Most hot tubs are used as sources of relaxation or possibly for relations with someone the user is quite fond of.

In contrast, a time machine is a mystical device used to travel through time. Many times, well according to Hollywood, time machine users are warped into a time or place. It is usually the past, where the user must accomplish a goal, event or fix the time machine in order to return safely and not disturb the future or past as they know it.

“Hot Tub Time Machine” is a film that attempts to combine these two ideas in a quirky, yet cheeky manner while keeping the audience enthralled in a world of grotesque-natured laughs and subtle hints of love and true friendship.

A key role in developing “HTTM” was Eastern alum Luke Ryan. Ryan graduated from Eastern with a degree in journalism. Ryan is currently the senior vice president of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Basically this means that it is his job to develop ideas into full-length feature films. It is also his job to view a movie after its production, and see if it is up to the studio’s film standards and they can profit from.

The plot is based on the premise of three friends and one of their nephews returning to a ski town, which was a past spring break destination for the group to mend their kinship. They return to the town that is currently in shambles after years of partying and straying cats. The friends return to the same room in the same hotel from the past only to find it is nothing like they remembered it.

The group ventures to the back deck where a broken hot tub sits as a tomb for a decaying feline. The group returns minutes later to find the hot tub in perfectly cleaned and working condition.

After a night of drinking and partying the group awakes to find neon-clothed patrons filling a 1986 ski lodge.

I am not trying to step on Ryan’s feet, but this movie lacks the quality of past comedies such as “The Hangover” or “Wedding Crashers,” and instead the film seems to take the path that far too many comedies travel to, a limbo between brilliant and simply dumb.

The movie attempts to balance all the things viewers hope a film to be, but the attempts fall short of being a must-see by more than a few feet.

With a cast of John Cusack, Craig Robinson of “The Office,” Rob Corddry of “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” and Clark Duke of “Sex Drive,” the movie seems as though it would be knock-down hilarity.

Robinson and Corddry steal the spotlights of the film as they spin one-liner after one-liner with ample ease. Corddry’s character becomes overbearing at times, but it is all in good fun as the role of Lou.

Cusack misses the mark by bubbling into a character developed on relationship instability that is all too eager to show his calloused nature as the character Adam.

Instead of this role elevating Cusack to comedic genius, the role is an obvious typecast that makes dull use of such a big name in Hollywood.

Chevy Chase also appears in the film but offers few comedic lines.

The jokes seem to become background filler in a movie that just tries too hard. In a movie like “HTTM,” the viewer goes into the movie expecting a barrage of raunchy meaningless comedy with little plot depth.

Although this film incorporates some of this comedic silliness, it simply tries too hard to be something it is not, a classic comedy.

Brad York can be reached at 581-7942 or bayork@eiu.edu