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Warning you about crappy movies since 2008.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Hot Tub Time Machine ... and Chloe

I saw two movies this weekend. Neither merits is own review, so I've combined them into one. Hot Tub Time Machine (an alleged comedy) and Chloe (an unintentional comedy) have nothing in common, other than that neither is good.

While there are a couple of laughs to be had in HTTM, the buddy movie that transports us back to the 1980s, it is mostly a retread of movies you've seen before that were done better the first time. Casting John Cusack in the lead was clever, but think of all the '80s idols who aren't here. And, it's hard to imagine C. Thomas Howell, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall couldn't have cleared their calendars.

The generally reliable director, Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Felicia's Journey), doesn't intend the laughs in his psycho-sexual drama, but -- boy! -- are they there. Liam Neeson sleepwalks through the film, and Julianne Moore seems a little embarrassed to be part of it. They play a long-married couple who have grown bored with (him) or suspicious of (her) one another. Amanda Seyfried plays Chloe, the hooker hired by Moore's character to tempt her husband into cheating, and then tell Moore all about it. Everyone has sex with everyone else in this movie, and it's still dull.

If you've seen Fatal Attraction, then you've already seen a much better version of Chloe. Likewise, if you've seen The Hangover, you've seen a much better version of HTTM. Skip them.

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