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"Think about it. If you go into the past, that past becomes your future, and your former present becomes the past, which can't now be changed by your new future!"
"So, Back to the Future's a bunch of bullshit?"
Ah, tut-tut, Marvel Cinematic Universe. How soon we forget there was a time when screenwriters didn't have decades worth of escape clauses at the ready.
That being said, Back to the Future Part II is the installment of the trilogy that seems to be trying especially hard. If it was fun to compare and contrast the '80s with the '50s, it'll be even better to do it with the '80s, 2015, a sleazier version of the '80s and the '50s again!
And what's better than one Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd)? Why, two Marty McFlys and Doc Browns. Oh, hell, let's have Michael play as many characters as he wants. To be fair, Fox seems to be having a blast whether he's playing Marty from this film, Marty from the first film, Marty from 2015, Marty Jr. and Marlene McFly. Lloyd also does an admirable job of not being crushed by Doc's dialogue.
"I didn't invent the time machine for financial gain! The intent is to gain a clearer perception of humanity. Our past, our future, the pitfalls, the possibilities ... the perils, and the promise. Perhaps an answer to that universal question, 'Why?'"
"I'm all for that. What's wrong with making a few bucks on the side?"
While it's mostly lacking the emotional resonance of the first and third installments, Back to the Future Part II does have a solid hook. Doc's been warning Marty about the danger of one person knowing too much about the future. Now imagine if that person's Biff (Thomas F. Wilson). An unstable bully is the absolute last person who should have the upper hand on much of humanity.
"Go ahead, kid. Jump. A suicide will be nice and neat."
"What if I don't?"
"Lead poisoning."
"What about the police, Biff? They're going to match the bullet with that gun?"
"Kid, I own the police! Besides, they couldn't match up the bullet that killed your old man."
"You son of a ..."
"I suppose it's poetic justice. Two McFlys with the same gun."
For all of its smoothness, Back to the Future Part II has its awkward qualities. I still think screenwriter Bob Gale overdid it when he introduced Marty's "nobody calls me chicken" attitude. The foreshadowing for Back to the Future Part III is a little too obvious in hindsight. Would you have guessed Doc's favorite historical era is the Old West? I also had a good laugh about Marty just happening to hear enough about how his life sucks from the elderly Biff and Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) just happening to hear the rest from the elderly Lorraine McFly (Lea Thompson).
"(from the MAD parody) My agent said in this movie I'd play two parts and they'd be great for my career! Right! I play a 45-year-old drunk and a 65-year-old grandmother!"
The less said about director Robert Zemeckis' trickery to try obscuring the fact that it's Jeffrey Weissman as George McFly, the better. I had totally forgotten that George's wave after "Earth Angel," one of my all-time favorite moments in the BTTFverse*, was recreated so poorly.
*And movies in general, for reasons I'll explain when I write about the first one in July.
In the end, though, my disappointment with Back to the Future Part II only goes so deep. If ever there was a movie with a consistent wow factor, this might be it.
"Shark still looks fake."
Recommended with reservations.
Thoughts:
-- "Eat lead, slackers!"
-- Box Office: Grossing $118 million on a $40 million budget, this opened at No. 1 and came in sixth place for 1989.
-- Awards Watch: The visual effects lost the Oscar to The Abyss, but were awarded by the BAFTAs and Saturn Awards. I've mentioned before that the 17th annual Saturns recognized movies from 1989 and 1990. In two categories, Best Science Fiction Film and Best Costumes, Back to the Future II was competing against Back to the Future III (Total Recall won both times). The 1989 film's nomination was for makeup, which it lost to Dick Tracy. Oh, and for the record, Fox and Lloyd weren't even nominated, while Wilson won his Saturn for Back to the Future III.
-- I wouldn't have minded seeing more of Griff. The idea of an antagonist who can grow at will is pretty damn fascinating. Also, Griff's gang is more interesting than Biff's goons. "Hey, McFly, you bojo! Those boards don't work on water." "Unless you've got pow-er!" Counterpoint: "The easy way."
-- There's quite a few lines from this movie that have remained in my lexicon for decades now. "I get married in the Chapel O' Love?!" "Oh boy, oh boy, Mom, you sure can hydrate a pizza." "'Oh La La'? ... 'Oh La La'?!"
-- Critic's Corner: "Giddily and merrily mind-boggling rather than confusing," Janet Maslin wrote. "For all of its craziness, (it) lacks the genuine power of the original," according to Roger Ebert. Desson Howe agreed, observing that the first movie's "suspense turned on character whims, not just whiz kid storyboarding."
-- Hey, It's 1989!: David Denby might have given the harshest review. "The wild-eyed Lloyd, shouting gibberish, is desperately unfunny, and Fox is little more than a shuttlecock with mussed feathers. I don't care how much money it makes; the movie is a brutal setback for Zemeckis' career." To be fair, he opened his column by admitting to being distracted by the fall of Communism and the possibility of a united Europe.
-- Early in "Bleak for the Future Part II," MAD's parody, there's a gag that's now much harsher in hindsight. Onlookers Lucy and Charlie Brown comment about how everyone will be intelligent, have good taste and not tolerate garbage in the future. "That's too bad. I'm going to miss MAD Magazine." Alongside the cast is John Madden, trying to give the play-by-play and eventually going crazy. One of the better gags is having Jennifur be knocked out by one of Dork's talks about the complexities of time travel. "Works better than Sominex." Mutty, meanwhile, is surprised that the English language wasn't overtaken by Japanese by 2015 before using the almanac to learn "that Jose Canseco now charges $500 per autograph and Pete Rose still claims he never bet on baseball." The alternate 1985 sequence includes Mutty's observation that "I've stumbled into a rerun of It's a Wonderful Life!" and a cameo from Stiff's fellow casino and hotel owners, Donald Trump and Merv Griffin. Speaking of cameos, 1955 Stiff fails to impress a girl with his knowledge of the future. Her name's Peggy Sue.
-- Hey, There's ... Elijah Wood! Flea! Joe Flaherty!
-- Next: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. On deck: The War of the Roses.
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