Starring: Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd
It's been twenty years since the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown
first hit our screens, but this collected DVD box set means it seems like
yesterday. Kind of appropriate, considering the time travel nature of the
films.
Back To The Future, for those of you not in the know, is one of those classic
films that until you watch it again you forget just how good it was. Marty McFly
(Fox) is an 80's kid who gets mixed up in a crazy experiment with Doc Brown
(Lloyd) who has apparently built a time machine. He is accidentally sent back to
1955 and manages, before he's quite worked out what's going on, to interfere
with his parents first meeting. Thusly, he's in danger of removing himself from
history, and has to cope with not only trying to get back to his own time of
1985, but also make sure his parents get together to ensure he's born!
Part 2 picks up and takes us into 2015, and Marty's kids are in serious
trouble. This is the most complicated story - needless to say it involves
alternate timelines, familiar characters in strange settings and plenty of jokes
about "when I was your age we didn't have multi-screen televisions..."
Part 3, in contrast, goes back to 1885 and sees Marty trying to rescue the
Doc from an early grave at the hands of outlaws in the Old West.
This DVD boxed set contains quite literally everything you needed to know
about the films. A three part documentary, featurettes filmed at the time of the
movies (Executive Producer Steven Spielberg really does look amazingly young), a
gag reel, deleted scenes, hoverboard tests and of course the commentaries which
provide a wealth of information and on set stories.
The films themselves hold up well, apart from the odd dated effects moment.
The story, interweaving plot (especially the second film, which sees Marty
working in the background of events of the first film), recurring jokes (the
manure being the most notable), catchprhases (Great Scott!) and the sheer
quality of the writing and production values make this a real
comedy-epic-time-travel-science-fiction-adventure-romance movie not to be
missed.