Taking a trip back to the '80s

MANILA, Philippines - John Cusack thought the title of his latest film, Hot Tub Time Machine, was so out-of-this-world, it was genius. “It’s kind of the greatest, dumbest, weirdest title that I’d ever heard,” the Evanston native said in a video interview conducted by MGM. “It just made you start laughing right away.”

When he was initially approached to make the film, John thought his longtime friend and the film’s director, Steve Pink, was kidding. When John realized it wasn’t a joke, the producer told the Associated Press, “immediately I respected them.”

“I understood the genius of it... I said, God, the horror of that.”

That “horror” involves a group of friends jumping in a hot tub to relax and bond and suddenly being transformed into younger versions of themselves and transported back to 1986.

John, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke visit the decade of big hair and MTV in the hilariously sexy and alcohol-fueled comic misadventure that opens tomorrow, April 14. Critics have called it a cross between The Hangover and Back to the Future. “It’s the godfather of recreational, water-based, time travel movies,” John joked in the MGM interview, which was shot at the film’s Hollywood premiere. “It’s the most important hot tub time travel movie you’ll ever see. It’s a serious piece of work.”

After being transported to 1986 and taught the rules of travel by a hot tub repairman played by Chevy Chase, the guys meet old girlfriends and foes at the same ski resort where they celebrated “Winterfest ’86.” They hear Ronald Reagan speeches, The English Beat, Motley Crue and Salt-N-Pepa.

Cusack doesn’t have to sit in a hot tub to remember what he was doing in the 1980s. But channel surfing to catch a glimpse of his younger self doesn’t interest the actor, who told The New York Times he thinks that’s a bit narcissistic.

“Who’s to say anybody’s even thinking of you that much?” he said.