Very entertaining film  as slick as it is fun as it is engaging

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2006)

In 1985 teenager Marty McFly is a bit of an outcast and spends his evenings hanging out with eccentric professor Doc Brown and his various crazy and failed inventions. However when Doc asks Marty to meet him late one night in a mall parking lot, he learns that Doc has invented a working time travel system and inserted it into a DeLorean. Much to Doc's joy and Marty's surprise the machine works on its test run and Doc is all set to be the first man to travel in time when he is killed by the terrorist group who stole plutonium for him with the impression he was making them a bomb. Marty flees in the DeLorean but accidentally winds up back in 1955. Back there he convinces Doc to help him out and come up with a way of getting him back to the future. However the problem of no plutonium appears small when Marty changes the past and stops his parents meeting and falling in love.
In its own way this is a classic film that delivers the goods in the same way as Frank Capra's films does although I can understand why for some it doesn't hold quite the same appeal. The plot seems complex as it involves time travel and such but it is deceptively simple and is a clever mix of sci-fi and romantic comedy that is as light and enjoyable as you could hope for. It never makes fun of itself but it never takes itself too seriously and by doing this it pitches it just perfectly. The narrative may be light but it is consistently engaging whether it is the time travel aspect or the relationships. It isn't perfect and it isn't the deepest of films but it is effortlessly a lot of fun and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
The cast are roundly great and are a big part of the film being as light and fun as it is. For my money this is Fox's best all-round performance and he plays the clean-cut American teenager really well bringing energy to the character. Of course Lloyd's performance dominates the film by its sheer colour and energy, making him the most memorable character of the piece. Thompson and Glover (two people who still look young twenty years later damn them) are both good in their roles and work well together and individually to make their part of the narrative match up to the (superficially) more appealing sci-fi stuff. Zemeckis directs with an eye for a memorable shot and visually his film matches the style and vitality of the narrative.
Overall a very good film that is every bit as pleasing as the Frank Capra feel-good films that are held up as classics. Whether this film is a classic is as much up for debate as those films' classic status but it isn't really a debate that means a lot to me. What matters is that the film is engaging and entertaining, which it consistently is. It glides through a slick plot and I always enjoy it when I revisit it. Well worth taking a look if you are after a great piece of family fun.