• A very flawed film but one I find myself coming back to often. I have it on the fringe but am officially putting it into the archives for now.
  • The annoying Pepsi ads have grown even compared to the 1985 original.
  • I do love that Café 80’s (mock 1950’s diner) diner—Michael Jackson and Reagan
  • Set in 2015, 1985 and 1955
  • Big plug for Jaws with Spielberg’s fake son (I think) “Max Spielberg as director”
  • “All I want is a Pepsi” literally says that in the film after a Texaco ad
  • Recreating and living in the great masterpiece but this one tends to get caught up in the gimmicks (Zemeckis in love with people coming into touch with future and past self)—I think more so he’s in love with the technical achievement of having that actor in the same frame- this is an auteur driven by technical enhancements as much as any. He will go out of his way, same with James Cameron in the abyss to create a character or bend the plot to include a new technical achievement he’s proud of
  • The Bedford Falls/Pottersville alternative 1985 is the best sequence. It’s part Escape from New York dystopia
  • I do still love the narrative here even if it doesn’t hit genius-level like the first
  • I think it’s a strong Thomas Wilson performance. He’s cartoonish but the film/role calls for it
  • I hate all the western crap leading so directly to Back to the Future III
  • Very slapstick, jokey and self-aware
  • Very odd how the final 3rd of this film just lives in the 1985 film
  • Praise for the set designs—all 3 of them- 1955, 2015 and 1985 alternative (Elvis sideburns Biff)
  • The narrative time travel webs start to get muddled
  • I love the little identifiers, riffs and twinkles in the score
  • The film literally ends with a trailer of the 3rd film- awful
  • It does flip between sci-fi and broad comedy a bit too much—much more than the original
  • Recommend but not in the top 20 or so of 1989 for sure