Dave’s Top Five: Back To The Future

How did I miss this one? It's on my "watch" list.

Hot Tub Time Machine is about four regular guys that get a chance to go back for a "do over". They are washed back (see what I did there?) to 1986 after a night of hearty partying at a ski resort. The ski resort just happens to be the crossroad in each of their lives. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 63% score. Maybe that's why John Cusack didn't come back for the sequel.

Time Travel Vehicle: Hot Tub

Two things: 1) Bill Murray, and B) Rotten Tomatoes gives Groundhog Day a 96% score. Since 1993, we've all been quoting the film and celebrating it every February 2nd. Someone once actually calculated the math that Murray's Phil Connors was trapped in time, repeating the same day, until he got it right, for 12,403 days. Roughly 34 years. Or, what you and I would call, "Monday". You can see that calculation here.  Okay, so he doesn't travel in time. Time basically stops. He's stuck on the same day in Punxsutawney. Or what you and would call Friday morning before noon. Still, Phil Connors has to "make right what once went wrong" (there's your Quantum Leap reference) before moving on to his future.

Wow. I liked this movie. It only gets a 12% score at Rotten Tomatoes. It's about more than one thing, so maybe that's why. It's about an archeological dig in Europe. It's about a time machine. More than either of those, it's about the late Paul Walker leading this group of archeologists into the past to rescue his father, played by Billy Connolly. They travel to 1357 France. Oh, and there's a war going on. Hijinx ensue. Because nothing exciting ever happens in an action movie over salad.

This vehicle for the "muscles from Brussels" finds Jean-Claude Van Damme kicking butt and taking names from The Great Depression to 2004. It only gets a 43% score at Rotten Tomatoes, as a Terminator wannabe. In 2004, ten years after his wife is killed, Van Damme's Max Walker uncovers a plot against him and his family. He finds himself left with only one choice, hunt or be hunted. The late Ron Silver is an awesome movie bad guy. Mia Sara, who played Sloane in Ferris Bueller's Day off is Van Damme's pregnant wife. Bruce McGill, who's been in Animal House an almost everything else in the 80's and 90's plays Van Damme's boss.

Time Travel Vehicle: Crash Test Sport car

1984's The Terminator gets a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. Except for a few misses, like this year's Terminator: Genisys - which only got a 26% score (Ouch!) - it is arguably the most enduring sci-fi, action-adventure franchises of all time. Enduring, mainly because... They. Won't. Stop. Making. Them. It's basically about a boy's love for his Mom. And Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a robot killing machine. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Fun times for all. We all know the story. If you don't; John Connors is a rebel freedom fighter in the robot apocalypse. Somehow he discovers a plot to kill his mother before he is born! So, he sends his best friend back in time to become his dad...er, protect his mom - or die trying. Hijinx ensue. Oh, and his movie Mom, played by Linda Hamilton goes from a Disney Princess to a WWE diva.

Time Travel Vehicle: Glenda, The Good Witch's Time Bubble.