Back To The Future Part II

I'm not sure if when they originally wrote or made BTTF that there was a plan to do a sequel, but clearly after they success that it had a the box office i was a no brainer to do one, so much so that they made not only 1 but 2 at the same time, not sure if that had ever been done before, but it certainly has been done since, while in theory it make sense, it does bring up 2 issues, first off all, to do 2 movies at the same time take a while, so the first sequel is gonna take a while to come out, that's made up a little bit by the fact that you can just then release the next one right away, however what were to happen if that first sequel did terrible? Well, that doesn't actually matter, cause BTTF2 did do well, not as well as the first, but well enough that a 3rd would be fine. That;s not to say that there wasn't issues though. The biggest issue came in the form of Crispin Glover, who had decided that he was just a big a star as Michael J Fox, so he wanted the same amount of money as him, well the studio didn't feel this way and thought he was crazy, and by the evidence of what happened when he appear on The Late Show with David Letterman, I don't think anyone would blame them for thinking that:

Anyway, ultimately they couldn't come to a deal and Crispin Glover would not appear in the sequels other then in archived stuff from the first movie, this cause many delays as they had to do some rewrites and well, that explains what happens to George McFly throughout most of the movie. Ok, lets get to it.

Back To The Future Part II, released 11/22/1989, starring Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F Wilson, Elisabeth Shue, James Tolkan, Billy Zane, Flea and introducing Elijah Wood. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale and produced by Steven Spielberg. Took in 118m domestically and 213m in foreign markets. Want to point out that I actually did see this in the theater, at the old Dedham cinema during Christmas vacation, took a break from playing with my brand new Nintendo and Puppy to go see the movie.

0:00: Universal Studios at it again, now one of the things that 80s movies liked to do with the sequels, and this was big with the Rocky movies, they start of the new one with the end of the one before it. No different here, except, they had to reshoot the scene, because Jennifer got replaced by Elisabeth Shue, and Michael J Fox is looking a bit older, plus they also added the extra little bit with Biff. "What the hell is going on here?"

0:04: Ok, so this is supposed to be 2015, I don't know about you, but I don't see there being flying cars in 4 years.Also, they do a pretty quick job of getting rid of that whole thing about the ending of part 1, wasn't very subtle about just showing up out of nowhere in the time machine and taking marty and jennifer into the future, i mean why not just come back in the middle of the night in a field call marty and have him meet you there. Besides seems like he goes on and on about not knowing his future, but yet, here they are trying to stop his kids from being arrested.



0:08: Ok, I really can't see any of these fashions and gadgets coming around in the next 4 years. Power Laces, wearing pants inside out., weird mutlicolored hats. Abolishing all lawyers.

0:11: I don't see Texaco stations existing like that, and I know 3D has come a long way in recent years, but I don't think it's anywhere near where tht Jaws scene is.

0:14: So, here's the problem I have with the Tannens, if Griff is Biff's grandson, then where the generation in between, where is the Tannen that would be Marty's age, we never see him, and I don't know, but in 1985, doesn't seem that Biff is marred and has kids.

0:15: Hey look, it's Frodo, yup little Elijah Wood making his acting debut trying to play Wild Gunman. "You mean you have to use your hands?"

0:17: They establish the whole Chicken angle, Marty doesn't like to be called Chicken, can't blame him.

0:18: Hoverboards, they seem cool, there was actually a rumor around the time that this movie came out that they were real, obviously they are not, and I don't seem them coming into existence in the next 4 years, too bad, that would have been a cool thing to have.

0:21: Little upsetting that this chase doesn't end with someone going into a manure truck, but crashing through the clock tower is pretty good.

0:22: Cubs win World Series, now 22 years ago when this movie came out, I wonder if they thought that we would be closing in on 2015 and the Cubs still haven't won a World Series since 1908, it'll be crazy if that ends up the year that they finally do win, but it's only supposed to be Oct 21, no way even with a sweep, with the current schedule, that the World Series would be over by then.

0:24: Seems pretty interesting that in BTTF right before Doc is supposed to go into the future, he mentioned finding out the winner of the next 25 World Series, but now that Marty wants to do it, it's wrong.

0:25: Now it's established that seeing a different version of yourself can cause the universe to explode, of course the never happens.

0:27: You know it is dangerous to enter the house with no lights on, wish I could program that.

0:28: Another "Mom? Mom is that you?" Want to point out that that George McFly was obviously not played by Crispin Glover.


0:31: I will give credit where credit is due, and that is they got the wall mounted flatscreen widescreen TV right, those do exist, not sure about watching 9 channels at once, but the TV itself works.

0:33: Uh, Oh, Biff stole the DeLorean, that can't be good.

0:34: Flea as Needles, it's interesting that he was in this movie, I mean the Red Hot Chili Peppers hadn't really made it yet, Under The Bridge and Give It Away were still a couple years away.

0:35: MCFLY! I just remember in the theater that was so loud.

0:37: Old Jennifer and Young Jennifer see each other and faint, the universe didn't explode.

0:38: "Better that I devote myself to study the other great mystery of the universe... Women" I hear you Doc.

0:39: Not sure why Marty has to ask if they made it and if they are back, he's gone through time 3 times before, and didn't he notice all the other things disappearing.

0:41: The alternate 1985 is pretty bleak, but to be honest, even in the first movie, they didn't make Hill Valley look at that great in 1985, there were bums sleeping on benches and stuff then too.

0:42: "You look to me like a Slacker" Mr. Strickland was a pretty awesome character, I still don't get why he was an educator, but just seemed to hate kids.

0:43: " Watch where you're going to crazy drunk predestran." Good to see that nothing has changed for that bum,

0:45: This retrospective of Biff Tannen is amazing, I especially love the part where he says "I just want to say one thing: God Bless America."

0:46: Billy Zane with his best line, probably ever "Look Sonny, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." followed by another "Mom? Mom, is that you?" scene.

0:49: I actually like to know a little more about Uncle Joey, why is in in jail, what exactly did he do, another one of those mysteries that never gets explained.

0:50: Well, what happens when you can't get a person to come back to do their role, well, you kill them off of course, so George McFly is dead in this reality.

0:52: So Biff stole Marty's idea about betting on sports with the Sports Almanac.

0:54: This part of the movie confused a lot of people, it was on of the reasons why historically speaking this one isn't as popular as the first one, the timeline gets confusing, personally I like it, not sure about better, but just as much as the first.

0:59: I Love how Biff always has a bunch of bumbling idiots around him, he really is one of the best bad guys in movie history. "Two McFlys with the same gun"

1:01: So noone is freaking out there is a flying DeLorean hovering around the Hotel? Security isn't very good at this hotel apparently. I got to say that if they made a Hotel Casino out of the Hill Valley Courthouse and incorporated the Clock Tower, that would be pretty awesome.

1:03: Alrigfht, well the walkie talkies that Doc gets so they can communictae, they look pretty cheap, pretty sure I had the some ones when I was a kid, they didn't work all that great, if you got more then like 20 feet away from each other they wouldn't work, even really good walkie talkies aren't nearly as good as these ones are suppsed to be.

1:06: "Well, lookie what we have here" They definitely reuse alot of the same line throughout these movies, not sure if that necessarily a good thing or just lazy writing.

1:07: So, once again Biff and Biff see each other and there are no issues, they don't even go into shock or anything, clearly young Biff isn't the brightest guy, so he doesn't even realize it's him.

1:09: So, go ahead and look it up, November 12th, 1955, UCLA won 19-17, the score is accurate, even later when he is listening to the radio and they are saying scores, they are all right, so nice job, could have probably just made stuff up, but they went ahead and got the real scores.

1:11: Why exactly does Biff live with his grandmother anyway, seems like there is more to that story too, what happened to his parents, maybe there was a tragic event and that's why he turned out the way he did.

1:13: Always found it interesting that he's telling Marty to be careful about running into his other self, meanwhile he is in the process of running into his other self, of course once again nothing happens.

1:15: Some of this stuff gets a little confusing, cause like did they reshoot some of this stuff, did the just use the same footage, I'm assuming for a lot of the parts with George McFly, they just used the other stuff, cause obviously Glover wasn't doing it, but they did have the guy that played old George in the future so he could have probably stepped in and did some of it if they needed.

1:18: Slacker!

1:19: So like right there, when he goes by his other self and his mom in the car, they must have reshot that cause they wouldn't have had that angle

1:21: Poor Marty, he was chasing after the wrong book the whole time, but George was knocking out biff. but there's another scene that they would have had to film again since it 's from a differnt angle, but then they did throw some of the original scene. "Hey, do you just take his wallet? He just took that guys wallet."

1:23: I like all the little hints that they give about part 3 in this one though, talking about the old west and the time board getting messed up and saying 1885 and that sort of thing.

1:25: " I think he took you wallet. I think he took his wallet."

1:26: So, I;m guessing they had to reshot some of this scene with Marty signing Johnny B Goode, so the question is did he play the guitar this time around, but they definitely interweave some of the original footage with the new stuff, which is interesting cause it's supposed to be one day later, but he looks older then just one day.

1:28: Poor Marty get knocked down by himself and then loses the book back to Biff.

1:30: Want to point out that the tunnel that is used in this scene is the same tunnel that is used in Who Framed Roger Rabbitt? which btw was also directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Christopher Lloyd, which btw, apparently they are doing a sequel to, that's news to me.

1:32: Well, Marty gets the book from Biff, and is able to get away from him as Biff crashes into yet another Manure truck, like I said before, why are there all these manure trucks everywhere?

1:35: Marty burns the book, and everything goes back to the way it's supposed to be, and it's another happy ending, or is it?

1:37: Uh Oh, the DeLorean gets struck by lightning and disappears, but wait a minute it wasn't going 88mph, so why did it disappear?

1:38: Oh right, Joe Flaherty as the western union guy, forgot to mention him as starring, which I guess he doesn't really star, but he's in it longer then Elijah Wood.

1:40: Hey, you know what, I never really thought about this before, but this ending is kinda like the ending to Saw IV, where it's happening at the same time as Saw III and they endings kinda coincide, now granted it's not exactly the same, but sorta. Anyway, Doc is in the Old west, Marty tracks down the 1955 Doc to help him right after he sent the other Marty Back To The Future.

1:43 Always found it interesting how they incorporated scenes from 3 into the end of 2 like that, I know they did something similar with the Matrix, but from what I remember it was after the credits in that one.

Well, that's Part II, like I said I always like this one a lot, not sure If I like it better then the first one, but it's certainly close, might have a little more sentimental value towards this one since I actually saw it in the theaters, but I don't know I like all the time traveling, and stuff. I mean there have been a lot of movies involving time travel, Time Machine, Terminators, Bill & Ted, Time Traveler's Wife, even that new crap with Jake Gyllenhaal, not to mention TV shows like Quantum Leap, but out of all of them I can can say that by far Hot Tub Time Machine is the worst.

Ok, so now we move on to Part III, which I have no problems saying is my least favorite out of the 3, but it's still a decent movie, so let's do it.