'‘Hot Tub' takes cynical journey to the past

The bizarre comedy "Hot Tub Time Machine" is somewhere between "The Hangover" and a suicide note.

It replaces the luxury-suite Vegas bachelor-party bonhomie and swinging yuppie swagger of "Hangover" with something more suited to the times - low-rollers and midlife failures (John Cusack, Craig Robinson) who head to a shabby ski resort to boost the spirits of a pal (Rob Corddry) who's tried to kill himself (in his Camaro, with an overdose of booze, arena rock, and carbon monoxide).

The ski resort is the site of what they regard as a youthful triumph - an '80s weekend dimly but fondly remembered for its sex, drugs, and unbelievably bad rock 'n' roll.

They jump into a hot-tub that's also, yes, a time machine, and are transported back to that "magical" winter weekend. It's all meant to be funny, and it sometimes is, but the high-jinks are wrapped around a startlingly bleak point of view - the men discover that their regard for the '80s as a time of hope and possibility is a delusion, that they were already making the bad choices that shaped them into failed adults.

The '80s vibe is embellished with homage to "Back to the Future" - Crispin Glover even has a role here as a disturbed bellman. "Hot Tub" borrows the idea that time-travel can restore untapped potential and right developmental wrongs, although it does so in a cynical, halfhearted way.

It also takes Marty McFly's sexual discomfort at being close to a youthful, amorous version of his mother and, suffice it to say, runs with it. Robinson, who comes off quite well here, also contributes an amusing, possibly corrective variation of the Chuck Berry bit in "Back to the Future."

"Hot Tub" is a foulmouthed, bawdy and often sloppy comedy. But it's remarkable for the amount of anger and pessimism bubbling beneath the surface (and homophobia closer to the top).

Cusack, Robinson, and Corddry represent failed marriages, failed careers, failed fraternity - one of the things they discover on their warped-time journey is that they don't much like each other.

"Hot Tub" is a work produced by Cusack, who uses it to trash his place in popular memory as the hustling face of Reagan-era optimism - the operator with the Ray-Bans, the Izod shirt with the collar turned up, speed-talking his way through some line of BS.

Now in his 40s, Cusack has allowed bitterness to shade his persona, and brings an unnerving conviction to the way he vilifies friends and ex-wives.

This may not be the year's funniest mainstream comedy, but I'll bet it's the creepiest. (FYI: Not suited for younger teens.)