'Hot Tub Machine' is all about livin it up'80's style.

In 1986 Ronald Reagan was the president  of the United States, IBM was just releasing their first laptop computer,  Platoon was making a killing at the box office and mullets, pumps, Family Ties and Cheers were all  the rage.
Today, Barack Obama is president,  computers can fit in your pocket,  Avatar is making a killing at the box office, reality shows are taking over television and Twitter and Facebook  are all the rage.
So, why would MGM decide to pour their cash into a cheesy film called Hot Tub Time Machine set in the ’80s, a decade when a good chunk of their target audience was still  in diapers?
Well, because, “It’s ridiculous and stupid and mindless entertainment  with vomiting, ejaculation and everything that you guys love,” explained
Lizzy Caplan, who plays lead character John Cusack’s love interest in the film.

Those looking for a deep, well-developed plotline might as well stay home

Caplan has a point: the film does inject all of those things in an attempt  to attract a younger audience, and director Steve Pink is well aware that the parents of his college-aged audience know more about the ’80s than their kids do.
“I had to at least drive the film in a way that was funny for any decade,” explained Pink, describing the challenges  of marketing a film set in the ’80s to today’s youth.
Still, Pink knows that most viewers  should be familiar with the basic, most stereotypical elements of the decade, so he didn’t shy away from poking fun at some of the more outrageous  elements of the time.
“When you look at the culture of the ’80s, it was everywhere, so I tried to put in as much of that as I could,” said Pink.
The film stars four male leads: Cusack,  Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and relative newcomer Clark Duke.
Cusack plays a recently divorced thirty-something who is down on his luck. As it turns out, so are his two college friends, played by Robinson and Corddry.
After Corddry’s character attempts  to commit suicide by leaving his car running  in the garage, the three friends, who have all lost touch, decide to reconnect by visiting the same ski resort they used to visit in their glory days. Duke plays Cusack’s nephew, a modern-day, technology-dependent teenager who tags along for the ride.

After settling in at the now-rundown Kodiak Valley resort and downing a few pints, the broken hot tub on the deck outside miraculously fixes itself. Following a night of uncontrollable  boozing in the tub, the guys wake up in a strange world they later find out is actually 1986.
At first the guys attempt to avoid what is known as the “butterfly effect,”  by trying to retrace their exact actions of that weekend, but, after realizing that their knowledge of the future could change their fortunes, each of the characters has to make a choice: to live through the past as it actually happened or to make a change and hope for the best.
The film contains plenty of lines that are definite keepers and lots of hilarious, over-the-top scenes similar  to the style of Judd Apatow films, which Pink admitted is a trend today’s  comedies can’t avoid trying  to emulate.
Those looking for a deep, well-developed plotline might as well stay home. Hot Tub Time Machine is too preoccupied with leaving the audience
in stitches to develop any profound  plot elements. In fact, Corddry noted that, for the writers of the film, the concept of making a film about a hot tub time machine was a running  joke for years, until one of them, Josh Heald, actually decided to write  it down.
Though Cusack is the film’s main draw, it’s really Corddry, famous for his roles on Children’s Hospital and The Daily Show, who carries the film and moves the plot along.
“I will take whatever they give me to play, but it is not hard to play an asshole. I’m a huge dick in real life,” joked Corddry.
Comedic legend Chevy Chase appears several times throughout the film as the mystical hot tub repairman,  and Crispin Glover, famous for playing Michael J. Fox’s father George McFly in the ’80s classic Back to the Future, plays a one-armed bellhop.
Glover admitted that he’s no longer picky about the roles that he chooses. Instead, he aims for films that might do well at the box office in order to finance his experimental  projects, including the 2005 film What is it?
“I realized that it made a lot more sense for me to choose films specifically  to help fund my own films because, when I’m acting in more financially successful films, it makes more filmmakers want to work with me,” he said.
Hot Tub Time Machine is set to hit theatres on March 26. In the meantime,  fans can expect to see Robinson as the new host of the hit reality show Last Comic Standing.

Craig Robinson

Fave ’80s clothing item: Vest
Fave ’80s movie: A Fish Called Wanda
Fave ’80s pastime: Freestyle rap

Rob Corddry

Fave ’80s clothing item: Ocean Pacific brand clothes
Fave ’80s movie: Caddyshack
Fave ’80s pastime: “Touching boobies”

Clark Duke

Fave ’80s clothing item: Onesies
Fave ’80s movie: Raging Bull
Fave ’80s pastime: “Being born”
Collette Wolfe
Favourite ’80s clothing item: Jelly bracelets
Favourite ’80s movie: Back to the Future
Favourite ’80s pastime: Pogo-ball

Lizzy Caplan

Fave ’80s clothing item: Scrunchies
Fave ’80s movie: E.T.
Fave ’80s pastime: Skip-it

Crispin Glover

Fave ’80s clothing item: Vintage suits
Fave ’80s movie: Berlin Alexanderplatz
Fave ’80s pastime: Writing his books

Steve Pink

Fave ’80s clothing item: Ripped jeans
Fave ’80s movie: Better Off Dead
Fave ’80s pastime: Smoking weed

- Compiled by Scott McLean