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The Made-in-Vancouver Movie Bracket: Best in Show vs. Hot Tub Time Machine

By Nathan Caddell /

As part of our March-April film issue, we’re setting out to determine the best ever made-in-Vancouver film. Follow along on our Twitter account. 

Best in Show (2000) vs. Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) 

We start off the bracket with two comedies released 10 years apart, to very different audiences. The Christopher Guest–helmed mockumentary about the colourful characters that populate a dog show prominently features the PNE, as well as Aldergrove and other shots of the Vancouver region. Well reviewed at the time, it’s now regarded as a cult classic.

Hot Tub, on the other hand, uses a talented cast, including John Cusack and Craig Robinson, to fill out a decidedly thin script about four dudes who magically go back in time to 1986. It filmed mostly in and around Vancouver (including Mount Seymour) and Fernie and is worth a few laughs, especially if you’re under 25 and male.

Here’s how the comedy section of the bracket began, as a refresher:

Let’s see how these two stack up. 

Rotten Tomatoes rating

Best in Show: 94 percent

Hot Tub Time Machine: 63 percent

As mentioned, critics generally adored Best in Show. It holds the highest RT rating of any Christopher Guest–directed film, and that’s saying something.  

In the opposite corner, it’s something of an accomplishment for a movie like Hot Tub to make it over the 60 percent “fresh” threshold. (The sequel certainly didn’t.)

Worldwide box office (USD)

Best in Show: $20.78 million

Hot Tub Time Machine: $67.78 million

Both films earned roughly double what it cost to make them, but Hot Tub generated much more of a buzz at the theatre. Don’t lie, we know you saw Best in Show on VHS.

Vancouver-ness

Best in Show: 6/10

Hot Tub Time Machine: 4/10

Best in Show spends a lot of time inside, so its Vancouver-ness will likely depend on your familiarity with the Pacific Coliseum and the surrounding area.

And though most of Hot Tub takes place in some sort of mountain locale, there’s not a ton to separate Fernie from the pack there.  

Verdict

It was more than tripled at the box office by Hot Tub, but the smart, hilarious Best in Show struts away with a convincing victory.