You sit through the R-rated trailer for “Hot Tub Time Machine” and you wish Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson would have held out for funnier material.
Then, it happens. You spot John Cusack as one of the film’s middle aged misfits who travel back to the 1980s.
The mind reels.
Is Cusack besmirching the same decade he helped brighten with films like “Better Off Dead” and “Say Anything?”
Check out the trailer for yourself. If you’re over 18, you can see the red-band version which has naughtier gags in it – and full frontal nudity.
Cusack has forged a sturdy career from the “one for the wallet, one for my inner artist” template. For every mainstream flick like “2012″ he appears in a “Grace is Gone” or “Martian Child,” movies that aspire to something better.
WWTW cannot judge the quality of any movie solely by its trailer. “Hot Tub’s” director, Steve Pink, previously wrote “Grosse Point Blank” and “High Fidelity,” two of Cusack’s better films.
But, boy does “Tub” look like a project Cusack would reject at first blush.
(Photo: John Cusack may be losing his mind in “1408,” one of the actor’s better performances in recent years)
Related posts:
on 
on 
on 
on 
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Judging solely form the trailer, it seems like they’re trying to jump on ‘The Hangover’ bandwagon. It looks awful. Is Cusack on his way to becoming Cuba Gooding Jr? Next stop: Meatballs 7.
Say it ain’t so, Grofe. Good point about the “Hangover” comparison. But R-rated movies need a brain to make us laugh. Just throwing out a few F-bombs and boobs isn’t enough. (unless you’re 16, male and really eager to please)
No kidding. As crazy as it sounds (I used to be a big Cusack fan and am a current Craig Robinson fan) the cast looks like the budget version of the stars of The Hangover. I think this will all come down to chemistry. For example, the goofy non-sequitors spewed by Zach G in The Hangover worked because of the other cast members reactions to them. The Hangover also didn’t depend on some ill-conceived plot contrivance to get the story going.
This looks like a renter…maybe I’ll wait until Netflix starts streaming it.
I had similar feelings when I saw the trailer. (Usually my response to trailers is either “Yes” or “No”. With this one it was “Well, that was a complete waste of…wait…was that John Cusack? Nah, couldn’t have been.”)
Perhaps it’s a case of his most recent “inner artist” film being delayed and another “one for the wallet” being released soon after his previous one. Just a thought.
blackhawk12151 – the Hangover was a big ill-conceived plot contrivance. A “hangover” is real, but the way their experience panned out is not. This movie looks hilarious, just like the Hangover was. I plan to see.
The way the story played out was contrived and unrealistic, but the set up wasn’t. The catalyst that started the story (four guys go to Vegas, trouble ensues) was something that happens everyday. It is much better than four guys get into hot tub, suddenly it’s the 80’s…ugh
If you like John Cusack, make sure to check out the 2012 facebook page
http://bit.ly/kBzNs
Before 2012 hits, if you could take a trip to any of these four cities- which would it be? http://bit.ly/cKHVQU
Lets face it – it’s worth going to see this mess, just to walk to the counter and say: “One ticket for ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ please.”