At its essence, Back to the Future had a real Oedipus complex going on.

While Marty McFly tries to shake off his mother’s advances, she luridly forces her son to breaking point before sticking her tongue down his throat. Only in the ’80s, eh?

Well, actually that’s exactly the same sort of lows that the Hot Tub Time Machine mines for comedy in this ’80s throwback.

If you’re going back to the ’80s then there’s no better actor to take you there than the decade’s finest teenage slacker-lothario, John Cusack. Driving into his Say Anything style of rebellious teen turned bitter middle-aged deadbeat. It’s the natural progression to his ’80s persona.

However, this isn’t too concerned with expanding on the heartfelt offbeat comedies that were a main staple of the time. Hot Tub Time Machine instead has more in common with the likes of (and we hate to make this tired comparison) Superbad.

So in come the ‘crazy’ cohorts to insure the squirming masses can laugh at the ridiculous nature of cinema. Look he just vomited on a squirrel, hi-la-rious. Lou (Rob Corddry) is the biggest example of this, acting as the lose cannon that the others must look after. He does provide some laughs, but you can’t help but the feel the character is distinctly one note.

It’s lucky that the film has so many different supporting characters to fall back on. Both Craig Robinson and Clark Duke make interesting contrasts to the rest of the characters, but they fall into stereotypes far too often.

It’s when the likes of Chevy Chase and Crispin Glover make appearances that the movie can really provide some decent unexpected laughs. Especially Glover, who basically has one joke that’s stretched through the running time to brilliant effect.

When it comes down to the main story, it’s a case of having a second chance in life (while in Duke’s case it’s having a life outside of Second Life). Cusack ends up falling for the cute Lizzy Caplan but the age difference (even though she’s seeing a younger version) makes the scenes slightly uncomfortable.

This dive into the ’80s is far from a bore though. It’s constantly entertaining, if not quite the homage or the laugh-a-minute it hopes to be, and it makes for a suitable display of Cusack’s enduring charm. If only who chose more projects like this than the autopilot dross of 2012.

It’s an enjoyable excuse to be nostalgic, without the over-reliance on the usual tropes of time-travelling comedy. It’s a warm-hearted trip, without being too soppy. If it suffers from anything its reliance on contemporary comedy rather than the decade it’s revisiting. Plus, it contains 50% more incestuous content than Back to the Future. Who could resist that?

‘Spray Rating: 3.5/5

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You know what’s great about the ’80s? John Cusack, that’s what. You know what’s also great about the ’80s? Back to the Future.

Well great Scott! They’ve only gone and put the two together in some bawdy romp about sex, rock and floppy haircuts. Hot Tub Time Machine takes a look at the radical decade where wives of film stars didn’t tell everyone that they’re husbands were smacking them around. Nostalgia, eh?

Here’s an exclusive clip for you to enjoy on your pathetic Thursday afternoon.

Hot Tub Time Machine is out on DVD and Blu-ray on August 30th 2010.

Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) ushers in another wave of pixel-powered doom, this time wiping out our collective brain cells with his latest movie of mass destruction.

2012 is one of those happy movies; on one hand, serving up a doom-laden prophecy of global annihilation and, on the other, making you utterly resent the characters who survived to rebuild mankind.

The plot can be summed up by an apt analogy; akin to spreading a tiny knife-edge’s worth of butter over a mile of (computer-generated) toast. When the onslaught of global obliteration begins, the plot really is a series of people avoiding cars/buildings/comets/water/dialogue to survive until the next scene.

You could argue that the whole purpose of such an entry in a genre that lacks any type of versatility is not to offer a timeless allegory, but to maximise bang for your buck. You could argue that. But after two and a half hours of this plump running time, though, the end of the world can’t come soon enough.

John Cusack makes for an amicable lead, offering the same type of quirky, off-beat casting that Goldblum, Broderick and Gyllenhaal did in the director’s previous world-ending efforts. Unfortunately, the tired old routine of the torn family and Cusack’s near robotic performance make the central ethos one-note.

It is a decent cast of supporting players, filled with character-actors who deliver the lines with gusto, but the script itself is filled with nothing more than leaden dramatics. In fact, it is a waste of such a talented cast, all having to play second-fiddle to a barrage of special effects that are neither particularly special nor effective. It is all stuff we have seen before, mainly in the director’s previous movies.

Now, this is an odd admission we must make, but this become such a plundering bore that before the halfway point, we fell asleep. What we missed is summed up in roughly seven words on Wikipedia. Seven words to describe half an hour of missing movie.

It’s hard to describe what a mess this film is. It’s bloated, absurd and devoid of any emotional connection. We actually felt sorry for one character, whose spouse found that roughly ten minutes was enough time to move onto another man after his demise. It’s one of those frustrating moments in film, that leave you bewildered at the sheer stupidity of the situation.

You may buy into this as a brainless action movie, the type film that’ll prove perfect Saturday night fodder, but it fails to engage on even the most primordial level. It has bangs for your bucks, but somehow, the enjoyment got buried beneath the rubble. This is the definition of a disaster movie.

‘Spray Rating: 1/5

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William Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And what better way to start a look at the trailer for a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine than a quote from The Bard of Avon?

But what is in a name? I don’t know about you, but if there isn’t some sort of chronology-altering device whose primary function is the storage of heated water for recreational relaxation therapy, I’m going to be extremely disappointed by this trailer. Let’s decode it…

First, we should probably let you watch the whole thing…

And now to the decoding.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE TRAILER SCENE 1

Well, we’re halfway there, there’s a hot tub. And four guys drinking beer, bonding and generally having a ker-razy time. Who knows what might happen?! Maybe something turns into a time machine? This could be great, it could like The Hangover! Or Wild Hogs. But it could be like The Hangover! (or Wild Hogs).

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE TRAILER SCENE 2

Fuck! It’s a time machine! That fella from The Office reckons so anyway. And he says that to the camera, showing an intriguing level of irony and self-awareness. This. Could. Be. A. Good. Film…

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE TRAILER SCENE 3

…Oh. No. It’s. Bollocks. Our heroes work out what’s happened to them here: they’ve gone back in time! Possibly after having been in some sort of machine. A machine that was also… a hot tub? A HOT TUB TIME MACHINE! One of the best things about being able to use a hot tub time machine is that you can go back in time and make Michael Jackson jokes before everyone else. Which means that it’s a bit of a shame that HTTM’s being released in 2010 AFTER EVERYONE’S MADE ALL THE JOKES ABOUT MICHAEL JACKSON. ALL OF THEM. EVERY ONE. EVEN THAT ONE.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE TRAILER SCENE 4

So we’ve established that there was a time machine in that hot tub – it’s a hot tub time machine, remember? But who gets in the hot tub (time machine)? Well, John Cusack apparently. It’s a natural career progression: Sixteen Candles, The Sure Thing, The Grifters, Being John Malkovich, Hot Tub Time Machine. Also taking the plunge is someone called Rob Corddry, the bloke from The Office and some fat kid called Clark.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE TRAILER SCENE 5

Yeah! And Chevy Chase is in it! In Hot Tub Time Machine. Chevy ‘The Seal Of Quality’ Chase.

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE TRAILER SCENE 6

I’m not convinced about this film, on one hand there’s questionable casting, weak jokes and Chevy Chase, but on the other hand there’s a hot tub that’s also a time machine. Let’s leave it to the closing joke to swing us.

Oh, Hot Tub Time Machine… What a shame. Still, I’ve heard that John Cusack’s next film Disco Jacuzzi Penis Enlarger Party is great.

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It has been a long time coming but the highly-anticipated 2012 trailer has finally been released to the public with much critical and fan adoration.

Following on from the popular trailers for Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and Godzilla, Roland Emmerich proves that nobody is directing trailers with the same panache and reckless abandon for US monuments quite like the German trailer auteur.

Set in the not too distant future, the trailer for 2012 tells the story of a desperate families struggle to survive around the apocalypse. John Cusack stars as the father struggling to re-unite his broken family and save their lives from certain doom in this electrifying trailer performance.

“Cusack’s father is the moral core to the trailer’s story” quoted top television journalist Frank Wires of BBC’s Real Film. “The action comes thick and fast but without Cusack the integrity of this two and half minute trailer would be lost!”

Meanwhile Cusack is backed by a stellar supporting cast featuring Oliver Platt as the greasy Presidential Chief of Staff, a villain so despicable that his one line haunts the rest of the proceedings. The trailer also features veteran stage actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who brings suitable gravitas as a scientist who may hold the key to humanity’s salvation – and Danny Glover appears in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo. This trailer is packed with star-wattage!

“The cast is electrifying” said one fan at the online premiere “I couldn’t take my eyes off of Chiwetel. His speech to Oliver Platt puts the whole film into relevant social context”.

The initial announcement that Emmerich was set to direct another disaster movie trailer was met with fan trepidation. After all, the trailer could have been an epic disaster. The last trailer released by Emmerich – the much maligned 10,000 BC – left audiences wondering whether the director still had it in him to pack the same two and a half minute punch we were used to. Luckily with everything from comets, floods and avalanches this trailer is sure not to disappoint his die-hard fanbase.

“We really didn’t want to retread old ground with this trailer” said visual effects honcho Carl Griffin. “We wanted people to feel that they were getting basically three or even four minutes of epic action packed into two and a half and that was a real challenge”. Everything from downtown L.A. to even the White House feature amongst the epic destruction - “We’ve all seen the White House destroyed before in the ID4 trailer and that was great! And we also flooded New York to great reaction in The Day After Tomorrow trailer…I think it was about six months into shooting when Roland came to me and said ‘Why don’t mix the two?’ Frankly we never looked back”.

The 2012 trailer is currently playing online everywhere, and proving to be a harrowing, exciting and action-packed production to rival any other trailer output from Paul W S Anderson, Brett Ratner or Michael Bay. It may be the end of the world but it’s hopefully the start of a long and exciting run of trailers from Roland Emmerich.

Here’s the trailer…

If you ever want to spook out John Cusack, why not write a love letter, sign it 'Emily Leatherman', pop it in a bag of screwdrivers and throw it at him?

Because that's what John Cusack's stalker did, and she was hit with a 500ft restraining order for her troubles. Not that she stuck to it, though – Emily Leatherman was arrested again on Sunday for getting too close to John Cusack's home.

Honestly Emily Leatherman has to be John Cusack's number one fan to get herself in so much trouble just to meet him. In fact, we'd wager that Emily Leatherman loves John Cusack so much that she's watched Serendipity more times than anyone else on Earth. So twice, then.

We feel for Emily Leatherman, we really do. Not because of her poor choice of stalker target – although we can't imagine how unbearable it must be, having pinned your stalker hopes on someone early on, to try and stalk someone even though you know they're responsible for both Must Love Dogs and 1408 – but because she's had to watch the evolution of the stalking game from the sidelines lately.

Back in 2006 Emily Leatherman was rested for throwing bags of rocks with love letters inside them into John Cusack's garden. At the time we sympathised with John Cusack immeasurably – until that point the extent of his fan interaction involved a few nerdy men mumbling to him that some of Grosse Point Blank was quite good, and then a woman starts throwing rockbags over his fence? Terrifying.

After the stalking arrest, Emily Leatherman was ordered to keep 500 feet away from John Cusack at all times. But how can you be expected to sit by and idly watch when your high watermark of stalking gets eroded by nutters sending dildos to Britney Spears and trying to explode airports for Jodie Foster? You can't, which is why on Sunday Emily Leatherman hit the scene again. 

Unfortunately, whatever genius stalking plan Emily Leatherman had for John Cusack fell apart the instant she realised that she didn't quite have enough money for the cab fare, as E! Online reports:

Sheriff's spokesman Officer Steve Whitmore said deputies were called to the 24000 block of Malibu Road at about 7 p.m. by a cabbie who said a fare was refusing to pay for her ride into the area. Cusack himself then flagged the officers down and said he recognized the woman in the taxi as the one whom he accused of showing "unusual interest" in him. He said he did not think she had set foot on his property that day. Emily Leatherman, who has been identified as an L.A.-area transient, was also booked on charges of violating a restraining order and petty theft.

Leatherman is now in custody in a Malibu police station on $150,000 bail. And with her out of the way, the mantle of Number One Most Obsessed John Cusack Fan falls to Derek Stanmore, a semi-retired box welder from Middlesex. Derek doesn't know who John Cusack is, and wouldn't recognise him in a line-up even if the rest of the line-up was made of women and horses, but he did see some of Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil on TV a few months ago even though he fell asleep in the middle of it. And that alone makes him John Cusack's biggest fan.

Use your power well, Derek. Use your power well.

Read more:

Big-Time Cusack Fan Nabbed for Stalking – E! Online