Ritorno al futuro - Parte II

BACK TO THE FUTURE, PART II (1985) *** Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson, Elisabeth Shue. First sequel (noteworthy: both pts. II & III were filmed simultaneously back-to-back) takes up where the first one left off: Fox and Lloyd heading to the year 2015 where Fox must help his family of the future (he plays three other characters of the McFly clan) battling arch-nemesis Biff who goes back to 1955 to alter history...again. Darker in tone and plot but still fun all the same with some mind-twisting plot lines and cool effects.

Marty McFly is back, and this time he has to travel back to 1955 after an unfortunate incident which took place in 2015 so that he can prevent the destruction of the peaceful society of Hill Valley (what a great fictional name!). The film provides two hours of absolutely wonderful and fun entertainment.

Every paradox and logical problem of time-travel is explained very well in the film itself, and those that are left out are easily overlooked due to the creativeness of the rest of the film. Who cares that if Marty leaves 1985 in a time machine to 2015, there would be no Marty left in 1985 to grow to up into the 47 year old Marty in 2015? This movie is so much fun that things like this are gladly forgotten about in order to accept the huge amount of satisfaction delivered by the film.

The Back To The Future trilogy is a perfect example of the need to be willing to abandon at least a tiny bit of logic in order to fully enjoy a movie. This suspension of disbelief is necessary for a person to be able to truly experience the effectiveness of all three Back To The Future films, and this experience truly is a great one.

It is so rare that a film or a series of films comes along that is so well written and perfectly acted and directed as the Back To The Future movies are. Although I realize that another sequel would probably be disastrous to the credibility of the series as a whole, I have to admit that I have always been disappointed that they stopped at the third film. All three are so much fun that they leave you wishing that the story left room for a few more sequels.

Continuing a movie as perfect as "Back To The Future" must have been a really tough job. What made it even harder was that the writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale had to ignore an important character from part one. Because Crispin Glover asked for too much money, his character George McFly, Marty's wacky Dad, hardly appears in the sequels, which constricted the storyline a lot beforehand.

Still, "Back To The Future II" turned out to be a huge success, commercially and artistically. The movie is every bit as clever and delightful as part one. I think most viewers don't realize how extremely complex this story is, because it's so enjoyable to watch. Gale & Zemeckis wrote a screenplay that takes place in three different periods of time, changes storyline more than once, has characters interacting with themselves all the time, but never seems overdone or confusing. The most original trick the two Bobs pulled was to virtually return to part one and have the main character interfere with the original storyline. I don't think that has ever been done before or since.

No, the movie isn't flawless in a sense that everything can be explained logically. Bob Gale admitted himself that Marty and Doc shouldn't be able to visit their future selves in the first place. There are a lot of impossible time travels in part two (you can read about them in detail here: http://mjyoung.net/time/back2.html). "Mistakes" like that don't take away any of the fun, though, and I still think that the "Back To The Future" trilogy incorporates the logics of time traveling better than any other movie ever did.

Besides the perfect script the trilogy's success is due to Zemeckis ever so beautiful direction and his eye for detail, and of course the great cast. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson, all shamelessly underrated actors, are once again brilliant. It's a REAL pity that Crispin Glover didn't return for the sequels, but as I've said before, Gale & Zemeckis did a great job writing their way around his memorable character. The only other actress that didn't come back was Claudia Wells, who played Jennifer in part one and was appropriately replaced by Elisabeth Shue here.

Summing up, "Back To The Future II" is a more than worthy follow-up to one of the best movies of all time. In fact, I think it's the best sequel ever made, only rivaled by "Terminator 2: Judgement Day". But that's a different story...

As a huge BTTF fan, I have to admit that this is the best BTTF flick ever made. It has all the ingredients to please all audience of any age. I personally like the 50's stuff in it, but I am also a huge 80's fan (the present in the movie) and the future is just hilarious. Of course...it has been almost two decades since this movie came out, and now we know that the future that is shown in BTTF 2 is a bit funny, but hey...do you remember Total Recall? Now THAT is also a future that would never see daylight, but at least the BTTF 2 future is amusing.

I have seen this movie over a dozen times, and I tried to find things that don't match, movie mistakes etc. (yes..I am a pain in the ..)but the thing is, I KNOW that there are mistakes (like reflections in window glass) but this movie keeps your mind drifting away, enchanted by the great story and great moments. Of course Spielberg never intended to have more ingredients then the past (50's), the present and the future. But almost 20 years later...it is also a (another) great movie to see what the 80's were all about. (so another great moment for people of my age, born in the late 70's)

I recommend this movie to ANYONE, but watch BTTF(the first movie) first, because you can't watch part 2 or 3 without watching it in the right sequence.

Have fun! (I recommend the trilogy box, you can purchase it anywhere)

'Back to the Future Part II' takes off where the first movie left. Pretty much the essence of the first one is present except this time Elisabeth Shue has been cast as Marty's girlfriend. Like the first movie, this one too is non-stop fun. The original plot once again, brilliantly revolves around the time-travelling paradox but this time the interference with the time-line has huger repercussions that are more complicated to solve. It's slightly a little more complex than the first movie but the energy and entertainment level is the same. I liked Zemeckis's version of 2015. It has that ultracool look and the futuristic gadgets and gizmos were quite amusing. The soundtrack is equally wild. The camera-work and special effects are very well done considering that the challenge was greater (e.g. showing two Michael J. Fox on the same screen). Okay, so showing the same actor share the screen with himself isn't anything new but in most movies/shows it looks poorly done which is not the case here. With most movies, the sequel tends to be a let down but 'Back to the Future Part II' is a great continuation of the first film.