Movie Reviews: The Back-Up Plan, Hot Tub Time Machine, Furry Vengeance

May 5 2010 By Graham Young and Roz Laws

You wonder how these sex-starved boys will keep it up. And, sure enough, they can’t. But whenever you think they are taking an overlong breather back they come with another big-hitting gag and a finale that packs plenty of punches.

After he was forced to labour through the special effects in 2012, it’s good to see John Cusack returning to form amid the constant silliness.

This is also a great vehicle for Craig Robinson (one of the stars of the US version of The Office) to make a name for himself and for 66-year-old National Lampoon’s Vacation star Chevy Chase to remind everyone that he’s still alive as The Repairman.

Rob Corddry (What Happens In Vegas) is a hoot as on-the-edge Lou and Clark Duke (Kick-Ass/Sex Drive) plays the geeky Jacob to refreshing perfection in an age when we’re facing an overkill of such characters.

Director Steve Pink has history with John Cusack, starring with him in Grosse Point Blank (1997) and writing High Fidelity (2000) as well as producing both of those films.

As if to prove his versatility, he’s also credited with being a music supervisor for Hot Tub, too. In the end, Pink makes much better use of his soundtrack than Iron Man 2’s misleading allegiance to what turns out to be just two of AC/DC’s back catalogue tracks.   GY

FURRY VENGEANCE  *
Cert PG, 91 mins
If you only take your children to see movies like Up and How To Train Your Dragon, they’ll think every film is going to be fantastic.

That’s not very good training for the disappointments of life, so Furry Vengeance does have one purpose.

My two youngest children dropped below three stars for the first time, each of them giving this just one star.

Watching Brendan Fraser learning the hard way about messing with nature launched their critical faculties big time. and it could be a useful skill to have when they are old enough to deal with monkeys peddling bogus climate change taxes.    GY