Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary

 

That “Back to the Future” is twenty five years old seems stupidly weird to me. How could it have been out for *TWENTY FIVE* years?!?!?!? A film that in my mind is so quintessentially modern, is in fact a relic of a different era?

But it really is 25, and as a result is being screened in UK cinemas to mark

Back to the Future

 the anniversary. So I was very tempted to go along, the last film to have such a re showing was “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, I decided to pass on that and regretted it immediately that it was no longer in the local cinema.

So I decided to go (though I temporarily baulked at the fact the multiplex were charging their full, already eye watering rate, for a film I had already seen tonnes of times and owned in various different formats), and arranged to meet my pal Loz who is also a massive BTTF fan, at the flicks.

We managed to get there just in the nick of time, snagged some decent seats and sat down expecting to get frustrated at the 25 squillion hours of adverts and trailers we are subjected to whenever we go to the cinema these days. Imagine my delight when I discovered that for the re-release there were no (bar the obligatory Orange one) adverts or trailers at all. This has led me to consider the possibility of only visiting the cinema to watch films after they have been out for 25 years… not sure about the practicalities of that mind…

So onto the film, seemed weird watching a film in the flicks where I not only know what is going to happen, but probably know pretty much every line of dialogue almost by heart.  But this did not in any way detract form my enjoyment of the film. It was amazing seeing it on the big screen for the first time. As well as a handy reminder of how much better films are; if you see them at the flicks. The sound track, one of the very best IMHO, sounded great in the surroundings. Every thing about the film is cinematic and it felt just fantastic viewing it as it was meant to be seen.

I literally loved every minute, and I sat there with an ear to ear grin for basically the whole film. I laughed heartily at the wonderful dialogue, and I cannot decide which performace is more of a comic Masterpiece Crispin Glover’s George McFly, or Christopher Lloyd and Doc Brown*.  Not sure how long it is in the flicks but if you are a fan then really do go to watch it whilst you can. And if you have kids who have not seen it before take them it has got to be one of the best “whole family” films ever made; I am sure any kids today will enjoy it just as much as I did.

This kinda got me wondering about live action films for all the family. Now I recognise that there could well be a massive degree of rose tinted spectacles from me here; but when I was growing up in the 80s there was a glut of high quality films genuinely aimed at all the family, ET, The Princess Bride, The Indy films, Ghostbusters, and Back to the Future to name but a few.

Where are the equivalent live action films today? Pixar are making fantastic, magical animated films for all the family and Dreamworks seem to be upping their game (last night I saw the Excellent “How to Train Your Dragon”), and  “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs” is one of my favourite films from the last 12 months…

But I don’t understand why people are not making Live action films in this vein; the closest recent film I can think of is “Stardust” which I loved (despite being hugely derivative of the Princess Bride). It did pretty decent business at the box office, and there surely must still be a market for it?

Maybe the future of films that can be genuinely enjoyed by all the family is squarely animated; and whilst I dearly love animated films this would be a crying shame for me.

On the other hand looking forward to various of my favourite 80s films getting 25th Anniversary releases so I can see them on the big screen too, roll on the Princess Bride and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!

Lunchtime Legend

* “Great Scott” It has to be Doc Brown!

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04. October 2010 by Ralph Ferrett
Categories: Films TV & Video Games | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 comments

Comments (2)

  1. Well done Ralph good review, so glad you went to see it in the end, and your right the soundtrack is awesome, i think if you are a fan definitely go see it and if you have kids it should be cinematic law to pass on this story. I was so glad to see two kids come out of the showing and talk about how the next two films were filmed simultaneously back to back, a true classic will never die! and now i wanna a watch the trilogy. thats a blog there how all good films come with trilogies, and which ones actually do well i.e bourne same director thank god! and then Jurassic ruined by bringing in a different director, dont bring one in till the 4th at least = ). anyways glad you spent the pennies and maybe they will bring out more anniversary editions!? there doing teh same with games have you seen the HD version of shadows of the colossus and ico.

    http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-10-ico-shadow/704597

  2. I loved BTTF back in the day, but have never felt the urge to seek it out and watch it again – although I have watched it when it’s been on TV with the Gruesome Twosome and they loved it too.

    Even now if you say ‘Libyan Terrorist Van’ everyone knows what you mean. 🙂

    On to live-action family films, I think you’re right there with Stardust. Could it be that because you don’t have children you just don’t see them? You could add things like the Narnia films, The Thief Lord (totally totally brilliant), Inkheart, Enchanted, Bridge to Terebithia, Because of Winn-Dixie, Night at the Museum, Mystery Men… Harry Potter? The Golden Compass? Eragon?

    Here in Germany we’ve had a set of 5 which are aimed more at boys: Die Wilden Kerle (the wild boys) and a set of 3 which are more for girls: Die Wilden Hühner (the wild chicks). There have been others too, Red Zora, Die Vorstadt Krokodile (the suburban crocodiles – a young kids gang thing), Sommer (teen love), Gangs (teen love/gangs)

    If you liked Stardust I can recommend The Thief Lord.

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