Gross out moments not enough to lift raunchy buddy comedy

Hot Tub Time Machine (Cert 15, 94 mins, Comedy/Romance)

Party guy Lou (Rob Corddry) attempts to commit suicide by choking down exhaust fumes in his garage, and childhood pals Adam (John Cusack) and Nick (Craig Robinson) rush to his hospital bedside.

The three men decide to return to the Kodiak Valley skiing resort, which was the site of their greatest triumphs when they were teenagers.

Adam drags along techno-savvy nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) and the four men drive to the snow-laden mountains where the hotel is now in disrepair and bellhop Phil (Crispin Glover) is mysteriously missing an arm.

Thankfully the hot tub still works and after a night of heavy drinking under the stars, the drunkards wake to find that they have been sent back to the decade of Adam, Nick and Lou’s youth.

Hot Tub Time Machine is a raunchy buddy comedy that basks in the glow of nostalgia.

Alas, screenwriters Josh Heald, Sean Anders and John Morris fail to deliver on the cute dramatic conceit, relying on obligatory gross-out moments such as Lou pulling out his catheter in hospital and splashing his pals with urine.

Characters are sketched thinly and we have to take the various romances on trust because there is no evidence of the men falling in love on screen.