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Back to the Future Part II
USA 1989
produced by Neil Canton, Bob Gale, Kathleen Kennedy (executive), Frank Marshall (executive), Steven Spielberg (executive) for Amblin Entertainment, Universal
directed by Robert Zemeckis
starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Elisabeth Shue, James Tolkan, Jeffrey Weissman, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Zane, J.J. Cohen, Charles Fleischer, E. Casanova Evans, Jay Koch, Charles Gherardi, Ricky Dean Logan, Darlene Vogel, Jason Scott Lee, Elijah Wood, John Thornton, Theo Schwartz, Lindsey Whitney Barry, Judy Ovitz, Stephanie Williams, Marty Levy, Flea, Jim Ishida, Nikki Birdsong, Al White, Junior Fann, Shaun Hunter, George 'Buck' Flower, Neil Ross, Tamara Carrera, Tracy Dali
story by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, screenplay by Bob Gale, music by Alan Silvestri, visual effects by ILM
Back to the Future
review by Mike Haberfelner
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For the set-up for this, see Back
to the Future ... So Doc (Christopher Lloyd) takes Marty
(Michael J. Fox) and his girlfriend Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) to the
future - where Marty has to pretend to be his own son Marty jr (also
Michael J. Fox) to prevent the young one from being bullied into taking
part in a bank robbery by bully Griff (Thomas F. Wilson), who just happens
to be the grandson of Biff (also Thomas F. Wilson), who bullied Marty's
dad (Jeffrey Weissman) back in 1955. And since it is 2015, Marty figures
he'll also buy himself a sports almanach that covers the years 1985 to
2000 to always pick the winning teams at betting and make a healthy sum on
the side. Doc forbids this and throws away the almanach ... but old bully
Biff just happens to overhear the conversation, pick up the almanach, and
in an unguarded moment snatch the time machine to make a quick trip back
to 1955 (how he figures how the time machine works we'll never know), to
return to 2015 in a flash, with neither Doc nor Marty nor Jennifer any the
wiser. Returning back to 1985, Marty learns that Biff owns the town now,
Marty's father has been murdered 15 years ago, Marty's mom (Lea Thompson)
has married Biff in the aftermath and has now turned into an alcoholic
who's totally under his thumb. And Biff hates his stepson Marty with a
passion ... Doc picks up Marty and they travel back to 1955 where they
witness old Biff giving young Biff the sports almanach with the help of
which Biff made his wealth, and now, to get things back to normal, Marty
has to steal the almanach from Biff ... while of course avoiding to make
the things he made happen in Back
to the Future for his parents to meet unhappening again. Under
huge complications, he can somehow make this happen and the future seems
to turn to normal again - but then Doc and his time machine get somehow
lost and Marty is stranded in 1955 ... until he receives a letter from
Doc, written back in 1885 ... Back to the Future Part II
tries to be as light-footed and lively as its pre-decessor - and for a
large part succeeds even - but it's far from being the movie that Back
to the Future was: Despite everything being bigger and better, the
film has little new to tell, it's also much more convoluted than the
earlier movie without having a better story, some of the concepts of time
travel presented strain the audiences belief a bit too much, while other
sequences are just simple repititions of the first movie. That's not to
say Back to the Future Part II isn't ok entertainment, and it even
holds its own watched back-to-back with Back
to the Future (also because of quite a few loving references), but
at the end of the day it's not a sequel anyone needed in particular.
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