by Diana Vaccarelli
—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT—
Although This Film is Over 30 Years Old So is There Really Anything to Spoil?
Released back in 1985, Back to the Future follows the story of Marty Mcfly, a 17 year old teenager who takes part in a hilarious time travel experiment and finds himself stuck in the 1950’s and hanging out with his own parents as teenagers.
THE GOOD:
- There is so much delicious goodness here. Let’s start with the fun fact that the writer-director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale used the late, lamented and so very exotic Delorean automobile as the time machine. I don’t know which I love more – that concept or that so-cool car.
- Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown is mind blowingly eccentric in the role. Everything he brought to the character was original. The hair, the clothes, and the voice. He was far more than the Doctor Who or Rick (of Rick & Morty) some recent critics have compared him to.
- Great cast all around. Michael J. Fox as our hero Marty McFly brings innocence and humor to his role as a young man who brings his family back from the edge of extinction. Lea Thompson as Lorraine Baines/McFly, Fox’s mother, is so full of warmth and sweetness that you’re completely hooked into wanting her to find true love with Marty’s teenage father, George McFly (Crispin Glover).
- The filmmakers give us a tale that seems as fresh and original as it was when it first came out, mixing family and sci-fi with such energy that you can’t help but watch over and over again.
- So much more! The way Marty’s then teenaged mother falls, hard, for a teenager she doesn’t know is her own son! The pseudo-science gobbledygook! Fox’s amazing – and perfect – physical humor. You name it, Back to the Future has it.
THE BAD:
- Some people in our currently repressed age may be a bit creeped out by the Marty/Mommy sort-of-a-romance, but there’s a reason this film has become such a classic ala It’s a Wonderful Life.
THE REST:
I can’t recommend Back to the Future (and its sequels) highly enough. The good news is that it’s available just about everywhere, on so many different media. You can watch on dvd, on-demand, via netflix. You name it. Binge watch the whole series with your families and have some great fun!
Diana Vaccarelli is TVWriter™’s Critic-at-Large and a student in the TVWriter™ Online Workshop. Find out more about her HERE