PART ONE
It took me 23 years before I watched Back to the Future. It's fun, kinda sad I missed out as a kid. Michael J Fox stars as Marty McFly, the not-quite-a-loser with a crazily dysfunctional family. He skateboards, he plays in a band, he has a pretty girl, but life ain't great. He's been hanging out with "Doc" Brown who is a mad scientist who happens to discover time travel. When Marty gets sent back to 1955 he runs into a problem: his mom falls for him instead of his dad like he's supposed to, jeopardizing Marty's very existence. Things get a little messy but McFly manages to pull it off with some help from the (younger version) Doc and some fancy skateboarding moves. Not to mention some Chuck Berry imitations. Time travel is messy business though and when Marty gets home there are a lot of changes (though all of them good.)
Slapstick humour, 50s memorabilia and a lot of fun pseudo-science and effects make the movie a lot of fun. They don't make comedies like they used to. I was surprised by the amount of swearing but it's way tamer than most things these days. I now understand why Back to the Future is up there with Indiana Jones and Star Wars for 80s adventures (although it touches neither of them).
A good, lighthearted romp.
PART TWO
Well, Pt. 2 is disappointing. It's all over the place (or time) and the only moments worth laughing at are the ridiculousness, rather than any sort of wit or cleverness. The effects were great for the time, and some of the stunts are fun. The parts which were the most fun involved multiple selves in the same time, dodging each other, filling in what Marty got up to in the first movie, while not being able to actually encounter the other Marty...
That's really the extent of the movie...
Merely a bridge to PART THREE...
Which takes place in the old west. The final installment rekindles some of the charm of the first movie but again doesn't quite live up to the fun or brilliance of the original. Doc's scientific explorations make for a quirky SF feel to a western and Marty's continued lack of understanding of anything going on around him as well as his stubborn and cocky attitude's keep getting him in trouble. Once again there is Delorean trouble which needs some ridiculous scheme (this one involving a train) in order to get back to the future. This time it's complicated by a love interest for Doc (since Marty always is leaving his girl behind...) There's a happy ending and some decent gags but I was really only watching because I liked the first one.
Fun but shallow.
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