Product Description

Back to the future i ii & iii trilogy. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/25/2005 Starring: Michael J. Fox Lea Thompson Rating: Pg Director: Robert Zemeckis

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #883 in DVD
• Brand: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.
• Released on: 2005-01-25
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .55 pounds
• Running time: 342 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis topped his breakaway hit Romancing the Stone with Back to the Future, a joyous comedy with a dazzling hook: what would it be like to meet your parents in their youth? Billed as a special-effects comedy, the imaginative film (the top box-office smash of 1985) has staying power because of the heart behind Zemeckis and Bob Gale's script. High schooler Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox, during the height of his TV success) is catapulted back to the '50s where he sees his parents in their teens, and accidentally changes the history of how Mom and Dad met. Filled with the humorous ideology of the '50s, filtered through the knowledge of the '80s (actor Ronald Reagan is president, ha!), the film comes off as a Twilight Zone episode written by Preston Sturges. Filled with memorable effects and two wonderfully off-key, perfectly cast performances: Christopher Lloyd as the crazy scientist who builds the time machine (a DeLorean luxury car) and Crispin Glover as Marty's geeky dad. --Doug Thomas

Critics and audiences didn't seem too happy with Back to the Future, Part II, the inventive, perhaps too clever sequel. Director Zemeckis and cast bent over backwards to add layers of time-travel complication, and while it surely exercises the brain it isn't necessarily funny in the same way that its predecessor was. It's well worth a visit, though, just to appreciate the imagination that went into it, particularly in a finale that has Marty watching his own actions from the first film. --Tom Keogh

Shot back-to-back with the second chapter in the trilogy, Back to the Future, Part III is less hectic than that film and has the same sweet spirit of the first, albeit in a whole new setting. This time, Marty ends up in the Old West of 1885, trying to prevent the death of mad scientist Christopher Lloyd at the hands of gunman Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson, who had a recurring role as the bully Biff). Director Zemeckis successfully blends exciting special effects with the traditions of a Western and comes up with something original and fun. --Tom Keogh

DVD features
The DVD set of the Back to the Future trilogy is as classy and professional as the series. Both new and original materials are included in the plethora of extras, starting with two sets of making-of documentaries. Each disc has material on that particular film, and some features look at the trilogy as a whole. Producer-writer Bob Gale is the star of the extra features, candidly presenting the original ideas and many deleted scenes (a few with doses of crude humor). Much of the inside stuff is repeated in the various pieces, but that's to be expected with such exhaustive materials. Michael J. Fox chimes in with a video commentary presented in a picture-in-picture format (which would have worked better as a straight interview) and the producers tackle the main commentary track, but the highlight audio commentary is a free-flowing Q&A with Gale and director Robert Zemeckis in front of a USC film-school audience. Long or short, the materials are uniformly enjoyable and deft, including segments on advertising, special effects tests, on-screen anecdotes, outtakes, production designs, and more. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

Superlative
**this review relates to the cinematic content original 1985 feature only**

PLOT
A young man, who has somehow befriended a passionate old scientist, is by way of cause and effect (and a naff car fitted with a plutonium-powered time travel device) transported 30 years into the past. Here, in 1955, the car runs out of plutonium and the young man befriends the younger, less experienced scientist in a desperate attempt to return to 1985. Complications arise when he meets his teenage parents...

REVIEW
Dated elements of production design and product placement fail to detract from this highly entertaining family adventure. The script is witty, humorous and particularly credible in its amateur consideration of the time travel phenomenon. The special effects are beyond their time, and editing and sound are first rate.

With regard to the overall production and direction of the film, this is Robert Zemeckis's greatest achievement - hands down it beats Forrest Gump (1994), for which he one an Oscar for direction. While Stephen Speilberg served as executive producer only, "Back to the Future" is also one of his greatest films, because it epitomizes his contribution to cinematic imagination.

The chemistry of the lead actors - Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd - has perhaps been equalled but is yet to be surpassed on the big screen. They are supported in several hilarious situations by talented newcomers.

I am giving this film the highest rating because family adventures like this aren't made anymore and I want to encourage Generation Y to seek out this film in particular. For us Generation X-ers, and even most of our parents, "Back to the Future" will remain one of the pillars of 1980s cinema.

ELEPHANT STAMPS
Michael J Fox for Acting.
Christopher Lloyd for Acting.
Crispin Glover for Acting.
Huey Lewis and the News for theme song "The Power of Love".

Good, but may not work completely in a DVD drive on a PC
I loved these movies when they came out and had seen one and three many times but had only seen the second one in the theater the initial time.

The packaging is good and the styling of all three discs and menus are identical.

I'm not much of an audiophile, but the 5.1 sound seemed to work fairly well.

I have two gripes about this product:

- The film is grainy and the details are poor. You can't really fault them for that since you can't get better than the original film quality.

- The Back to The Future II disc does not work on my Vista Home Premium PC. I get audio but no video. This is consistent in Media Center and Windows Media Player. However, this was just a minor inconvenience as the disc worked fine on my Xbox 360. Perhaps Back to the Future 2 uses a CODEC that hasn't been invented yet.

Good product, but don't count on all of it working on a PC.

I love this movie!
Back to the future is my favorite movie of all time. From beginning to end it is so beautifully executed. Top notch directing, acting and editing with a score to rival "Star Wars". A sweet film the whole family can enjoy, they don't make'em like this anymore. The sequel's were fun too, but this puppy is lighting in a bottle!