HOT TUB TIME MACHINE

year: 2010 cast: John Cusack, Rob Cordroy, Chevy Chase rating: **

Time travel flicks are usually intriguing, and a trip to the 1980s seems a good premise, but unlike BACK TO THE FUTURE, in which Michael J. Fox is thrust into the '50s, the four characters here (including John Cusack) returning to the "Reagan era" is more catharsis than nostalgia.

Using a hot tub in a broken down ski resort hotel, the dudes... three in their forties, one in his twenties... are sent back to the same resort when things were swinging. They have to party hard (like before) without screwing up the time continuum.

Memorable 80s stuff like new wave and hair-band music, leg warmers, and one-dimensional bullies do little to jolt endearing memories of that era, or effectively parody it: which would have made a better film. These self-described losers could have gone back to any decade and still be miserable.

Yet despite the many flaws, there's some semi-funny moments. And a cameo by KARATE KID villain William Zabka is a plus.