The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy

This was plain sad. This 25-minute long waste of time had virtually nothing to offer save for a few deleted scenes (more of which you can view on the BTTF trilogy DVD box set anyway) and some behind-the-scenes shots and quick interviews... all that takes up maybe 7 minutes max, and the rest is pathetically and annoyingly stretched out with spacefiller that includes dozens of clips from the three movies and the irritating teen host who reads and answers some of the most ridiculous letters "sent in" by fans (yaha, right)...

One of the questions reads "I haven't seen BTTF part 3 yet, but someone spilled the beans that Doc Brown falls in love! What kind of woman does it take to win Doc's heart?" And then, of course there's a load of clips and maybe 15 seconds worth of commentary from Mary Steenburgen, and bingo, another letter answered, another 8 minutes successfully filled up. If I was the host, I'd flip off whoever "wrote" the question and tell them to watch the damn trilogy and find out for themselves so that they don't have to ask such ridiculous questions.

Released back in the early 90s on the Widescreen VHS Box-set, this 20-minute documentary was one of the first "Extra features" that now seem to be taking over the DVD industry.

As an owner of this set for over a decade, I can say that I think I've watched this 4th tape a total of 2 or 3 times. As with all bonus stuff, the novelty soon wears off, and after you have seen the 3 or 4 cut scenes, you just end up cursing at the overacted introduction and pointless links by the has-been host.

I sometimes worry that so much focus and attention is paid to these features: they are unrewarding and never come close to bringing the excitement that they promise- and this one is a prime example of something that never lives up to the hype. The interviews do provide some insight into the special effects, but all of this has been available in text form on websites anyway (where you can also copy/paste/print/zoom/etc). So if you were a fan you would already know it all.

Any fan of the "Back to the Future" series should not pass up on this documentary "making-of" short. I originally saw it as a rerun ("What's a rerun?") a few years back, but then saw it again on the "BttF" DVD collection box-set that came out last Christmas. Kirk Cameron narrates and hosts the show but it's a bit too cheesy in its presentation. It seems targeted at kids most/much of the time. Informative and a must-see for fans of the franchise, but so much more actual information could have been packed into this if they hadn't relied on cheesy intros.

3/5 stars -

John Ulmer