Earth Angel And The Nuclear DeLorean.

Rating: 10/10 (14 November 2009)

It's 1984 and director Robert Zemeckis, fresh from the success of Romancing The Stone, is trying to film Back To the Future - a film about a young teenager called Marty McFly who is accidentally sent back in time to 1955 and inadvertently risks the future of his family. Zemeckis is troubled by his leading man, Eric Stoltz, who just isn't capturing the youthful teenager exuberance that he wants for Marty McFly. Stoltz is jettisoned and in comes Michael J. Fox who was busy wowing audiences in the hugely popular sit-com Family Ties. Fox had been first choice anyway but couldn't get a release slot from shooting with Family Ties. Luckily the wasted time with Stoltz created an opening for Fox to play Marty McFly as well as work on the show - the result of which would turn out to be one of the most beloved fantasy trilogies of the modern era.
It's honestly hard to find anyone who seriously doesn't like Back To The Future part one. The second one has its critics, because, lets face it, it's a bridge between two better films, while the third film loses some people because of its Western themed plot (the heathens that they are). Yet really this trilogy opener is as near perfect cinema for all the family as you could wish to view. It's a water tight script from Zemeckis and Bob Gale that not only encompasses witty time travel paradoxes, but also dares to be dramatic into the bargain. The first 15 minutes contains a real shocker that is as cheeky as it bold, something that really gives Marty's 1955 quest a real urgency that the audience can buy into as the comedy relief then comes in spades. The set pieces are first rate - hello skateboard - hello rock "n" roll 101, and the makers have fun in winking towards other notable sci-fi pictures along the way. Hell they even manage to deal in an Oedipal strand that is tasteful, handled superbly and garners guffaws aplenty. No mean feat that last one actually. Alan Silvestri provides a whirring & pleasing score and the theme song, The Power Of Love, by Huey Lewis & The News, is infectiously enjoyable. Finally it's the cast that seal the deal for why this is as good as it gets for fantasy escapist cinema. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson & Crispin Glover are the perfect quintet, each feeding off each other and doing justice to the excellently constructed story.
Made for $19 million, Back To The Future went on to make a worldwide gross of over $381 million, and those are the kind of figures you really can't argue with. It's snappy, happy and down right funny, so really, if you don't like Back To The Future then seek medical help immediately. 10/10