Back in Time

I was looking forward to an interesting and in-depth celebration of this great movie trilogy but this has one of the weakest plays from a strong hand I've ever seen. Boy did it drag and dwell on uninteresting aspects. It felt like it was 6 hours long. So some guy bought one of the deloreans and proud of it, cool, but does it really need that much screen time when you've got Doc and Zemeckis, and Michael J Fox and crew. What a wasted opportunity. What a waste of the viewers time. Instead of invigorating my love for the movies it made me wary of watching things like this again. Who do we blame for this? Directors mistake?

Greetings again from the darkness. Thirty years is an eternity in the filmmaking world. Only a few dozen movies even get a cable run in year two. So, it's worth noting, and maybe even magical, when a movie is beloved and worshiped by a rabid fan base some three decades after release. Such is the case with Back to the Future, the story of Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown and their time-traveling escapades. First time director Jason Aron offers up a look at the BTTF community of fans, and some behind-the-scenes scoop from those involved.

Talking heads abound in the first part of the movie, as we see and hear from the masterminds of the classic: Robert Zemekis and Bob Gale, as well as Michael J Fox, Lea Thompson, Steven Spielberg, Huey Lewis, Christopher Lloyd, Claudia Wells, Alan Silvestri, Dean Cundey, Dan Harmon, Frank Price and others. Very little new information is served up, and in fact Mr. Zemekis doesn't seem especially excited to be involved, whereas Mr. Gale seems quite pleased and comfortable with his role in film history. The best "making of" anecdotes come from Michael J Fox, though it is interesting to note just how difficult it was for the film to get studio backing – "time travel" movies didn't have a successful box office track record.

The middle third of the movie is dedicated to the iconic Delorean car, and all that entails. This sequence would have been effective were it completed in 10 minutes, but instead it brings the film's flow to a dead stop. Sure, it's amazing that this many have a hobby related to this obscure car and its role in a classic film, but enough already!

Fan-based clubs and the accuracy of the film's "future" predictions for 2015 make up the final third of the run time, as we get a glimpse of how close we are to real hover boards and flying cars. The question that seems unanswered is just who is this film aimed at? Most of the insight has been long ago discussed in DVD "bonus" coverage or previous interviews with the key players. The fan communities are certainly of interest if one is part of it, but the vast majority of those who have held the film close to their heart for 30 years care little for the obsessive fringes, and only for the emotions and imagination delivered by the film that needs no roads.

I was looking forward to putting my feet up and watching this bad boy while winding down the October 21st 2015 celebrations. It was to be the icing on the cake. I was saddened by the realization that it was little more than a re-hash of other, better documentaries and simply didn't pack that big a punch.

I was hoping for an in depth look at the trilogy but what I got was a skimmed version of the events that lead up to the production of the film with a few new anecdotes thrown in. They had most of the main players, who were all on top form of course but they didn't get into the nitty gritty. Questions STILL remain unanswered. Also, it would have been great to have included interviews with Eric Stoltz and Crispin Glover, so they could at least give their side of the story. It also irked me that they talked very little about the sequel and glossed over the third film entirely.

The music left me with a sense of melancholy and was, in my opinion, a poor choice. Lastly, there were no titles, which is fine in some instances but I noticed that when names and job titles were shown under the interviewees as they spoke it was via Netflix's subtitles interface - they weren't part of the film itself. The closing credits were missing all together. All you get is two minutes of music on black. This may be limited to the Netflix version but even still, this is a shoddy move.

It's worth a watch if you're new to the mythology surrounding the films but if, like me, you are a fan, give it a miss.

'Back in Time' is a documentary about 'Back to the Future' and the everlasting imprint it has left on society in the last 30 years. Going into this documentary, I was really looking forward to gaining a lot of new information about what went into making this trilogy of films, but there wasn't really much there of interest, for a Back to the Future fan. They did go into the pre-production of the first film for about 20 minutes, speaking to Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, and Bob Gale and providing some somewhat interesting information about the complications they had with getting the film made. They also spoke a little about the second film and its representation of the future but not enough to really give us any insight into why they decided to show the future in the way they did. And when it came to talking about the third film, i think Christopher Lloyd mentioned it once and that was pretty much it. So in terms of going in depth about the making of the films and providing any new information that was previously unknown, it was a bit of a let down.

I would have to also say that the overall structure of the documentary was a little off. It wasn't really broken into sections and instead it kind of began talking about something and going off on a tangent before then bringing it back to what it was initially talking about and certain portions felt out of place. A better and more organised structure would have really helped to maintain interest. The tone of the film was something that i was unsure of what i was going to get. And i have to say i liked the tone they were going for, it definitely wasn't a fun and exciting tone but it worked as more of a slower, slightly more emotional tone. I'm not sure if they were actually trying to evoke those emotions or if it was just my reaction to seeing things that i recognise from the film and thus my childhood. But either way it was a nicely paced documentary that had a few moments where they were able to crack a quick joke to lighten the mood a little which was nice.

But where the documentary really excelled and where i was really loving what it was showing was when it began talking about the fans, and the imprint 'Back to the Future' has had on society and our culture over the last 30 years. Getting an insight into the many types of events that are aimed at bringing together fans of BTTF from all around the world was endlessly fascinating. Seeing people interact at BTTF fan conventions, and things like the DeLoreon Car Show really shows the love for this series even today. They even go into a few more personal stories talking about how BTTF inspired people to fight through their illnesses and how they found connections between the characters and were able to learn from the film to be stronger and help others. These were very heartwarming stories that i was happy to see the documentary put quite a bit of focus on.

In the end, for BTTF fans, a lot of the information about the films themselves and what went into the making of them is stuff that has already been featured in past interviews and DVD behind the scenes that you have probably already checked out. So if that is what you are looking to get out of this you may be disappointed. But for new BTTF fans, i think you can get a good kick of info that you might not have previously known. If there was a better overall structure and more of a focus on all 3 BTTF films this would have been very worthwhile, but apart from the fan stories and witnessing the films legacy over the last 30 years there's not much else to really pick out. - 6/10

Cast, crew, and fans explore the classic time-travel trilogy's resonance throughout our culture 30 years after Marty went Back in Time.

This is a hit and miss documentary, though it is a lot more hit than miss. Some of it, like the fan segments, are not that great. Do we care about a man proposing to his girlfriend or a miniature golf course? Not really. But the background information on how no studio wanted the film, and hearing from just about everyone involved, this is great and this film should be included on all future releases of the trilogy.

And that is what strikes me as the most impressive -- that the series was never intended to be a trilogy, but only a single film. The way the three weave in and out of each other, it seems brilliantly intentional, but perhaps it is even more brilliant because of the way it looks natural. Maybe Dan Harmon thinks the sequels stink, but the general population loves them.