Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is accidentally sent back to 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean time machine invented by his close friend Doctor Emmet Brown (Christopher Lloyd). However, on bumping into his parents to be, it is clear that his mother Lorraine has ‘got the hots for him’ instead of his Dad George and if he doesn’t get them together, he will soon cease to exist. Marty has 7 days to make certain his teenage parents-to-be meet and fall in love and then there’s also the small matter of getting back to the future.
Robert Zemeckis’s Back To The Future has been a favourite of mine for a long, long time and it was here that the world were introduced to Michael J. Fox, well the ones that never watched American show Family Ties anyway. This movie is all about Fox and I have to confess he had me totally convinced due to his youthful appearance that was his character’s age of 17, whereas in fact, he was actually 25!
This movie is pure fun and entertainment for all of the family and stands up brilliantly even today due to the fact the story is engaging and will continue to be until time travel is a reality and more so because it has a really innocent vibe to it.
Now although the concept of time travel is completely implausible – you end up not even thinking about it because of the great casting and the superb acting.
Christopher Lloyd as the over the top Doc Brown is just brilliant, this role was made for him and ‘great Scott’, he delivers with aplomb, Michael J. Fox totally owns Marty McFly with his natural charisma, raw energy and brilliant delivery – both serious and hilarious, Lea Thompson is cute and vivacious and Crispin Glover was a stand-out performer for me – his portrayal of Marty’s dad George, even now has me giggling and quoting bits of his dialogue.
I must also mention one more performance and that is of Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen, he is absolutely brilliant, classic line after classic line and his character switch, much like Crispin Glover’s in the latter part of the movie is just fantastic.
This move spawned 2 sequels, which were decent, but like a lot off trilogies, franchises, you will never really top the original, yes I know, barring a few.
I also want to give a final shout out to Huey Lewis and The News for a brilliant contribution to the soundtrack and if you look closely, Huey himself, plays a very small role in the movie.
Sadly, they don’t make it like this these days but then again we always can revisit them – that’s why they’re classics.