Effortlessly entertaining and incredibly creative.

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2011)

About once a decade a film emerges that is so original and new that it immediately raises the bar for the rest of mainstream cinema to aspire to, films that are both critically espoused and well supported at the box office.
The 70s brought us Star Wars and The Godfather (1 & 2), the 90s The Matrix, Toy Story and The Sixth Sense gave us the 'big twist' ending (for better or worse), the dubbos The Lord of the Rings trilogy (seriously, how many times has it been ripped off already?) and perhaps Avatar, and this decade so far has Inception, which although flawed is an admirable attempt at breaking the mould and creating something distinctly original.
The 80s was all about the adventure (Indiana Jones), Blade Runner must be mentioned and the introduction of the macho action hero (Arnie, Bruce, Sly) but at equal 4th on the IMDb Top Ranked 80s titles is a 'little' film called Back to the Future, it didn't need big explosions, huge car chases and thousands of rounds of ammunition, just a creative plot and some likable characters to inhabit it.
And really that's the entire Back to the Future (BttF) trilogy in a nutshell. The films don't have a huge number of jokes, the action is OK but not mind blowing and there is essentially zero sex and violence. What it does exude in abundance is charm, charm which starts with the most likable 5 foot tall guy of the 80s and 90s, Mr Michael J Fox.
Fox plays Marty McFly, a typical 80s 'teen' from Hill Valley obsessed with girls (namely his girlfriend Jennifer), skateboards and music. His family are also typical and loving, his Dad (Crispin Glover) is a nervous and timid wallflower and his Mum is slightly strict but well meaning. The entire family – especially Dad – is pushed around by a local moron named Biff who has tortured him since school age.
To blow off steam McFly has a friendship with a local eccentric scientist named Dr Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd). Doc's dabbles in everything scientific and has hundreds of wonderful inventions, none of which have set the world on fire.
But all of that is about to change.
Doc's latest creation is a time traveling car (a DeLoreon to be specific) that when gunned to 88mph can FF or rewind to any pre-programmed point in history. McFly is dubious but he agrees at the insistence of Doc Brown to show up at an early morning (actually late evening) trial run in a supermarket car park.
Using Doc's dog Einstein as the test pilot they give the car a try, and lo and behold the thing actually works! But before they even have a chance to high five and discuss how this new invention will benefit the world Libyan terrorists unexpectedly show up and gun down the Doc, with McFly only just managing to escape in the DeLorean.
This one act sets in chain a series of incredible and intricately plotted events that span 3 centuries and several generations of McFly's (and 'Biff's' for that matter) Marty initially is transported back to 1985 where he is hopelessly out of place. While there he manages to meet his two parents before they even have a chance to get together, his actions inadvertently prevent this from happening, meaning that he must somehow play matchmaker to his own folks else he remove himself from existence altogether.
There's a whole lot more to the original BttF, aside from literally justifying his own existence Marty manages to invent skateboarding and rock 'n' roll in his limited stay in 1955, all the while striving to avoid actions that somehow alter the future along the way.
I obviously can't go into too much detail but the ending was excellent as well.
Now some 25 years later time travel in films is commonplace – even Red Dwarf and Futurama have produced excellent episodes dealing with time travel paradoxes – and yes I know about The Time Machine and the 'classic' older films dealing with the topic (that I can't name). Back to the Future managed to take a science fiction core and make it interesting to the everyday movie watcher who just wants to be entertained for a couple hours (I am trying to say 'non-geeks'), the original BttF was/and is immensely original and creative, with solid performances plural by Michael J Fox as, well many McFly's.
It isn't laugh a minute or gasp inducing but you'll go a long while before you find a mainstream film this innovative and enjoyable, and the sequel was even better! Final Rating – 8.5 / 10. Somehow I admire the 2nd film more, but without the elaborate set-ups structured in this film that wouldn't be near as effective, and this film is effortlessly entertaining in any case.