Back to the Future

As a reminder, the film stars Michael J. Fox who ends up in 1955, and must locate Dr. Brown (Christopher Lloyd), inventor of the DeLorean time machine, to get "back to the future." Along the way, he meets his mother, who falls in love with him. This threatens his existence, and he must get his mother and father together. What made the film for me was excellent detail of the era. In one scene, a car pulls into a Texaco station, and several uniformed attendants run out to service the car and pump the gas. This kind of service was common in the 50, and still existed in some places in the 60's. (I still have one of my Texaco shirts).

All of the critics love this film, and so do I.

VHS info from Amazon.

Scoop's comments in yellow:

I sure like the films of Robert Zemeckis, who loves to blend technical wizardry with gentle-spirited fun. Roger Rabbit is also his, along with Used Cars, Romancing the Stone, and Forrest Gump.

Not deep stuff, but enjoyable films all.

Have to agree with the other guys on this DVD timing. Why the hell has it taken so long to get a $400 million dollar film to DVD??

The Critics Vote

General consensus: three stars. Ebert 3.5/4, Maltin 3/4.
Rotten Tomatoes summary. 100% positive reviews.

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 7.8, #153 of all time.

With their dollars ... a monster success. $210 million in the USA, $140 million overseas, $105 million rental income.

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a B.