when I was sixteen? O. M. G. LOL. Would I remember the details of the 1991Bulls vs Lakers championship game enough to bet everyone around me and make a killing? Would I have enough presence of mind to cash in on yahoo or google and propel myself into billionaire splendor? More importantly, would I warn the lost ones and prevent their demise, or write a note to myself that would keep my heart unbroken? Would I lament in the promises we all made to each other that weren’t kept when life intervened and took us in different directions?

There were a couple of references to life being pre-determined – or not – and it made me think of the blog I wrote on Sliding Doors. That is such a powerful existential question to me. I really get off on exploring stuff like that. I felt totally inspired at points in this movie though. It has a weird way of making you feel invincible and focused. It makes you appreciate the experiences, friends and dreams you’ve had in your life, and if you’re not distracted with some other bullshit at the time, the ending credits could send you off into the first day of the rest of your life. At least that’s how I felt after it went off. Maybe Im just getting old LOL

BTW, at 34, that one line from Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home” is a lot more poignant than I ever paid attention to at 12 LOL. When things aren’t right, it doesn’t mean they’re always wrong… or something like that.

And the people say: all that from a movie huh? **smh**

Shut up. Watch it. Dig – out.