Back to the Future Complete Trilogy

Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review

By: The Dweeb

February 2003

DVD Features

Video: 1.85:1 Audio: ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1, FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1

Michael J. Fox- Discusses his experience making the Back to the Future trilogy
Hilarious Outtakes- Flub, bloopers, and antics from the films.
Deleted Scenes- Exclusive, never before seen footage from all three films.
Audio Commentaries- On all three films by writer/producer Bob Gale and producer Neil Canton.
Live Q & A Session- On all three films by director Robert Zemeckis and writer/producer Bob Gale.
Hoverboard Tests- Original “flying skateboard” on location road tests.
Making the Trilogy- A rare, behind the scenes look at the making of all three films, including original and new interviews with the cast and crew.
Animated Anecdotes- Hundreds of fun facts and interesting trivia you can choose to view while watching the films.
Music Videos- “Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News, and “Doubleback” by ZZ Top.
Evolution of the Special Effects- Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic shows how the films’ special effects were developed.
Behind the Scenes Segments- Designing the DeLorean, Make Up Tests, Time Travel, Storyboarding, Production Design and more!
Production Archives- Interactive environment featuring production photos, original storyboards, conceptual art, props and theatrical marketing materials.

Theatrical release: 1985,1989,1990
DVD released on 12/17/2002 by Universal
Running time of 344 minutes

Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Elisabeth Shue, Lea Thompson

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Plot:

Part 1
Marty McFly is your average, slacker teenager, who is friendly with a wacky inventor named Doc Brown. When Doc creates a time machine out of a DeLorean car, Marty is accidentally transported into the year 1955. There, he stumbles upon a younger version of his parents, disrupts the meeting, and must get the two together so that they would get married and have him!

Part 2
The second part of the trilogy begins as Doc, Marty and Jennifer take the time-traveling DeLorean into the year 2015 to straighten out the future of the McFly family. But Biff Tannen steals the time machine and gives his younger self a book containing 50 years of sports statistics, which the young Biff uses to amass an enormous gambling fortune and transform idyllic Hill Valley into a living hell. To restore the present, Doc and Marty must return to the events of their previous adventure in 1955 and retrieve the book.

Part 3
The conclusion of the trilogy sends Marty McFly on a rescue mission to the year 1885, where he must save Doc Brown from death at the hands of yet another member of the Tannen clan. However, there are a number of complications preventing a quick return to the future: a lack of gasoline for the time-traveling DeLorean, a band of gun slinging outlaws and a schoolmarm with affections for the smitten Doc.

Great Scott! Long have the hardcore fans awaited this trilogy to appear on the vaunted golden disc. For years Universal kept promising, maybe next year. Until finally! Back to the Future has been unleashed in all its DVD glory! Or has it?? Seems there is one slight problem, if but only a small one that most people won’t notice. Some of the scenes transferred have been improperly cropped. Blasphemy they cried! So after a lot of bitching by the consumers, those with the “faulty” copies may send in for replacement discs.*

What a pain in the ass. Nice going Universal, after all the hype they screw it up. Well, by now the corrected copies will be on the store shelves and this will be all in the distant past. I just watched my flawed copy and I didn’t notice anything. Of course I don’t have a laserdisc version to compare it too.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this flick, probably about as many times as I’ve seen the original Star Wars. Back to the Future is one of those nostalgia movies from my youth, and its still a lot of fun today. This is one of the few movie experiences I can remember going to in the theatre when I was young lad.

Yeah the effects are really antiquated compared to today’s films, but Michael J Fox was in his prime here. And Christopher Lloyd hadn’t fallen off the planet yet. Where is he these days? Anyways, this series of films is a great look at what could happen if we can change our pasts, our mistakes, or make a different choice and change its consequences. Marty McFly is trapped in a never ending cycle of the same types of situations and problems happening to him over and over again. Yeah, by the third film its predictable but so what. Its fun, that’s what counts.

By far the first film is the runaway favorite, because it’s the original. Followed by the third installment, which is saved by the idea of Doc and Marty in the old west. The second film I couldn’t even watch the first 15 minutes of it. I forgot how laughably bad this one is. They even admit in the extras that this is the weakest film. Robert Zemeckis couldn’t be everywhere at once so this one suffered as a result.

The transfer for this box set, aside from the formatting goof, is awesome. It was so well done, I was amazed. The print has been cleaned up quite well, compared to other movies from around this time. The graininess has been kept to a minimum. The sound is also very well done, the remix is excellent. Not bad considering it was originally not made in Dolby surround. Of course, being a box set this thing comes packed with extras. Plenty of things to watch about these films. I like the outtakes the best for the first disc.

SO, if you want to immerse yourself into this trilogy, this is it. This is an absolute must have for any movie buff.

* Instructions on how to return defective DVD’s to Universal Studios

Here is an official email,

“Thank you for your email. Universal Studios will exchange Back to the Future parts 2 and 3 for copies with the updated framing in late February 2003. You may send the DVDs back now or wait until February. Please send Back to the Future disks 2 and 3, without the case, and a letter with the following information: Name, Full Mailing Address, Daytime Phone Number, Reason for Return and Return Address. Send to:

Back to the Future DVD Returns
PO Box 224468
Dallas, Texas 75260”