DVD Reviews

Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy - Blu-ray Review

By Patrick Luce Oct 28, 2010, 14:00 GMT

Back to the Future: From the Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis comes Back to the Future, the original, groundbreaking adventure that sparked one of the most successful trilogies in Hollywood history. When teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is blasted to 1955 in the DeLorean time machine created by the eccentric Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), he finds himself mixed up in a time-shattering chain reaction that could vaporize ...more

It is time to gas up the DeLorean and speed Back to the Future with the Blu-ray release of all three films in the 25th Anniversary Trilogy collection. In addition to looking incredible on 1080p high definition, the set comes loaded with special features making it well-worth the price.

The three movies are still a ton of fun to watch with a blend of science-fiction, screwball comedy, and even some action/adventure. The films were directed by Robert Zemeckis (who also wrote all three screenplays with producer Bob Gale) and featured the steady producing abilities of Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Neil Canton and Kathleen Kennedy.

The films benefited from the natural chemistry of the trilogy’s main two stars Michael J. Fox (who got the part after Eric Stoltz didn’t seem to click with Zemeckis’ idea of the film's comedy) as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd's eccentric scientist Dr. Emmet Brown.

The two stars are joined in the films by Lea Thompson (“Caroline in the City”), Crispin Glover (Hot Tub Time Machine), Thomas F. Wilson (“Big Love”), Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas), Mary Steenburgen (The Proposal), Billy Zane (Titanic), and a very short appearance by a young Elijah Wood (before he had to go and throw that ring into the fires of Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings).

Back to the Future kicks the franchise off in a great style with a teenage Marty McFly late for school and dreaming of life after he is able to escape his family and his home town of Hill Valley. He has a great girlfriend named Jennifer (Claudia Wells) and a very odd friend in Doc Brown.

His parents George (Glover) and Lorraine (Thompson) seem oblivious to him and his needs (such as the need to take the car so Marty and his girlfriend can spend the weekend at the lake) and his siblings Dave (Marc McClure) and Linda (Wendie Jo Sperber) don’t really give him the time of day. When his dad’s boss Biff Tannen (Wilson) wrecks the family car, Marty’s weekend plans are squashed, but it turns out for the best since Doc needs him to help video tape a new experiment.

Marty brings the VHS video recorder to the mall parking lot in the early hours of the morning to discover that Doc has come up with the genius idea to convert a DeLorean into the world’s first time machine. Brown’s plan is to go 25 years into the future (oddly enough the year 2010), but the terrorist he borrowed the plutonium (which is what is needed to make the time machine’s Flux Capacitor work) from have other plans. It seems Doc was supposed to use the plutonium to make them a bomb, and they are a tad ticked he double crossed them.

A shootout forces Marty into the car and before you know it he is speeding across the parking lot at the needed 88 miles-per-hour and shooting back to the year 1955.

Stuck in the past, Marty meets the younger versions of his father and mother (his mom has a thing for him in scenes that could have come off as beyond gross if Thompson wasn’t so funny), and has to help get them together so he can be born in the future.

Along the way, he also has to help his dad stand up to his bully Biff, help introduce the 1955 teenagers to the sounds of rock ‘n roll, and find a younger Doc Brown to get him Back to the Future!!! This is all done with Fox’s charm and comedic sense of timing, and Lloyd’s funny delivery of almost every line he mutters.

Back to the Future 2 (which was shot back to back with Back to the Future 3) picks up right after the first film and sees Marty back safely in 1985 with his girlfriend Jennifer (who changed into Shue while no one was looking).

Thanks to some minor tinkering with the past, Marty has a pretty good life ahead of him when Doc Brown shows up and demands they go Back to the Future (about 30 years ahead so 2015) so that Marty can fix a problem with his kids!

The future looks bright as Doc demonstrates the DeLorean (along with pretty much every other vehicle) now flies, and the fashion now can auto adjust to fit its wearer. Despite warnings from Doc, Marty just can’t help himself from getting a little knowledge of events to come (what’s the harm in placing a few bets on some sporting events, right?), and the two have to head back to 1955 again to fix the time line. Marty is able to set things somewhat straight, but accidently causes Doc to be stuck in the year 1885.

Back to the Future 3 sees Marty gassing up the DeLorean for a trip to the old west and meeting some of his ancestors as he attempts to get Doc back. He also runs into Biff’s distant relatives, and discovers the name Clint Eastwood doesn’t scare the western gunslingers like he thought it would.

Although Marty comes to rescue him, Doc is actually quite happy in the old west, and even has a love interest in the new school teacher Clara Clayton (Steenburgen). Marty informs Doc that he can’t stay in the past since Biff's relative Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen is gunning for him, and the two get to work on figuring out a way to get the DeLorean up to the needed speed (it suffered a gas leak after a running in with some local Indians).

All three of the Back to the Future films are greatly enjoyable thanks to the chemistry of the cast, the comedy in the story, and the groundbreaking special effects (or at least groundbreaking for the time period).

Fox and Lloyd both established iconic film characters with their roles and the franchise is carried squarely on their capable shoulders. Along with the two main stars, the franchise benefited from the first movie’s performance of Glover and Thompson – who gave Marty a real challenge and gave every teen the idea that their parents' teenage years might not have been the way they pictured them.

All three films also greatly benefit from Wilson’s performance as the many different versions of Biff. This actor makes all his characters complete jerks, but you just have to love the way he constantly torments Marty and George with his “Hello, McFly” intimidation and his astute insight as Marty and Biff have their first square off – which as the camera closes in on Biff he delivers his greatest line “What are you looking at, butthead?”

Fox and Lloyd might be the franchise poster stars, but Wilson is what gives the franchise its greatest villain and most memorable quotes. Just as it is impossible to see anyone else playing Marty, Wilson is the only actor who could tackle the range needed for Biff, butthead.

As entertaining as these films are, the collection is also worth the price thanks to the incredible picture (the colors really pop when Marty heads back to 1955), and its wealth of special features. As good as the picture looks, the crystal clear power of Blu-ray does hurt some of the make-up effects of the films with Thompson’s and Glover’s old age make-up easily spotted. This doesn’t kill the enjoyment of the franchise, but does take you out of the story a bit at the beginning.

The bonus material is made up of some past releases, but also feature a ton of new documentaries that really give you an inside look at how the franchise came to be, and interviews with the people involved in the films – both in front of and behind the cameras.

Fans of the franchise are going to love the six-part retrospective Tales from the Future where the cast and the crew share stories about shooting the three films, how much trouble they had getting the first one to the screen (most studios didn’t think it was raunchy enough for the type of teen comedy they were doing at the time, and Disney didn’t like the whole idea of Marty’s mom wanting to make out with him in 1955), and how they had to invent new ways of filming for the second and third picture (remember this is before CGI was the norm on films like this).

The set also features deleted scenes, gag reels, music videos from ZZ Top and Huey Lewis and the News, commentaries, a Q&A with Fox, and a look at the physics of time travel.

Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy is a must have Blu-ray for any fan of the franchise or movies. Unlike many films from the 80s, the Back to the Future franchise still holds up, and is just as entertaining today as it was back in 1985 when Marty first fired up the Flux Capacitor.