Hot Tub Time Machine
By Paul Poulsen
Hot Tub Time Machine has a title that you it tells you EXACTLY what to expect in the film. Much like Snakes on a Plane, you know what you’re getting into with Hot Tub Time Machine.
There’s a hot tub and it serves as a time machine. No further explanation necessary.
The question then becomes, “Is the best thing about this film its title?” Surprisingly (to me, anyway) there’s actually a pretty entertaining movie to go along with the snappy name.
The plot isn’t anything horribly original. Three middle-aged friends are stuck in shitty jobs and shitty relationships and decide to relive their glory days by visiting a ski resort where they spent some of the best days of their youth. The main character’s nephew gets dragged along for the ride and acts as the voice of reason throughout their fantastic voyage.
The resort is not what they remember but they decide to make the most of it by getting drunk in the hot tub. When the haze clears the next morning, they slowly come to the realization that they’ve somehow traveled back in time to 1986. The group quickly decides that they must try to perfectly recreate their original experience so that they don’t trigger a butterfly effect that would cause harm to the future. However they’re quickly overcome by the temptation to right past wrongs.
Hilarity ensues.
There are a lot of elements that are reminiscent of Back to the Future. However, the presence of Crispin Glover permits me to think these things were lovingly referenced instead of blatantly ripped off.
There were definitely things I didn’t like. The love interest seemed paper thin and anytime there’s a time travel movie, there are a hundred little plot points that you could nitpick, but at the end of the day there were quite a few laughs and a good little story that focuses on the importance of friendship.
650,000,000 edmontonians out of 1,000,000,000
Hot Tub Time Machine doesn’t open until March 26th but you can get free passes by visiting http://eventful.com/campaigns/hottub/edmonton. I signed up and had my tickets emailed to me within 30 minutes but I’ve heard of other people taking up to 12 hours to get theirs. I went to the City Centre screening and the theatre was only about 70% full.
Music must be seen to be heard
This is to take nothing away from the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra but when you bring in a globe-trotting virtuoso I think it’s fair to say all eyes will be on them. That was certainly the case Saturday night in the Winspear Centre.
The ESO got to take the spotlight for two pieces; Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G Major and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Wind Instruments (1947), the latter of which, of course, featured only the woodwinds and brass.
I will admit to raiding iTunes for versions of everything to be played Saturday. This gave me a sense of what I was to hear.
Seeing the ESO play, however, gave me what the music was really about.
I especially felt this in the opening symphony from Haydn. There was more energy in the piece than my iPod had shown. I think some of this was thanks to conductor William Eddins bouncing and happily moving at the most exciting parts.
But the symphony really pushed this music out to the corners of the Winspear. The 3rd movement’s swells, and calls and answers, brought out this energy and I could feel it in my chest. Even one of the trumpet players, when not engaged in the music, was quietly swaying and bopping his head.
Eddins is nothing if not able to work a crowd. He was sure to include some timely Olympic jokes and references in his conversation with the audience. He got a round of applause when telling the story of Slovenian skier who broke four ribs and collapsed a lung but still won a bronze medal. He got laughs when trying to update us on the games, finding only a never-ending curling match on TV.
He got more, polite, laughs when he had to leave the stage before Stravinski’s Wind Instruments because he had forgotten his music. It worked out, putting a smile on people’s faces before a grimmer piece of music. As the ESO describes it: “The work’s unusual scoring lends the work certain steely edge – as does the use of the many silences throughout its brief duration.”
Indeed, this was not music for everyone’s ears or tastes. The brass and woodwind players seemed pleased to have performed it for us and took their final bow of the night with smiles of their own.
They left the stage, and the strings returned for the final piece of the night, Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aries.
Karen Gomyo (Photo: ESO)
But, I’ve gotten just a bit ahead of myself. Before the intermission there was also a Bartok piece called Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra. This was where the ESO audience got their first listen of the evening of the guest violinist, Karen Gomyo. (more…)
DEDfest: Thrills, chills, laughter and booze make for a great night!
It is that time of year again. Halloween is right around the corner. Horror films are beginning to take over the cinema world for a few weeks and if you live in a city big enough, you probably have a horror film festival that you could attend. Some are world famous, others, not so much. Last Friday night I attended DEDfest (Day 2 of 4), Edmonton, Alberta’s horror film festival. To be fair, this is the first year of the festival, although it is run by some of the same group that ran last year’s Deadmonton festival.
The Friday showing consisted of two big showings: Neighbor and Return of the Living Dead. It is the first time since 1985 that Return of the Living Dead has been seen in Canada on 35MM. Like many horror fests, short films were spread throughout the two marquee films. Here is a quick review for each film I saw that night.
To get the crowd in the laughing mood, Clowning Around was unleashed on us. It was a terrible looking trailer that really just played off the title of the film, essentially it was just like the faux trailer Don’t, in front of the Grindhouse double feature. I am still not sure if this is an actual film or just a trailer made for laughs.
Next up was the short film, Thirsty, based on a Joe Knetter story. It was directed by Andrew Kasch and stars Wrong Turn 2 director Joe Lynch, Michael Bailey Smith (The Hills Have Eyes) and Tiffany Shepis (a scream queen herself of many horror films!). Lynch is on a cross-country drive when he starts to crave a frozen slushy. His destiny seems to not want him to get his slushy, as it keeps providing complications attempting to thwart his slushy efforts. This is full of laughs from the start and was one of the best shorts at the festival.
Next up was a few trailers of older films, Savage Streets, Punk Rock and another I cannot recall. These looked terrible but the Linda Blair exploitation/revenge flick Savage Streets is supposed to be quite good.
Every year Adam Green makes a Halloween short film. The Tiffany Problem, King in the Box and last years The Tivo are fantastic. This year’s film is Jack Chop. It is a real short short, running just over two and a half minutes, but it is so entertaining. Jack Chop is just a parody of the Slap Chop infomercial but I can say I was laughing (and so was most of the audience) for the entire two and a half minutes. Take a gander at it here!
Finally we reached our first feature film, the debut (at least to Edmonton) of Neighbor. This movie prides itself, with the tag on one of the posters, as the film that “caused its own editor to vomit.” (more…)
Chris Isaak and his Magical Mirror Shirt
Paul writes: “The brilliant figure at centre stage is Chris Isaak singing “Blue Hotel” during his encore. He was wearing a suit made of mirrors (awesome) and that’s why he basically looks like a washed out ball of light.”
Let's start calling Chris Isaak "Mirrorball." (Photo: Paul Poulsen)
Chris Isaak: Resplendent
My thought process when evaluating a concert consists of one question: Did the headliner bring it? After attending the Chris Isaak show at the Jubilee Auditorium last night, the answer to my question is a resounding “Oh, it was brought.” I was completely entertained on all levels. (more…)
Movie Review: Gamer (also, post 301!)
(Let’s see those confetti cannons, people, because we’ve hit 300 posts. This here is 301, and isn’t it fitting that it’s our friend @MondoJay’s review of “Gamer”, the new film starring Mr. 300 himself, Gerard Butler – opening this weekend (times and locations here). Jay won the preview passes we were giving away earlier this week and has been gracious enough to let us know how the movie was.)
By @MondoJay
Sex, explosions and video games do not a good movie make. Gamer, at its core, has an interesting story that tries to bring the video games of today into the future, with the Gladiator style fighting of the past. But unfortunately, something (or someone) got in the way of that story.
And what a weird story it was. I don’t really like getting into plot summaries, but honestly, if you’ve seen Death Race (which is about on par with this movie), or the famous Gladiator (which is 10x better then this film), you’ve basically seen this story. Man goes to jail, leaving family behind, has to fight his way out, violence ensues. There’s nothing new about the story, except that it happens to take place in a very interesting future of human controlling human for fun and sport. The writers/directors tried too hard to cram all sorts of information about the future society and almost forgot about their reused plot. Then, there are times where they keep banging you over the head with the plot devices, effectively insulting the audience. I’m not sure what the directors/writers were thinking.
Ah, speaking of directors/writers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, what a pair those two are. If you are unaware, these two guys are the brilliant (I write this sarcastically) minds behind Crank and 
Crank: High Voltage. I’ve personally only seen Crank, and I actually enjoyed that film for what it was worth (and it was worth a quick laugh),Gamer however felt to me as though there could have been more to it then just a quick laugh. It’s hard to say there was something lost in translation because Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor wrote AND directed the film. So what happened guys?
The cast was there, a pretty strong performance from Gerard Butler, and a really nice a creepy performance from Dexter’s own Michael C. Hall. The visual effects were there, as the film looks pretty good. The concept was there too. Really, I think they just missed the mark on this one. It had potential and it was wasted. Too bad.
2/5
Movie Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife
Okay, so if you have a functioning head with eyes in it, and have spent any time downtown in the last three weeks, you will have seen the poster for The Time Traveler’s Wife about a million times.
I know this isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. And yes, I know that District 9 opens this week, and that this is the INTERNETS and the INTERNETS like District 9. But we had passes to The Time Traveler’s Wife.
And also, we need to use this as an opportunity to discuss something with you guys. After seeing Eric Bana on the Tonight Show earlier this week, promoting this movie, Jeff and I have become Eric Bana extremists. The guy is pretty much the funniest thing around, and we had no idea that he had a somewhat legendary background as a comic actor in Australia before becoming a movie star. He’s totally the new Billy Zane. But a better actor. Sorry, Billy Zane. :(
Now, like all ethical journalists, we are aware of our biases, and will try to account for them. However, you must always remember that Samsonow and I have a strong pro-Bana stance that may unknowingly be reflected in our work. Yes, E.B. has made a few questionable movie choices, but come on, you animals, he’s only human. If you cut Eric Bana, will he not bleed? And how many revered Australian sketch comedy shows have you guys been in the cast of? That’s right, none. Now take a knee.
Anyway, much as I wanted to see the Time Traveler’s Wife, I was unavailable last night. So my good friend Tess volunteered to go on my behalf and jotted down her opinions. And I’m not going to lie, she makes it sound better than I expected. I love Eric Bana enough to be straight with him, so I will admit to not having very high expectations for this.
From roving reporter Tess:
“Adapting a book into a movie is always a precarious task – especially when the book is complicated, which I’m assuming The Time Traveler’s Wife is.
Usually I prefer to see movie versions of books I HAVEN’T read, so I don’t go in with preconceived ideas of what I think the movie should look like. This way, I can take the movie at face value, and usually enjoy it much more. I went into The Time Traveler’s Wife knowing very little about the story, and I think it actually worked against me this time.
When the movie was over, and I was listening to the conversations around me, I heard things like, “It was very close to the book” and other positive remarks. Discussing it with my friends who HAD read the book, they understood details of the movie which kind of confused me, or left me wishing for a more in-depth exploration. (more…)
