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Movie Notes: Back To The Future

September 18th, 2009

Back To The Future

starstarstarstarstar = 5 stars

Starring Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Synopsis

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a typical suburban teenager in small town Hill Valley, accidentally travels back in time to 1955 via a time machine in the form of a DeLorean sports car, invented by his older, eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd).

The Good

  • The acting is all around solidly entertaining. A huge reason why Michael J. Fox became a star, but also excellent is Christopher Lloyd as the unforgettably zany Doc Brown and Lea Thompson as Marty’s disarmingly promiscuous mother Lorraine (who refers to Marty – unaware that he is her future son – as “Calvin Klein”). Also worthy of note is the notoriously unpredictable Crispin Glover as terminally nerdy Marty McFly.
  • Enough overlapping stuff going on with a second timeline that the movie just begs to be watched multiple times to get it all straight. Much of the present-day details from the first part of the movie is referenced when Marty goes back in time: “Uncle Joe” is found as a kid in a crib with bars. Marty tells Doc that Ronald Reagan is a future President, which sounds ridiculous since in the fifties Reagan is a superficial actor.
  • An additional bit of unintentional humor in that 1985 (the film’s present day) is presently retro, so there’s a Wedding Singer type vibe in the pop culture stuff Marty employs. In particular, he uses a Walkman (as opposed to an iPod) playing Van Halen to scare his father, calling himself Darth Vader from Vulcan. So watching this flick now, feels like time travel times two.
  • A billion classic lines – flux capacitor, jiggawatts, hello McFly, Great Scott.
  • The Huey Lewis song The Power Of Love holds up quite well, and is even woven into the plot at the start of the movie – note the song Mary and his band play at the audition. Marty’s musical endeavors also result in a very funny scene at the 1955 dance where he goes a bit too far with the guitar antics.

The Bad

  • Nothing.

Conclusion

I grew up in the 80s and I had forgotten how much I loved this flick. Time to revisit the sequels and see how well they hold up. It’s a little time travel experiment of my own.

IMDB: Back To The Future
Wikipedia: Back To The Future
Rotten Tomatoes: Back To The Future 96%

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  • Love, love, love this movie! I can even identify the scene from which that hilarious almost-animated photo of Christopher Lloyd comes from - right after he says, "You'll have to excuse the crudity of this model..." and the little model car bursts into flames, dives off the table, careens into the pile of rags. and starts an even bigger fire.

    There's just so many fun details woven throughout. You can watch it a dozen times and still find new little things. This was Zemeckis' finest!

    Here's fun nugget o' trivia...

    Huey Lewis had a cameo in "Back To the Future," where he played one of the talent show judges at the high school in the fictitious California town of Hill Valley. Although he was born in New York City, Huey grew up in the non-fictitious California town of Mill Valley. Hill Valley - Mill Valley - kinda cool, eh?
  • Yeah... that one scene still cracked me up. Overall I was surprised how well the flick held up. Even the terrorists that come after Doc Brown has some spooky relevance to today.

    Cool note on Lewis and Mill Valley - drove through there just the other weekend.

    What happened to Zemeckis? I liked Forrest Gump and Castaway, but now he's into all this CGI mo-cap nonsense.
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