Do you like hot tubs? Have you ever sat in your room wishing you could go back in time and make up for all of your short-comings as a teenager? Well, someone had the absolutely brilliant idea to combine both items and give us the awesomest movie idea to ever come out of Hollywood (well besides Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus) - Hot Tub Time Machine.
Director Steve Pink (Accepted) teams up with writers Josh Heald and Andrew Mogel to try and bring some laughs and originality to the Hot Tub Time Machine. This is Heald's first credited writing attempt and the second for Mogel who wrote the screenplay for Jim Carrey's Yes Man. These three guys may not have a lot of background in directing and writing but that hasn't stopped the 34th Street Films movie from picking up some pretty big names to star.
Look at some of the people in the Hot Tub Time Machine: John Cusack, Crispin Glover and Chevy Chase. The story follows four high school buddies, (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clarke Duke) who reunite at a ski lodge after years of being apart and realize that their hot tub is actually capable of transporting them back in time from 2010 to 1986. That's pretty much the premise, but honestly do you need more than that? Watch the red band trailer below. Be warned, it contains NSFW language!
John Cusack (Adam) has been one of my favorite actors ever since I was in junior high and watched Better Off Dead for the first time ("Gee Ricky...I'm really sorry your mom blew up."). I like his delivery and approach to characters but I don't think I've ever heard him cuss quite this much. And did I detect a slight Boston accent in the trailer? The rest of the guys look to be quite humorous as well, and I like the fact they mention Terminator Salvation in the trailer as almost a slight against the T4 story.
Clark Duke (Jacob) gets a decent role in the Hot Tub Time Machine as the Sci-fi (or is it SyFy now? I'm confused) geek who writes Stargate fan fiction. Duke also has a another good movie coming out you may have heard about and that Screen Rant has been following: Kick-Ass.
Hopefully, Craig Robinson (Nick) lives up more to his performance in the Office, rather than his rather poor performance in Dragon Wars. I think he's funny and it looks like he's used properly here. Rounding out the group is Rob Corddry (Lou) who is pretty standard raunchy fun in whatever he does, the exception being Unaccompanied Minors.
Josh Heald had this to say about his movie in an interview with Cinematical which you can read here.
"Hot Tub Time Machine is probably the greatest gift anyone's ever given the world. Time will show that it ranks up there with the Statue of Liberty and free Internet porn."
I think Mr. Heald is on the right track but he left out my personal favorite - The Spork (for when you need to stab your soup and slurp it too)! This could be the next Hangover if the movie is as funny as the trailer. I'm hoping it is, because smartly written, truly funny R-rated comedies are hard to come by.
Are you ready to strip down and slip in the Hot Tub Time Machine or does it look like something you'd rather skip?
Hot Tub Time Machine splashes onto screens February 26, 2010.
Source: Cinematical