A sci-fi adventure with plenty of excitement and a good number of laughs!

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2007)

I first saw "Back to the Future" years ago, but it really didn't do much for me. I saw it again several years later, and don't recall thinking much of it during that viewing, either. However, after watching the highly acclaimed Robert Zemeckis movie again recently (this time a good few years after my last viewing, I believe), although I still can't exactly call it one of my favourite features, I now understand why it has such wide appeal!
In 1985, Marty McFly is a teenager who is not exactly popular with his peers, but does have a girlfriend named Jennifer Parker. His best friend is Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, an oddball local scientist. One night, Marty meets Doc out in a parking lot, where he is to assist the scientist with his new invention, a time machine made by a car! To make the machine powerful enough, Doc has used plutonium, which he got from a terrorist group who were expecting him to make a bomb with it! Unfortunately, just as Doc is about to travel through time, the terrorists track him down and shoot him! They then go after Marty, who manages get away in Doc's machine, but ends up being transported to the year 1955, back when his parents were around his age! Eventually, he meets the Doc of that time and manages to figure out a way to get back to 1985 with his assistance. However, Marty also learns that he has altered history, and must somehow get his parents together in order to save his very existence!
This movie may start out a tad sluggish, but for the vast majority of the approximate two hours that it runs for, it is consistently entertaining! Most of "Back to the Future" is very exciting, with a lot of action, and it also works reasonably well as a comedy, with quite a few laughs here and there. Basically, the main cast members all nothing less than reasonable in their performances (I haven't noticed any really bad ones during any of my several viewings). The most notable performance (one that's definitely MORE than reasonable) is that of Christopher Lloyd, who fits the role of Doc Brown very well. The movie wouldn't quite be the same without this character and his antics! For all those reasons, this first installment in the "Back to the Future" trilogy is one fine accomplishment!
Over two decades after the release of this sci-fi comedy, it remains extremely popular. It's current position in the IMDb Top 250 is obviously proof of that. No movie can please 100% of its viewers, but clearly, the majority of people who have seen "Back to the Future" at any point in the past 22 years have enjoyed it, and that's a lot of people, so the film deserves a lot of credit! If you usually like to see the sci-fi and comedy genres combined, and you haven't seen this particular combination of the two for any reason, I strongly suggest you watch it as soon as possible!