All Rise...

Judge Patrick Naugle once played tambourine for Huey Lewis and the News.

Editor's Note

Our reviews of Back To The Future (published February 23rd, 2009), Back To The Future Part II (published February 23rd, 2009), Back To The Future Part III (published February 23rd, 2009), Back To The Future Trilogy (Blu-Ray) 25th Anniversary Edition (published October 26th, 2010), and Universal 100th Anniversary Collection (Blu-ray) (published November 26th, 2012) are also available.

The Charge

Getting back was just the beginning.

The Case

Young teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox, The Frighteners) finds himself thrust headlong into the past, present, and future when Doctor Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd, Piranha) requests his help to videotape a new secret project that he's been working on. Doc Brown has taken a 1985 DeLorean and turned it into a fully functional time machine! When Libyan terrorists attempt to take out Marty and Doc Brown (after Doc gave them a fake bomb in exchange for a case of plutonium to run his time machine), Marty hops in the DeLorean and is transported to 1955. Complications arise when Marty realizes he doesn't have enough fuel to get back home. With the help of a 1955 Doc Brown, Marty must help bring his parents (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter's Crispin Glover and The Beverly Hillbillies' Lea Thompson) back together after inadvertently screwing up their first meeting, help his dad outwit local bully Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson, The Heat), and get himself Back to the Future!

The adventure continues in Back to the Future Part II when Doc Brown (Lloyd) returns from the future to help Marty (Fox) fix family problems in the future. Marty is swept into 2015 by the Doc to help his son (played by Fox) avoid a catastrophe with Biff's deranged offspring, Griff (played by Wilson). The plan works, but not without its snags â€" an older version of Biff grabs a sports almanac and goes back in time to help his younger self get rich. When Marty and Doc leave 2015 for 1985 they find themselves thrust into an alternate version of the present day, where Biff is now corrupt and the most powerful resident of Hill Valley. Doc Brown comes to the realization that he and Marty must go back to 1955 and make sure old Biff doesn't give his younger self the sports almanac, which could create a paradox so large that it tears apart the fabric of the space-time continuum!

Things wrap up with lassos and saddles in Back to the Future Part III when Marty (Fox) has to go back to 1885 to save his friend Doc Brown (Lloyd) from being shot in the back by one of Biff's ancestors, Bufford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Wilson again). When Marty arrives from 1955 to 1885 he's chased away by Indians, which in turn accidentally rips the fuel line of the DeLorean. With no gasoline available to find his way home, Marty and Doc must figure out an alternative way to get themselves back home. The adventure get complicated when Doc Brown saves a distressed schoolteacher, Clara (Mary Steenburgen, Powder), from falling off a cliff in her horse drawn stagecoach and falls in love. At the same time Marty finds himself meeting up with his ancestors (played by Fox and Lea Thompson) while simultaneously being wrangled into a gunfight with "Mad Dog" Tannen.

In 1985, when I was eleven years old, my family went to see the original Back to the Future. It's one of my most vivid childhood memories. I sat through the film in a daze, and afterwards we went to a local Greek diner to eat and talked about the film. Everyone gushed over it except one person: me. I hated it. I was confused. It didn't make any sense to me. I was not amused in the least. What a stupid, stupid film. I recall my mother being annoyed that I didn't like it; I'm assuming that she thought she'd just thrown five bucks away on a kid who was being less than appreciative. And yet…that five dollars did not go to waste. Four years later 1989's Back to the Future Part II was released and I begrudgingly went to go see it with my father and brother. As the credits rolled it was as if an epiphany had hit—where had this movie been all my life? I loved it! After sitting through Back to the Future Part II I went back to explore what I'd missed in the original and fell in love. A year later 1990's Back to the Future Part III came out and I was hooked. From that point forward—now thirty years later—the Back to the Future trilogy has become not just some of my favorite films, but my favorite films, period.

Going into this review of Universal's new edition of the Back to the Future trilogy I knew it would not be even handed and carefully considered. How could it be? As critics it's easy to watch a movie for the first time and weigh what was worked and what didn't. When you live with a movie for decades it starts to take on a new life; like one of your own children, you love it even with—or often because of—their faults and imperfections. Such is the case with Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part II, and Back to the Future Part III. I suppose if it was of the utmost importance I could sit here and nitpick any issues with the films, like how a few of the special effects haven't aged particular well or that there are a few minor inconsistencies in the stories. As I sit here I can think of those things, but when I'm in the midst of watching each film all of that falls away. I'm so drawn into the story and characters that the fact that one of the shots of the flying time machine not matching 100% eludes me.

So much has been written about director Robert Zemeckis' masterful Back to the Future and its two hit sequels (all three penned by Zemeckis and writing partner Bob Gale, Used Cars) that it seems superfluous for me to rehash, reheat, and regurgitate the same rhetoric. The fact is I love all three of these films unabashedly, so I won't spend time on imperfections or flubs. What I'm going to focus on for each film is a small moment that truly pulls me in each time I watch them (I'm assuming if you've read this far you don't need a lot of back story on the films to know what's being referenced).

Back to the Future
The original is probably still the best because of how original it is. There's so much to love about the original film that it would take pages for me to tell you why. The moment that sticks out in the original is when Doc Brown is showing Marty the model he's constructed of the Hill Valley Clock Tower and how the DeLorean will strike the lightening infused wire at 88 miles per hour. Doc Brown sends the model car speed off, which is ignited by jumper cables. The car speeds of the table in flames, screeching across the floor into a pile or rags that ignite into a bonfire. Doc looks at the flames, drops his jaw and gasps in a way that â€" no matter how many times I see it â€" makes me laugh. This was the pure genius of Christopher Lloyd; no matter what film he appeared in he gave it his all, mugging for all he was worth. Normally this would be considered a detriment in most films for most actors. Yet Lloyd was never "most actors". From Reverend Jim on TV's Taxi to Uncle Fester in The Addams Family (and the even funnier sequel Addams Family Values), Lloyd onscreen is like a dose of magic. There are so many small moments in Back to the Future where Lloyd offers viewers little ticks and facial expressions that are near perfection. These are the moments that take Doc Brown from just a crazy, wild-eyed scientist into an iconic, fully formed character.

Back to the Future Part II
When Old Biff screws with the space-time continuum by giving his younger self the sports almanac, he creates a new and terrifying alternate 1985. Poor Marty arrives baffled and confused by his new surroundings, slowly realizing that this is not the 1985 he remembers. After being chased out of his parent's house by a group of strangers now living there, Marty grabs a newspaper off a random porch to make sure he's in the right year. As he's reading he hears a click and looks up to find his high school Principal, Mr. Strickland (a wonderful James Tolkan), staring him down with a shotgun in hand. This moment is so perfectly played out with both Tolkan's strong presence as Strickland (bald and short, he's still a looming presence for Marty) and Fox's jittery physical comedy (watch him as Strickland comes towards the screen to shoot his gun while Marty runs like a frightened squirrel in the background). Much like this scene, Back to the Future Part II is scattered and funny, dark and tonally less focused than the first movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing; think of it more as a lighter version of The Empire Strikes Back.

Back to the Future Part III
Even if you're not a western fan (which I most certainly am not), there's still a lot to love about this final film in the trilogy. The moment that always sticks out for me is when Marty walks into the 1885 saloon for the first time, dressed in a terribly clichéd cowboy outfit that Doc Brown gave him back in 1955. The patrons mock poor Marty and he's served whiskey that's so strong it could be used to strip paint of a Chevy Impala. Moments later Bufford "Mad Dog" Tannen walks in, letting Marty know he's been told to stay out of the saloon (just like the previous two films), and suffice it to say things don't end well for poor Marty. What makes this scene great is Thomas F. Wilson as the dastardly Bufford "Mad Dog" Tannen. Wilson did the near impossible by playing multiple family members spanning generations and making each one live and breathe without it seeming like a gimmick. In the first two films Biff Tannen (as well as his grandson Griff) were played mostly for laughs. In Back to the Future Part III Bufford, while often comically amusing, comes off as crazy and unpredictable. It's a testament to Wilson's talents that he was able to create one of the most memorable villain(s) in one of the most memorable trilogies in cinema history.

All three films are all presented in 1.85:1 widescreen in 1080p high definition. This new set from Universal doesn't including newly re-mastered versions of any of the films â€" all three films feature the same transfers that were available in the original releases from 2011. Truth be told, I was pretty happy with how nice each of these transfers looked back them so I can't say I'm all that disappointed Universal isn't offering anything new with the video transfers. Colors are sharp and bright with dark black levels and the images look exceptionally clear and bright on all three movies. Each soundtrack is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround in English. What I said about the video transfers applies to the soundtracks as well â€" these are the same DTS-HD 5.1 mixes from the previous release. There are a lot of nicely placed surround sounds and directional effects in each film (with the sequels being a bit more dynamic due to their newness).

Back to the Future Trilogy (Blu-ray) 30th Anniversary features all of the same supplements as the previous edition (so much so that the main three discs are just repressing of the 2011 versions). This includes various featurettes, commentary tracks, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes archival documentaries, outtakes, music videos, photo galleries, and trailers for the films. The truth is, the previous edition was so definitive that there wasn't much more needed to make it feel complete. Still, Universal is making a genuine attempt to make this new edition worthy of the fan's hard earned cash.

The big draw for fans will be the inclusion of a fourth bonus disc that features some newly created content including a newly created 2015 "Message from Doc Brown" featuring Christopher Lloyd, a short film with Lloyd as Doc Brown ("Doc Brown Saves the World!"), a featurette on restoring the DeLorean ("Outatime: restoring the DeLorean"), a nine-part retrospective (each part being only a few minutes long) on the film's production and history ("The Script", "Casting Marty McFly", "Christopher Lloyd Reflects on Doc Brown", "Building Hill Valley", "Prepping for the Johnny B. Goode Scene", "The Score", "Rushing the Cut", "The Legacy"), two episodes from the Back to the Future Saturday morning animated series ("Brothers" and "Mac the Black"), and commercial spoofs for various stuff scene in Back to the Future Part II (including "Jaws 19" and a Hoverboard commercial). As a bonus, fans who hated the previous edition's packaging (flimsy and easily broken) will be happy to note that this Blu-ray set comes housed in a solid, much more sturdy book-like packaging (with a slipcover case).

As a fan of all three Back to the Future films, it's hard not to recommend this new 30th Anniversary Blu-ray edition. If you haven't picked up these films on Blu-ray yet, now is definitely the time. If you already own the previous set, this set is worth having for the bonus disc, but be aware that the video and audio transfers are the same as the previous editions. As for the films themselves…they're some of the best movies Hollywood has ever put out. This set gets my recommendation, and the Back to the Future trilogy itself gets my highest recommendation.

What can I say? I love all three Back to the Future films as if they were my own children. Are they flawed? I suppose, but it doesn't matter—they're perfect in my eyes. If you're a fan then this Blu-ray set is well worth your money. If you're not a fan…well, I just feel a lot of pity for you because you're dead wrong.

The Verdict

If you're in dire need of more bonus features and better packaging, it's well worth the investment.

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