Friday, September 1, 2017

Movie Review: "Back to the Future" (1985)

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Movie"Back to the Future"
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Year: 1985
Rating: PG
Running Time: 1 hour, 56 minutes

A teenager named Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to November 5th, 1955 in a time machine invented by his crazy friend/inventor Dr. Emmett Brown. Now stuck in the past without the plutonium needed to return to the present, Marty must find a younger Doc Brown to help him return to 1985 while doing his best not to mess up the past, which would wipe himself out of existence.  

I didn't grow up with "Back to the Future," but BigJ certainly did. He even saw it in the theater as a young child. Since it came out the year before I was born, I didn't really get invested the hype about this movie, especially the internet's obsession with it. Upon further review, it truly is worthy of the hype because it's such a wonderful film that has stood the test of time. 

This is a now classic family adventure sci-fi comedy from 1985 directed by Robert Zemeckis. In this movie, Michael J. Fox plays Marty McFly, a seventeen-year-old kid and aspiring rocker who has an odd friendship with the much older Dr. Emmett Brown aka "Doc," played by Christopher Lloyd, who is an inventor and scientist. Doc's latest invention is a time machine that he built out of a DMC DeLorean. This time machine runs on plutonium that he swindled away from some Libyan terrorists by promising to build them a bomb, a promise he most certainly didn't keep. Because, you know, terrorism. One night while testing the time machine with Marty, the Libyans track Doc down, an incident that sends Marty fleeing for his life in Doc's time machine, hurling Marty back in time to November 5th, 1955. Now that Marty is back in 1955, he runs the risk of changing the future and wiping out his own existence, plus the existence of his brother and sister, too. Oh, what's a boy to do?

Time travel movies are tricky to write and are often riddled with paradoxes. "Back to the Future," however, is one of the rare occasions where there are very few if any major plot holes. Its main plot revolves around Marty doing his best to not change the future, a task that is virtually impossible. The filmmaker and writer are very aware of this and take a lot of little details into account because of it. Beyond the sci-fi aspect, this movie is very, very funny. It has some great awkward moments between Marty and his mother-to-be Lorraine, played by Lea Thompson, who falls for her future son and aggressively pursues him throughout the film, making for many uncomfortable laughs. Some first-time viewers may be put off by this in an era where people are offended by every little thing, but it was the 80's for god's sake, they could get away with pretty much anything. Michael J. Fox plays these scenes very well as a late teen totally weirded out by the fact a 17-year-old version of his mom is coming on to him. A lot of other humor comes from the numerous fish-out-of-water scenarios due to the difference in 1950's and 1980's culture.

At its core, "Back to the Future" is a fun, feel good time travel film that always provides us with a great viewing experience. It's incredibly quotable, has a fantastic soundtrack, it's endlessly imaginative, full of heart, and has tons of enjoyable, memorable scenes. Robert Zemeckis has truly crafted something transcendent, timeless, fantastical, and hilarious.


My Rating: 9/10
BigJ's Rating: 9/10
IMDB's Rating: 8.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

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