As far as sequels go, this is great entertainment

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2002)

It happens a lot: you get a wonderful, original movie that's both funny and exciting, and then you get a sequel that tries to be as good as the original, but it tries too much, and turns out to not even come close. "Back to the Future Part II" isn't an exception, but it's definitely an improvement.
Here's the story: literally starting off where the original ended, Doc takes Marty (and Jennifer) to the future (2015, to be exact), where Marty has to correct a terrible incident that would result in disaster to his family (his future family, that is). And he more or less succeeds in doing that. However, what happens next is where the plot really takes off: Marty buys a sports almanac with statistics from 1950-2000 in it, simply to take back with him to 1985, and use it to 'place a couple bets'. But not if Doc has anything to say about it! Doc throws it away immediately, reminding Marty that that's not what he built the time machine for. So what's the problem? Seventy-seven year old Biff Tannen overhears that whole conversation! So what does he do? Exactly what 17 year old and 47 year old Biff would do: he takes the book from the trash can, steals the DeLorean, goes back in time, and gives the book to young Biff and tells him exactly what to do with it. How Doc and Marty find out about all this is far to interesting to reveal. And there are still a few surprises after that, but I think I may have already gone too far.
So the bottom line for "Back to the Future Part II" is this: no, it's not as good as the original. The primary reason is the fact that the first 30-40 minutes or so are just too 'gimmicky', with too many little jokes about what the year 2015 will be like in Hill Valley. However, it's the second half of the movie that's really worth watching, as Marty and Doc travel all over time, trying to put Hill Valley and everyone in it back to normal. Another reason to see this is simply so you can watch "Back to the Future Part III", which is even better than this one (really).