Skip to main content

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

The frivolous title makes it sound like an unalloyed romp, but the characters gravitate between angry and morose. A ski resort's hot tub sends a salesman (John Cusack), his nephew and two friends back to 1986. There are borrowings from Back to the Future (the nephew's very birth is in question) and Pleasantville (Chevy Chase has the Don Knotts role as the mystical repairman), but mainly it's people shouting obscenities, fighting and getting naked. In the deleted scenes, a rude thing happens to the keys to a BMW.

The White Ribbon (2009)

In a German village on the cusp of the First World War, bad things are happening. Bad things usually happen in Michael Haneke's films ( Funny Games, Hidden), and here the cruelty of the patriarchs is reflected in the disturbing goings-on involving packs of shiver-inducing children. What does it all mean? The Blu-ray version comes with several illuminating extras, including a subtitled German-language interview with Haneke in which he says his reflections on the origins of fascism, radicalism and terrorism shouldn't be seen as applying solely to Germany.

Interact with The Globe