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I'm a callin' you Back to the Future fans out. This has to be talked about. Please explain to me how 'Back to the Future' qualifies as anything but an example of Hollywood, assembly line cheese? How can you POSSIBLY consider it the best sci fi film of all time? Do you consider 'Teen Wolf' the best horror film of all time, or what?
Enquiring minds want to know. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I don't know too much about best SF film ever, but it is definitely a very good one. It was a SF film that came out after SF became NOT COOL, and managed to speak to the cool people and the SF fans at the same time. I love that. And you should too.
Plus it's funny. "I am DARTH VADER!!! A Klingon from the planet Vulcan..."
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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The Back to the Future films were a staple of my childhood. My and my then-best friend would come up with our own Sequel ideas. He played the part of Marty, and I was Doc!
"Mayor Goldie Wilson. I like the sound of that!"
"This is your cousin Marvin. Marvin Berry!! You know that new sound you were looking for? Well listen to this!"
"Dad...dad...daddy-o."
"You're...my density. I mean, uh...my destiny."
"Mom?! But you're so..you're so...Big!"
"I get married in the Chapel of Love?!"
"Read my Fax."
"Wow mom, you sure do know how to hydrate a pizza."
"Shark still looks fake."
"Nobody - NOBODY calls me Chicken, Needles, NOBODY!"
"Where's you learn to shoot like that?" "7-11"
Posts: 2689 | Registered: Apr 2000
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I forgot how cool I thought this movie was. I am going to rent it tonight and bask in it's glory. It does have some of the best one liners!
Posts: 1034 | Registered: Mar 2004
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You know what would be pretty cool? An Aliens/Back to the Future crossover.
"Hi, Marty! It's me, Doc! Back from the--ack...pain in chest...make it...stop...." *Doc begins to convulse* "Doc! What's wrong?" *Alien bursts out of doc's chest and skitters across floor, leaps onto Marty's face*
"Gargle. Ack. Gasp."
Now *that's* entertainment!
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Back to the Future may not be the best sci-fi film of all time, but it is a truly great film.
Practically everything about it was done perfectly. The characters, the lines, the sets, the SOUNDTRACK! Any movie with so many Huey Lewis songs has to be great.
Cheese only ruins a movie if it's unintentional. This movie knows exactly how cheesy it is, and it's still cool. The sequels, not so much.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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The screenplay is widely distributed in "screenwriters circles" as an example of a flawless screenplay. Every scene, every bit, nearly every line is absolutely perfect and absolutely neccesary to either A) Advance Plot B) Reveal Character C) Entertain or D) Set something up.
It's amazing how much of it is D. Nearly everything that happens in the beginning, before Marty goes back in time, is made to set up something that's going to happen WHILE he's back in time. Dialogue that's repeated, explanations of how things really happened, explanations of character that allow us to tell when things start to change from the norm . . .
A scene will be as simple as Marty skateboarding up to the mall. Yeah, cool shot. What we don't realize is that we're really being shown a shot of the mall's name, to set us up for a joke/reveal later.
These things are all being done so seamlessly that we don't even realize it's happening.
Also, despite the minimal special effects--a couple of lines of fire on the ground, a lightning bolt, a flying car at the end--the film provides as much sense of wonder and fish-out-of-water sensibilites as any "milleu" story on an alien world or futuristic landscape.
The mere fact that you're even tempted to call it cheese proves how effortlessly they seemed to have pulled it off. It's actually an insanely complex peice of work, made to flow so smoothly you'd hardly notice. In the hands of someone less competent, it would have clunked along awkwardly, set-ups would have been telegraphed from the mountaintops, and every single payoff would have been explained.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:"Nobody - NOBODY calls me Chicken, Needles, NOBODY!"
See, this singles out one big flaw in the movies, this issue of Marty not wanting to be thought of as a "chicken." It needed to be set up in the first movie and wasn't. This issue more or less rises up out of nowhere suddenly as a major character flaw in the third movie.
I still love the movies - I just wish they had set that part up as well as they did almost everything else.
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Actually, sndrake, that plot element begins in the second movie to be payed off in the third.
Of course, they never intended to write any sequels when they did this. They've said that proof that they they never intended a sequel was that Jennifer was in the car at the end of the first one. That was a major albatross around their neck when they went to write the following two.
I think it worked out alright in the end, though Posts: 2689 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Back to the Future is a great movie because it demonstrates a very keen sense of when to take itself seriously and when not to, but does so in the midst of some great dialogue, great acting, great sets and great music.
Yes it's cheesy, but it knows that it's cheesy, and does it on purpose, and more importantly, doesn't destroy the adventure aspect of the story. If the cheese was too much, then the audience wouldn't care when Marty fights Biff in the malt shop, or when he nearly fades away while playing guitar for the band.
Man, now I gotta go crack open my DVD box set again. Posts: 753 | Registered: Mar 2001
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The second one feels a little more like setup, but I love the third. *pats her Netflix account*
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote: The mere fact that you're even tempted to call it cheese proves how effortlessly they seemed to have pulled it off.
What does that mean? It's like some kind of zen koan.
I concede to your obvious greater knowledge of why the movie works and the fact that it has the combined might of a thousand screen writers behind it. I will still think it's cheese.
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But it does bring up a major problem whenever discussing any film or piece of art. People who like whatever you're discussing will have seen X multiple times and know why they like it. People who don't like something, unless they're masochists, will only see it once and will have a much more difficult time defending their position.
I can't really respond to Doc's post because, well, I only saw the damn thing once a million years a go and didn't want to subject myself to it again. So, all I have to offer up in reply is a lame 'Yeah, well, I still think it sucks.' Whaddya gonna do?
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I've watched a couple minutes of it or so when they've shown it on network TV and I still think it's unentertaining cheese. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I guess I could. I've lurked over there and that saxon75 fellow rules his forum with an iron fist. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I liked the first and the second because each plot twist fit with the other movie like a puzzle. The third just didn't do that quite as well, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Now if you want to talk sci-fi with awful dialogue, The Matrix is where it's at. Both series are cheesy, but BttF embraces it, while The Matrix struggles to break free from it (and fails).
But I enjoyed The Matrix movies, anyway.
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
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