Back to the Future part 2

Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd return to star in the sequel to 1985's Back to the Future. Lea Thompson, Thomas Wilson and Elisabeth Shue (replacing Claudia Wells) also star.

In this story, Marty McFly has just returned back to 1985 from the year 1955. His girlfriend, Jennifer, shows up to his place, much to Marty's relief. Shortly after, Doc Brown shows up in the Delorean time machine and demands that Marty (and incidentally Jennifer) to come with him to the future. "Something has got to be done about your kids".

Cut to a flying scene with Doc, Marty and Jennifer in the year 2015... in flying cars... among other flying cars. The trio have taken off at sometime in the morning with only "Biff" the witness among a whole neighbourhood of potential witnesses to the spectacle.

The task for the 2015 scene is to save Marty and Jennifer's children from committing a crime -- one not really disclosed. Marty poses as his son to try and intervene in stopping Griff (Biff's grandson) from setting Marty Jnr. into a commitment where he gets arrested that day. After a near recreation of a chase between Marty and Griff, the future is changed for the better -- for Marty, at least. Marty and Doc then discover that Jennifer has been taken home by police. But that was only because Marty and Doc were distracted by Marty having purchased a sports almanac -- one that gives the results of sports events from the 1950s to 2000.

After a reprimand where Doc tells Marty not to use time travel for financial gain, 77-year-old Biff overhears the conversation and remembers seeing Doc and Marty having flown off in the year 1985. Biff then takes Marty's idea with the almanac, as well as taking the discarded almanac from the bin. Biff then pursues Doc and Marty to where Marty and Jennifer live. The future scenes of the McFly home show some real lackluster imagination. Television involves showing as many as several channels at one time; pizza is considered a meal along with Pepsi; phone calls involve video screens; no door knobs because of thumb print security; and you can have blinds that project scenic views instead of you neighbour. In any event, Jennifer has to escape her trap in her future home. Doc has to prevent Jennifer from seeing her future self. And Marty had to protect the time machine, although he gets distracted by a flying remote out walking a dog. This gives Biff the ability to steal the time machine and go back to whenever it was to change the future.

In the events with Doc and Marty rescuing Jennifer, Bif has returned and gets erased from history. How he managed to stay alive to return the time machine without altering events around him is never mentioned. It gives Doc and Marty, however, the ability to return to the past in the year 1985. Upon arrival, the year 1985 is very dystopian to the one they left. Jennifer is left at her home in the front hammock. Marty returns home to a home that is no longer his. And Marty discovers that the city is not the same place that he left. Marty's father is gone. Marty's mother is married to a rich and powerful Biff. And the rest of the family is either in gaol or drunken slobs.

Doc and Marty find out that Biff had managed to get the time machine and take the sports almanac back in time (later revealed to be the year 1955) to give younger Biff an unbeatable advantage in betting on sports events. Doc and Marty,, after escaping a megalomaniacal Biff in this alternate year of 1985, go back to the year 1955 to retrieve the almanac and erase the timeline of the dystopian year 1985.

Much of the remainder of the movie leaves the audience with questions about why the first movie lead Marty's siblings and later himself starting to disappear. Yet, an event where the stolen time machine changes the past 60 years earlier, the year 2015 stays the same. A newspaper article shows Doc Brown committed. Meaning that he should not have been able to change the future or past, given that Marty would not have been able to go back in time to change the past in the first place. And how did Doc Brown know the terrain of a rural road so well that he could, from the year 1885, give directions to Western Union about Marty's location and time? He needed to make sure that Doc's presence in Hill Valley in 1885 would be so minimal that the changes to the future would stay nearly the same.

Rating: B

Frank wrote on Nov 18^th, 2021 at 10:50am:


I was going to pay money to see it. But it was online for free. The previews for the movie did not encourage me to pay $18 for a ticket to an air-conditioned movie screening.

The Little Things

A crime thriller, set in early 1990s Los Angeles. Bakersfield Deputy sheriff Joe Deacon ("Deke") has been assigned the task of going to Los Angeles to collect some evidence for a trial. When he gets there, he finds that he is to accompany Detective Jimmy Baxter to a murder scene. What strikes Deacon is the similarities of the crime scene to the one that Deacon had been investigating previous in Bakersfield. Deacon then decides to take vacation time to help the investigation of this case.

Another victim goes missing during her morning run. A third victim washes up on the shore. Albert Sparma, who happened to be a suspect of the previous murders, gets arrested and taken into custody for questioning. However, Deacon's hot-headedness in the interview room allows for Sparma to leave. Sparma's alleged surviving victim (shown in the opening scenes of the movie) also compromises her eligibility to be an objective witness of the suspect.

Later, Deacon and Baxter (illegally) enter Sparma's residence. Baxter keeps watch. Deacon enters the residence, looking for evidence against Sparma. Sparma, aware of the surveillance, calls in an "officer down" report to his home. This leads Deacon to make a hasty retreat. Baxter found that Sparma wanted to watch the whole ordeal. Later, Baxter again surveilling Sparma's house gets ambushed by Sparma. Sparma offers Baxter a ride to where he claims he buried a particular victim. Baxter accepts the ride. Deacon follows both in private at a distance. They end up in a country road where Baxter is asked to dig several holes. Sparma later reveals a claim that he has never actually killed anyone. The taunts get to Baxter.

Deacon, having witnessed what is going on, makes his own goal of righting the wrongs of the serial murders. It is also revealed that Deacon has his own past mistakes that haunt him.

The cast of Denzel Washington and Rami Malek plays Deputy Joe Deacon and Detective Jim Baxter, respectively. Jared Leto plays Albert Sparma. I found the movie reasonably engaging. Though, you might be put off by the comprehensive nature of this storyline, it does not insult the audience with outright explanations of exposition. It is a grim tale. And although there is some thrilling scenes, much of the storyline is slow paced for the right feel of the movie. The concluding scenes suddenly give you new angles to think about. But you are left to come to your own conclusions as the movie very much ends near suddenly, with the idea that the protagonists have made a "near enough, good enough" resolution to the case.

Rating: B.

Ghostbusters Afterlife

Having just watched this movie online and in poor quality, I cannot really review this movie with a whole lot of honesty of critiquing. I will watch the movie in the cinema upon release, just to get the full effect of the visuals and surround sound.

Ghostbusters Afterlife opens with a scene of someone (assumed to be an ageing Egon Spengler) in the farmland being pursued by some demonic ghost. He gets run off the road and has to run back to the farmhouse to try and catch his ghost. Unfortunately, he ran short on power and could not snare the ghost. We see him later in the house slumped over, perhaps drowsy. A ghost entity vaporises slowly behind him and attacks Egon. Implied is that Egon died from a heart attack.

The scene cuts to Egon's estranged daughter, Callie, and grandchildren Trevor and Phoebe. They are made evicted from their rental and are forced to move to Oklahoma to live in the Spengler farmhouse. Trevor immediately finds a job at a fast-food restaurant -- mainly to work with a pretty girl there called "Lucky". Phoebe gets enrolled in a summer school science class. Her teacher is Gary Grooberson. Later Mr Grooberson and Phoebe's mother date. Phoebe befriends Podcast. Nothing is said about his real name.

The children discover a few things about their late grandfather. Phoebe discovers the house is haunted, as well as her grandfather's ghost meter. Trevor discovers the Ghostbusters vehicle and repairs it. Having found the Ghostbusters equipment, Phoebe shows the equipment to Podcast. Gary discovering the ghost trap to be genuine, unwittingly releases the entity from the trap. The entity makes its way to a mine nearby.

When the team of Trevor, Phoebe and Podcast take the Ghostbusters car and equipment out to the mine, they discover a metal-eating ghost (called Muncher) that they managed to capture. But the property damage caused from the pursuit gets the team arrested and all equipment confiscated. Phoebe decides to call the Ghostbusters number. The call is answered by Ray. Ray tells Phoebe about Egon's obsession with Gozer likely returning. Phoebe tells about Egon's death, her relationship as Egon's granddaughter.

Much of the remainder of the movie is about the team (including Lucky) having to take on Gozer themselves. Much of this prompted by Callie and Gary getting attacked and possessed by the demon dogs. Practical and computer-generated effects are used interchangeably to animate the demon dogs. Callie becomes Zuul the Gatekeeper. Gary becomes Vinz Klortho the Keymaster at the temple.

Gozer the Gozerian reincarnates among them. Podcast manages to trap Zuul. Then the pursuit is on to get back to the farmhouse to snare Gozer. It takes the intervention of the first Ghostbusters (Peter, Ray, and Winston) to save the children. Zuul is released by Gozer. Zuul then possesses Lucky. It then takes the 3 original Ghostbusters, plus Trevor and Phoebe's proton pack to take on Gozer. However, divine intervention in the form of ghostly Egon helps Phoebe hold off Gozer. This is much to the surprise of the three original Ghostbusters as well as the family. Gozer is then trapped in a large ghost trap. Egon is redeemed by family, friends and former co-workers. Callie manages to make peace with her father.

This movie is a good tribute to Harold Ramis. I will pay to watch this movie in theater, upon the release. I figure that this movie could be the redeeming movie for the Ghostbusters franchise.

Rating B+

The Beatles: Get Back. - Part 1.

Directed by Peter Jackson.

Finally, an amazing warts and all documentary that confirms what Albert Goldman wrote so many years ago about John Lennon in his 'The Lives of John Lennon'.

As Jackson put it, if he were to cast Lennon in The Lord of the Rings', he would have cast him as Gollum.

The documentary, itself, is a riveting view into the massive creative process that went into producing Beatles' music; and you can only be more amazed when you remember that by 1969, they were all still in their 20s.

There were only 3 weeks from the start of their last project to the famous rooftop concert, during which time, they had written and recorded some of their greatest, including 'Get Back', 'Don't Let me Down', 'Let it Be', 'The Long and Winding Road', 'Across the Universe' and others, including the start of many songs that would appear on solo albums in later years.

Papillon for the 50th time. The Jew was good when he was young.

"Charlie's Country" on Netflix. Starring a magnificent David Gulpilil. Just breath-taking.