DVD Roundup: Hot Tub Time Machine and Killers

There are a lot of movies that you're pretty sure won't be any good, but you watch them anyway - either because you like an actor (John Cusack) or you just can't believe a movie that bad was made (Killers).  Hot Tub Time Machine is exactly what you'd expect - this group of 3 guys (and one guy's nephew) want to relive one of their glory weekends from the 80s, so they go up to a resort that they loved.  It's all run-down, decrepit, and managed by a bitter one-armed guy (Crispin Glover).  They get drunk and get in the hot tub, and something magical happens (like in Pleasantville when they get drawn into the TV show) and suddenly they're back in the 80s getting to actually relive their best weekend.  They see all the "roads not taken" and some they never knew were options.  It's FULL of gross-out humor, vomit, sex, etc. that could possibly fit into one movie, but some of it is pretty funny, and Rob Corddry is an actor I don't ever need to see again - he's vile.  However, Craig Robinson is really funny and John Cusack sort of sits back and watches the fun.  Unlike a lot of "go into the past and back to the future"  movies they DO try to change the lives they're returning to.  Fairly unique, and slightly better than I expected.  3 of 5 lambs/stars

However, Killers was not as good as I expected, and was mostly just dull.  Katherine Heigl falls in love with Ashton Kutcher in Nice, France.  He's there for a job with the CIA, and decides to quit and form a normal life when he meets her.  Cut to 3 years later, he has a normal job, they have a normal house, and her parents (Catherine O'Hara and Tom Selleck) live nearby and drive him nuts.  Then he gets a call from an old handler and before he can figure out what's going on, the handler's dead and people are out to get Kutcher.  Everyone in his life becomes a potential killer, and then the rest of the movie is fight scene after fight scene of Kutcher trying to protect Heigl, her yelling at him, and their neighbors and colleagues trying to kill them both.  It was trying to redo Mr. and Mrs. Smith a FAR superior film, and fell way short of the mark.  Kutcher wasn't bad, and I'd actually see him in another pseudo-action movie, but Heigl was dreadful again - she REALLY needs to get better costume and hair designers for her movies.  They constantly make her look like a bimbo who happens to be brilliant and have a terrific job.  It's just ridiculous.  1.5 of 5 stars/lambs