From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri May 30 20:47:03 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed2.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!newsfeeds.sol.net!europa.clark.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: RETROSPECTIVE: BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 May 1997 21:27:07 GMT Organization: America Online Lines: 55 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5mksbb$a3a@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07716 Keywords: author=Polenz Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7116 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1320 BACK TO THE FUTURE A film review by Chad Polenz Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz **** (out of 4 = excellent) 1985, PG, 116 minutes [1 hour, 56 minutes] [adventure/sci-fi] starring: Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly), Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Emmett Brown), Lea Thompson (Lorraine Baines/McFly age 17, 47), Crispin Glover (George McFly age 17, 47), Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen age 17, 47), produced by Bob Gale, Neil Canton, written by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, directed by Robert Zemeckis. What makes "Back To The Future" such a gem is its ability to take elements of adventure, comedy, and sci-fi, mix them all together,and make for a wonderfully entertaining movie. Michael J. Fox is perfect as Marty McFly, the typical teenager who skateboards, plays in a rock band, and has a girlfriend - your basic "cool guy." His home life is rather pathetic though; he has a nerd for a father (Glover), a drunk for a mother (Thompson), and two losers for siblings. His best friend is a strange scientist named Doc Brown, played brilliantly by Christopher Lloyd. We don't know how Marty and Doc hooked up, but it doesn't matter, we quickly become too caught up in the excitement to care. Doc has invented a time machine out of a DeLorean, but to power it he must use plutonium which he ripped off from Lybian terrorists. But when the terrorists catch up with Doc and shoot him, Marty escapes by driving the car in a high speed chase and in the process ends up traveling back to the year 1955. And so the real adventure begins, as it is obvious Marty is stuck in the past and must somehow get back home. The atmosphere of the film is very satirical of the 1950s with kids obsessed with sci-fi, 3-D movies, "The Honeymooners," all those big cars, crew cuts, and poodle skirts. When Marty finally finds younger Doc, not only must they figure out how to get him back to the future, but they also have to fix the error in history Marty accidentally caused by his travel. Almost every single action and event here has a purpose and reason, that is, to solve the conflict. There is no excess dialogue or gratuitous comedy, you have to admire it for being so succinct. Another great thing is the use of suspense. We know there is a definite "deadline" of sorts, and whenever a plan goes awry we panic and wonder "how are they going to get out of this!?" Even in the climatic scene problems suddenly pop up and we're on the edge of our seat, biting our nails, but totally excited throughout. "Back To The Future" is one of the greatest modern films. The adventure, the excitement, and the total creativity are all so original and so well assembled there is not one point in the movie where you would remotely lose interest or become skeptical. Movies that are this much fun with such innocence are really a unique phenomenon. visit Chad'z Movie Page @ http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz/index.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Sep 9 19:20:53 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!howland.erols.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!uunet!in4.uu.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Steve Rhodes Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Back to the Future (1985) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Sep 1997 16:10:49 GMT Organization: Tandem Computers Lines: 111 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5v1829$2ee@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer25.u.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08911 Keywords: author=rhodes X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer25.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8301 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1528 _______________________________________________________________________ BACK TO THE FUTURE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2 In 1985 director Robert Zemeckis, fresh from his first big hit with the delightful comedy ROMANCING THE STONE, turned his attention to time travel. The resulting movie, BACK TO THE FUTURE, with a script by Bob Gale and Zemeckis, is a fantasy film for young and old alike. With intelligent and funny dialog and a strong cast of then minor league actors, the film amazes one on subsequent viewings almost as much as on the first. This is one of a continuing series of reviews in which I review classic family pictures when my son sees them for the first time. And as always on the films he sees, he'll stop in at the end to add his two cents. He is as proud to be a small part of this review as I am of producing the rest of it. The film opens in the home of a nerdish inventor, Doctor Emmett Brown. His workshop full of Rube Goldberg-type devices seems the progenitor of Wayne Szalinski's in the HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS series four years later. Dr. Brown is played with wild eyes and frantic gestures by Christopher Lloyd. The beauty of Lloyd's hilarious performance is that he takes himself completely seriously as if he is the only one who does not understand that this is a comedy. He seems to believe all of the scientific quackery he spouts. The Doc's friend and sometimes assistant is the story's protagonist, a teenager named Marty McFly. Marty, played with a sweet angst by Michael J. Fox, is the linchpin of the film's success. Fox's portrayal of a character with whom all ages can empathize is central to the film's timeless and magical allure. Poor Marty is cursed with an awful family. His dad George, played with shameless overacting by Crispin Glover, is a wimp's wimp. The local bully from his dad's old high school, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), still drops by regularly to harass him. Watching Biff's abuse of George is the visual equivalent of scraping fingers across a blackboard. Marty's chubby faced mother Lorraine, played by Lea Thompson, is in her own ways as insufferable as his father. Thompson delivers two performances -- as an older woman with unrealistic layers of fat and as a sweet young thing back in high school. In the latter, she is charming and sometimes even shocking. The Doc's latest invention, with the help of some stolen plutonium, is a time machine. Zemeckis's choice of the futuristic but failed DeLorean as the vehicle to rocket into time is as perfect as his choice of name for the Doc's shaggy dog, Einstein. In a wonderful blend of science fiction and nostalgic comedy, Marty ends up being accidentally blasted back thirty years in time. There he meets his future mom, who falls in love with him when she should have fallen for his future dad. Now, there is something to upset the time-space equilibrium. In this cornucopia of images from the past, my favorite is a vignette played out at a gas station. As Marty is in the foreground, a car in the background drives into a Texaco station. Four heavily uniformed men come running out like an Indy pit crew. They check the oil level, check the tire pressure, wash the windshield, and fuel the car at a breakneck pace so the customer can quickly and safely be on his way. The test of a movie's brilliance is how well it develops the small details, and in this regard BACK TO THE FUTURE rarely disappoints. Even the label, Calvin Klein, on Marty's clothes becomes the heart of an ongoing joke. Lorraine figures quite logically that Marty's name must be Calvin since he has it embroidered on his clothes. Afterall, who would put someone else's name on his own clothes? Zemeckis paces the story with increasing tension as time runs out for Marty to get his mother to start liking his dad rather than him and for Marty to make the important jump back to the future. Along the way, our journey is enlivened with some great old tunes including "Earth Angel" and "Johnny B. Goode." After a predictable but completely satisfying ending getting back to the future, the show has a delicious little epilogue. Try to imagine how your life might be changed for the better by just a little judicious rejiggering of your past. Marty gets to experience an unexpectedly pleasant present because of some minor tweaks to his past. With the chutzpah of utter confidence in the success of his material, Zemeckis ends BACK TO THE FUTURE boldly proclaiming, "To be continued ..." (My son can't wait to rent the next tape.) BACK TO THE FUTURE runs 1:51. It is rated PG for some profanity. The show would be fine for kids of all ages. My son Jeffrey, age 8, really got into the story and said it was "awesome, radical." He also commented that he liked the way that there was no blood in it. I recommend the picture to you highly and give it *** 1/2. _______________________________________________________________________ **** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture. REVIEW WRITTEN ON: August 23, 1997 Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jan 5 15:55:07 2002 From: Jerry Saravia Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Back to the Future (1985) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 19:35:08 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 30528 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 274313 X-RT-TitleID: 1001537 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 X-RT-RatingText: 4/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #30528 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 135 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.net.uni-c.dk!uninett.no!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:2483 rec.arts.sf.reviews:180 BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) Reviewed by Jerry Saravia December 19th, 2001 RATING: 4 stars Beware: the following review contains *spoilers* Like "The Wizard of Oz," "Back to the Future" is a pop masterpiece that generations can enjoy again and again. It is enthralling, hugely entertaining, explosively funny and charming as hell. It also contains a rare Oedipal complex for a Spielberg/Zemeckis blockbuster and a final coda that still remains somewhat unsatisfying in retrospect, just like "Oz." But first on to the specifics. "Back to the Future" stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, the aspiring teenager who would rather kiss his girlfriend and play in his rock n' roll band than attend school on time. He lives in a small town named Hill Valley where the main concern has to do with rebuilding a clock tower! His parents are nothing to write home about. Marty's father, George (Crispin Glover), is a nerd who wears oil-slicked hair and laughs in a manner that would drive anyone mad. Marty's mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), is a drunk who looks haggard and wasted - she looks like a former beauty who was ravaged by life. Then there is Marty's brother (Marc McClure) who works at a fast-food restaurant, and his heavy-set sister (Wendie Jo Sperber) who can't meet anyone special, or is not allowed to at least. Apparently, Marty's parents met by sheer luck as her father hit him with his car while Dad himself was spying on the goods. Dad's boss, Biff (Thomas Wilson), picks on him and Marty, and doesn't spare a moment to remind Marty to tell his mother, Lorraine, he said hello. There is no happiness in this household. But the movie picks up tremendous pace as Marty's pal, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), a crazed inventor with electrified white hair, calls him to show his latest discovery, a time-travelling DeLorean! It can go from 0 to 88 miles per hour in a flash but 88 is the magic number as it transports one through time at that speed. Marty is astounded as he records all this on his video camera until the Lybians show up and kill Doc for making a nuclear bomb out of pinball machine parts! Marty runs and heads off into the DeLorean and mistakenly goes back to the year 1955! Yes, good old 1955 where he meets his parents when they were high-school teenagers! Seeing the movie again recently, I was amazed at how much teen movies have changed since. Marty's preoccupation in this movie is to get his parents to date each other and attend a dance where they kiss so he can be born in the future! I have a sick feeling in my heart that if this movie were made today, Marty would be more concerned about having sex and discussing it with his parents than anything else. But I digress. This is not so much a teen movie as it is about teenage life in the 80's in contrast to the 50's. Teen dating, values, morals change with each passing generation but certain systems, like family, remain the same. And Marty knows that all too well, trying to preserve his own family so he and his siblings can exist. The details are what count in "Back to the Future." As all fans of the film know, the Twin Pines Mall of 1985 becomes, through Marty's intervention, Lone Pine Mall in the alternate 1985. Marty's dietary concerns in 1985 consist of pepsi-free soda whereas in 1955, you can get a cup of black coffee for 5 cents and coca-cola comes in glass bottles. The local theatre of 1985 shows a porno film whereas in 1955, you get to see a Ronald Reagan flick. Essentially, the Hill Valley of 1955 is in pristine condition and the high school, as Marty wisecracks at one point, looks brand new. It is a time when one had to earn a date, particularly to go to a dance, and skateboards and rock and roll were still nonexistent. Marty McFly changes all that - he changes the future for all resulting in an alternate timeline. "Back to the Future" mixes laughs, tension, action and drama in equal doses, always surprising us and keeping us in wonder every step of the way. We never know what to expect next, and the thrills and comedy keep coming at us from one scene to the next. Director Robert Zemeckis knows how to channel all the ingredients carefully (he co-wrote the script with Bob Gale) and maintain the right flow and rhythm. No scene or moment is wasted. Even a terrifically human moment, that could seem like a throwaway, where Marty teaches the young George about setting his mind on accomplishing anything, which includes socking the bully Biff, has a tenderness that shows the right balance of heart and humor. In fact, looking at the film in a more analytical approach, it really is about Marty and his relationship to his parents. Zemeckis and Gale maintain that interest throughout, including Marty's own relationship to Doc Brown whose 1955 counterpart is doing his best to get the young lad safe and sound in good old 1985. And yet, the ending still vexes me. I suppose it is a flaw that the Zemeckis-Gale team did not see foresee but it is there. When Marty returns to 1985, it is an alternate existence where his father is a successful science-fiction novelist, his mother does not drink and plays tennis, his brother works at some firm as does his sister, yet his girlfriend remains the same (I still think there was a missed opportunity there if the girl had been someone else entirely). Marty loves his new life, and make no mistake, it is a new one where he takes pride on his new truck and loves his parents for having changed from their original existence. And that is just it. What about the parents Marty had? Yes, one was a slob and the other a drunk, but should he not love them the same way regardless? Those people will never exist...so is Marty still the same? One wonders when he arrives a bit earlier in 1985 to try to prevent Doc Brown from getting shot. Okay, he sees himself going back to 1955, and so who is that Marty? The same or different? Just wondering but I feel his love for his parents of the other 1985 should have been richer and more loving than accepting essentially new people as his parents. It is like the ending of "Wizard of Oz," an ending that has always bugged me as well, where Dorothy returns to the dour, sepia-toned Kansas in extreme delight uttering the famous lines, "There is no place like home." Really? As compared to the marvelous sights of the city of Oz? But that is a minor quibble really. There is too much to love in this movie. Every scene and every line of dialogue is memorable. Marty's discovery that he really is in 1955 and is in his mother's bedroom is hilarious. The moment where he watches an old "Honeymooner's" episode that he recalls seeing in 1985 and telling Lorraine's family in 1955 that it is a rerun is priceless. Marty persuading Doc Brown of 1955 that he is from the future and that the future President is Ronald Reagan, the actor, is sidesplittingly funny! There is also the tense moment where Marty starts to disappear as he plays in Marvin Berry's band waiting for his parents to kiss so he can exist. Who can forget Marty pretending to be Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan and playing a Van Halen tape! But the Oedipal moment, an unforgettable scene in all of sci-fi and fantasy, is when Marty is forced to kiss his mother of 1955 and she says, "It felt like I was kissing my brother." It is a moment to stop time yet it is handled delicately and with polish by Zemeckis and Gale. As far as I am concerned, it is the highlight of the "Back to the Future" movies. "Back to the Future" is fantastic entertainment from beginning to end. It brings smiles, has a great sense of fun, has lots of great ideas and excellent performances, and milks its time travel premise for all its worth. It is a definite classic for many years and generations to come, but that ending might still leave you reeling. For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://moviething.com/members/movies/faust/JATMindex.shtml E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at faustus_08520@yahoo.com or at Faust668@aol.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 30528 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 274313 X-RT-TitleID: 1001537 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 X-RT-RatingText: 4/4 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 1 18:00:41 2003 Path: news.island.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!uninett.no!feed.news.nacamar.de!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-06!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: John Ulmer Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Back to the Future (1985) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 20:07:31 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 36049 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 838254 X-RT-TitleID: 1001537 X-RT-SourceID: 1382 X-RT-AuthorID: 6769 X-RT-RatingText: 5/5 Summary: r.a.m.r. #36049 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 166 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7832 rec.arts.sf.reviews:664 BACK TO THE FUTURE Rating: 5/5 stars. "Back to the Future" is part of John Ulmer's Favorite Movies List, available to see at http://www.wiredonmovies.com/favorites REVIEW BY JOHN ULMER "Have you no concept of time?" - "Doc" Emmet Brown, "Back to the Future." A favorite of Hollywood has always been the tales of time travel. H.G. Wells can be credited for starting the craze with his novel of an adventurous Englishman who traveled back in time with a fantastic creation, and when George Pal's adaptation of Wells' "The Time Machine" (1960) hit the streets paradoxes and possibilities of time travel became a more omnipresent thought. The best time travel film of all, and one of the most dazzling of all films, is "Back to the Future" (1985), a film so smart, witty, genuine, and hilarious it must simply be seen to be believed. Yes, the craze and hype built up around the film since its release is more than worthy--I rate it one of my more favorite films. Some movies are undoubtedly great, but you don't always feel like sitting down to watch "The Godfather," or "Casablanca." Longer, more (somewhat) depressing films that, though terrific, just do not delight in the same way as a good comedy. I always feel like sitting down to watch "Back to the Future." It's one of those uplifting films that are so delightful to watch it puts a smile on your face from the start and never lets up for a moment. And it's not just funny--it's incredibly smart, also, boasting one of the strongest and most thoughtful, insightful scripts in the history of film. And I'm being less than generous when I say that. The script, written by Bob Gale and co-written by director Robert Zemeckis, was originally a disaster. (Trust me, I read it, and it was painfully bad.) Marty was a rebellious teenager who pirated VCR tapes, Doc Brown was just annoying and distant, there were no great plot twists and "possibilities," the dialogue was weak and superficial, and Marty originally got "back to the future" by means of a nuclear bomb, a fridge and the back of a car trunk (don't ask). But the script had gone through some major alterations by the time filming started. Michael J. Fox is perfectly cast as young Marty McFly--a bit rebellious in a typical teenager type of way, though also a bit insecure about his future. He wants to be a rock artist but he is afraid to let people listen to his work. ("What if they don't like it--I just don't think I could handle that type of rejection.") Marty lives with his parents and two siblings in a middle-class suburban America community named Hilldale. His father, George (Crispin Glover), is an awkward creature whose insecurities work to a major disadvantage for him. Marty's mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), is a drunk who sits around the house all day reflecting upon the past. Marty's only true friend is the eccentric Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), an inventor who can't seem to invent anything worthwhile. But one day Marty gets a call--Doc wants him to come down to the Twin Pines Mall at one o'clock in the morning with a camcorder. When Marty arrives later that morning, he finds Doc with something extraordinary--a time machine. The time machine is built out of a DeLorean and runs on plutonium. Here lies the problem--since it needs plutonium, Doc has to steal it. ("You don't just walk into a store and ask for plutonium!" Marty says.) However, the Libyans Doc stole the plutonium from come after him, shoot him, and then come after Marty--who immediately flees using the DeLorean and accidentally time travels back to 1985. Upon arriving in 1955, Marty soon realizes he is out of plutonium and has been left stranded back in time. So he visits Doc Brown in 1955, who claims the only thing powerful enough to deliver the 1.21 jiggawatts of electricity needed to send the time machine back to 1985 is a bolt of lightning--something that can be harnessed, but, as Doc puts it, you never know when lightning is going to strike. Wrong. Marty has a pamphlet which tells the exact time in 1955 when a lightning bolt hit the town's clock tower. So as Doc cooks up a plan to harness the lightning beam when it strikes the clock, Marty goes exploring around 1955--and accidentally bumps into his parents and stops them from meeting, which could result in catastrophic events. I've seen "Back to the Future" over 150 times and counting, and it never gets old. I taped it off of TV a few years back and watched it almost every day, until I could quote every single line from the movie. I was younger then and had not experiences a movie as wildly original and creative and truly imaginative as "Back to the Future." It astounded me with its pure magic of filmmaking--it was the type of movie I dreamed that I could make when I was older. This is the type of movie you watch and see something new in every time. The director, Bob Zemeckis, places the subtlest differences in time in the film. For example, Marty goes back in time in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall. In 1955, the mall doesn't exist--just two pine trees. Marty runs one over. Later, when he gets back to the future, we see that the mall is now called "Lone Pine Mall." It's not easy to spot--it's something I only noticed a few viewings ago. And that's just the type of movie this is. The characters are some of the most memorable and lovable of all time. Marty McFly isn't an annoying teenage brat--Michael J. Fox brings a sense of trueness and realism to the character that makes, and does not break, the film. Christopher Lloyd as the over-the-top Doc Brown gives his best performance of all time, running around in a worried motion and that frizzled, gray hair standing up on his head like he's been struck by electricity (and I can't doubt that he has been in the past with one of his experiments). Just thinking of him brings a smile to my face--he's just that type of joyful character who is funny no matter what he's doing. Every story has a villain--at least every good story. "Back to the Future" has one, too: Biff Tannen, who is played by the wonderful Thomas F. Wilson. Wilson can change his very demeanor on screen--in interviews his actual personality is wholly different. And yet he makes Biff into the kind of stupid, moronic tough guy that you love to hate. Biff is not quite as non-violent as some bullies in films, however--many family films tend to tone down the nastiness, but Biff is one nasty villain who may not be a gigantic space alien but carries the same spine-tingling meanness about him. "Back to the Future" is a subtle comedy, one that is laugh-out-loud funny on many occasions but also very, very smart--so smart, indeed, that its wit exceeds just about any film I have ever seen. At first you may not think so--but after you watch it a few times and pick up on the different changes between the past and present (and trust me, you will), you will no doubt realize just how much thought was put into this film. There is so much wit and imagination and humor in "Back to the Future" that it could be spread out into ten different movies and they'd still be winners. That's not a very easy film to create. There are many things are subtle in "Back to the Future." It doesn't tell us what it is or what is in it--it lets those things up to the viewer. A more average film would no doubt push the facts of Marty's parents upon us--but Lorraine's drunkenness and George's insecurities are only hinted at for the most part. So many things are left open for discussion and thought dwelling in this movie that has helped make it become the re-watchable film it is today. I can imagine what a film like this would have been like given a lesser director, lesser writer, and lesser actors. But there's been a lot of thought put into this truly wonderful and imaginative comedy that separates it from the rest. I guess I'd better close this review with a quote from the movie. Marty is sitting with his mother in 1955 (and she doesn't know that she is his mother). Marty sees an episode of "The Honeymooners" on their brand-new TV and comments on how the episode is a classic. Lorraine's little brother can't understand how he saw it. The episode is brand new. "Yeah, I saw it on a rerun," Marty says. "What's a rerun?" the boy asks. "You'll find out," is his reply. A more typical comedy about time travel would completely skip these ironies and comparisons between the different years. And part of the many, many joys of "Back to the Future" is that it is not a typical comedy by any means. It's the type of movie you can watch over and over and never get tired of. I've watched it for years and I still laugh and find hidden things when I watch it. It's just that type of extraordinary adventure/comedy. Films like these don't come around very often. Cherish it while you can. - John Ulmer Webmaster of The Movie Portal http://www.wiredonmovies.com/ Updated daily, offers over one thousand free movie scripts and hundreds of free reviews, plus posters, sounds, quotes, and more. ========== X-RAMR-ID: 36049 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 838254 X-RT-TitleID: 1001537 X-RT-SourceID: 1382 X-RT-AuthorID: 6769 X-RT-RatingText: 5/5