Discussion: “How to Train Your Hot Tub Time Machine”

Okay, How to Train Your Dragon and Hot Tub Time Machine, both of which opened to boffo b.o. this weekend, would seem to have very little in common. However, both represent the increasing presence of genre in the mainstream.

Since we don’t have reviews for either yet, we thought we’d post some discussion space for both.

5 replies on “Discussion: “How to Train Your Hot Tub Time Machine””

  2. I caught both of these movies in the last week (go to go to an early screening of How to Train Your Dragon).

    Hot Tub Time Machine was quite a bit funnier than I expected going in. It’s following a similar formula to The Hangover, but it doesn’t feel too derivative (and that’s impressive in a flash-back-to-the-eighties movie).

    How To Train Your Dragon, however, is movie gold. The cast of characters were entertaining, even where some of them (mostly the “other kids”) were one-dimensional. The animation was top-notch, and the 3D effects (I saw the 3D version) weren’t so much “integreted” as “integral”. (The entire movie was rendered twice, by camera locations approximately eye-width apart, rather than the traditional method of filming with a single camera and then performing trigonometric permutations on it to produce the 3D effect)

    So, for a quick review:
    Hot Tub Time Machine: Good popcorn flick for the 18+ crowd. Don’t expect Shakespeare.
    How To Train Your Dragon: See it at nearly any age. I could possibly see the 6 year-olds and younger being frightened by certain scenes (especially in 3D), but otherwise it’s a fantastic movie, solidly written and acted, with great effects.

    • The idea of Shakespeare writing “Hot Tub Time Machine” is pretty funny.

      Is there any reason to see it on the big screen? Strikes me as something that would be fine at home.

      • There’s no terribly compelling reason to see Hot Tub Time Machine on the big screen.

        How to Train Your Dragon MUST be experienced in 3-D, however.

  3. Unless there’s something better waiting in the wings I’ve got a good feeling HTTYD will be high on the list of Best animated nominations this year. I’m thinking about foregoing a trip to see Clash of the Titans this weekend to go see it again even.

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