GREAT SCOTT...and Great memories!

Rating: 9/10 (12 March 2006)

HAve you ever had a movie experience from years before(let's use as an arbitrary number,five years or more)that was so vivid,so exhilarating that you could recall what day,time and even things as seemingly easy to forget as the smell and tastes of the popcorn and soda you had at the movie?
For me,that was this movie,and I recall seeing it on a Sunday afternoon in July,1985. The noise and visuals were so electric that I enjoyed this film immensely. My only regret about the experience was that I didn't get a chance to redeem the "Free Pepsi with purchase of large popcorn"discount coupons they were giving out that day!
In a pleasant,average California suburb,ordinary teenager MArty McFly(Michael J.Fox,who was a youngish 24 when he filmed this) dreams of being a rock guitarist as he works his way through school,helping out brilliant-but-fringe local scientist Dr.Emmitt Brown(Christopher Lloyd,adding to his wide range of characters). When an unforeseen crisis interrupts Doc Brown's breakthrough time-machine revelation,MArty is thrust into the machine and becomes the unwitting first participant in time-travel. As if that weren't harrowing enough,he's just found a way to break up his younger parents BEFORE they met and now he has to feverishly find some way to get them back together,lest he and his sibs will never be born.
If you can suspend some level of disbelief while watching this(and,really,when SHOULDN'T you suspend some disbelief when watching Spielberg/Lucas/Zemekis style of sci-fi films?),this film is as smooth as silk and one fun ride! Besides Fox and Lloyd,Crispin Glover(lovably strange and pathetic as Marty's once and future dad,George),Lea Thompson(cute and vapid as once and future mom Lorraine)and Thomas Wilson(thick-headed bully Biff,who is a lost treasure here,too) are excellent in fleshing out the characters that stick in one's mind regarding this film. Heck,Old MAn Peabody,Goldie Wilson,Jennifer PArker,MArvin Berry(cousin of Chuck)and the persistently bald and serious-as-heart-attack high school principal all add their own flairs in this movies persona. Robert Zemekis parlayed his "Romancing the Stone" success to create an even larger-than-life action-fantasy-comedy,with help from plenty of sight and sound FX and a hugely energetic soundtrack anchored by Huey Lewis and the News(remember them?). This film isn't just a renter,this is a keeper! Most people with a sense of fun who long for the eighties movies that accented style over dark or haunting substance should definitely buy this one,tape or DVD.