They shouldn't have come back

Rating: 6/10 (10 August 2003)

*Mild Spoilers* I couldn't wait to see this one in the cinema in 1989. I loved the original and watched it countless times on video. Anyone who watched the original knew that they were going to do a sequel when "To be continued" flashed up on the screen, great I thought, not only had I just watched a fantastic film they were going to do another! So I awaited the follow up with much excitement, it took quite a while as it didn't appear until four years later but this didn't seem so bad when I found out they were actually making two Back to the Future follow ups at the same time. The minute the film started doubts began to enter my mind, for a start the actress playing Marty's girlfriend was different so they had to reshoot the ending of the last one, then the old actors playing multiple roles trick appeared, with actors playing themselves older, younger, their sons, their fathers, their mothers, their alternate selves etc etc, very clever, or so they think, I personally didn't want to see Michael J Fox in drag playing his daughter, or finding out he was a complete loser in the future with a complete idiot of a son, what a downer. Also most of the film seems to be just commercials for various products, Texaco, Mattel, Nintendo and most blatantly Pepsi, the worst part was when Doc actually orders Marty to "order a Pepsi", I half expected him to say "and remember folks you can order a Pepsi from the foyer, too!", actually this movie must have the most product placement in any film even more than the James Bond films, although I do realise there was some in the brilliant original too. I will say that there was some very clever time travel stuff going on though, going back to 1955 "again!" was a brilliant idea, I enjoyed this section much more than the horrible 2015 section. At least the producers tried to make a decent follow up actually if anything they appear to be trying too hard. Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd are very good in reprising their best known roles and so are the supporting cast. Elisabeth Shue doesn't fare so well, appearing in a very dodgy wig and for most of the film the makers don't seem to know what to do with her character, so she spends most of the film getting knocked out or fainting so they don't have to bother with her anymore. All in all while not being a complete disaster Back to the Future was none the less a major disappointment. ***6/10***