Product Description

Back to the future i ii & iii trilogy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #564 in DVD
• Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
• Released on: 2005-01-25
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, 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

Error on disc 2 and 3
Just wanted to let people know that in the widescreen edition, a mistake was made on the second and third discs--instead of using actual widescreen footage, someone just put black bars on the top and bottom of the fullscreen pan-and-scan version, so you get even *less* picture with the widescreen version. This error was not noticed until it was too late, although Universal Studios is planning to correct this in a future version of the dvd set, and people who bought the original set will be able to get a free trade-in. Here's the email they've been sending to people who asked about this:

"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

Thank you,
Universal Studios Customer Service"

Framing Fiasco appears to be corrected.
1/29/05 - Happy Birthday Annette. I just received the 1/25/05 widescreen release of the BTTF trilogy release on 1/27/05, from Amazon/Borders, and I am very pleased. I have viewed all three movies and some of the special features. My set up is a 50 inch widescreen TV and a 6.1 sound system. The sound and vision was excellent. I was reluctant to purchase the trilogy, due to past poor reviews of the widescreen version with errors on disc 2 and 3, with letterbox black bars on the top and bottom. I did not detect any portion of scenes with less picture information or black bars on any of the movies. The viewing screen was filled, in my opinion, perfectly. The 5.1 re-master sounds great and is utilized very well. In fact, I am able to force on my two rear surround speakers in conjunction with my side surround speakers and my decoder fills my room with sound. The most obvious sound effect is within the last 15 minutes of disc one, where a helicopter sounds like it is circling the room from the right to rear to left. The viewer has the feeling of being in the center of the screen. Great Sound.......

The packaging on this new release has a cellophane wrapper indicating - All 3 movies! Lowest Price Ever. Own it before time runs out! Widescreen. I checked the DVDs to try and determine if indeed these were updated versions. The second DVD does have the obvious "V2" (for version 2) on the face near the bottom, after all rights reserved. The third DVD does not have "V2" on the bottom, as I was hoping. Thereafter, I placed the DVDs in my computer to check the contents date. Disc 1 (that never had any problems) had dates from 2002. Discs 2 and 3 had content dates from 2003. Just to be sure, I put the movie to the test and compared the noted problem scenes on the BTTF framing web site, and found disc three to be correct. So, I am satisfied and believe that I have updated versions of the widescreen DVDs.

NOTE: On a regular TV (Not Widescreen), there are the black letter box bars on the top and bottom of the screen, but they are not visible on my widescreen TV.

4/2/05. I recently watched all three movies for a second time and turned on the trivia track - A great special feature for another viewing. This trilogy is a definite purchase.............

Part 1 looks great! Can now exchange 2 & 3!
The picture quality of these dvds is really pristine, and the extras are quite nice, though I would have liked to see more interviews with supporting cast members.
As many people have noted, parts 2 and 3 seem to have been matted too high on the open matte original print, so stuff tends to get cut off the bottom of the screen, like Marty's jacket and hoverboard in part 2. Plus there's too much headroom on many of the shots as a result. I just called the Universal DVD return hotline and they are offering a free replacement of those 2 wrongly matted dvds. You need to send in the 2 dvds (without the packaging they came in) to:
Back to the Future DVD Returns
PO Box 224468
Dallas, TX 75260
You need to include your name and full mailing address, along with your daytime phone number and reason for exchange.
I also noticed that on Part 1 when I try to watch the commentary with Michael J. Fox that it cuts out and takes me back to the menu screen around chapter 8 or so. Not a big deal but I do think it's a glitch that occurs in some dvd players.