A review by John Chard

Written by John Chard on 2019-07-08

You gotta go forward to save the past and back to alter the future. Yikes! Back to the Future Part II sees Marty & Jennifer coerced by Doc into travelling forward in time to correct the future. But Biff is still around and spies an opportunity for untold riches; which he takes. Meaning our three time travelling wonders have to find a way back to the past to stop Biff from changing the course of history. The gargantuan, and deserved, success of Back To The Future ensured {demanded} that a sequel would follow. So taking the bull by the horns, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gray crafted not only a sequel, but a trilogy, of which part two is ultimately a sort of interim plot filler for the finale to come a year later. There's no doubt about it, part two is at first a puzzle box of a picture, one that had this particular viewer back in the day venturing in for multiple viewings to unravel the deft, daft, but intricate plot. I have grown to love part two very much as I have got older, with each viewing tending to reward me just a little bit more. Directed with absolute keenness by Zemeckis, the film moves at such a pace there is barely time to catch breath, something that hardly helps one to follow exactly what is going on. But it does make sense under scrutiny, and as we lurch from one magnificent set piece to another, we find a dark undercurrent of bleakness in amongst the froth. The makers offer up two visions of the future, one is all colourful and swamped in glorious 80s nostalgia, yet it's knowingly enveloped in consumerism and hi-tech reliability. The other is bitten by greed and almost under despotic control, it's food for thought and rather wry in its telling. Not content with that, the makers whisk us back to 1955 just to remind us that a time of innocence and hope did exist; and simultaneously with skill they repeat the ending of part one with the additional story of part two! Clever eh? The returning cast are again uniformly strong {Michael J. Fox, Thomas F. Wilson & Christopher Lloyd} while Elisabeth Shue confidently steps into Jennifer's shoes after Claudia Wells {Jennifer in part one} fell ill and was unable to continue the role. Alan Silvestri's score still packs a cross dimension's punch and the effects crew again come up trumps {it's ace in HD}. It now can be seen as the bridge between two better movies, that's for sure, but I liken it to Spielberg's Temple Of Doom-more darker than the more favourable films in a series; but one that is crucially still having fun. It may be a high-tempo ball of funny confusion at times, but this one, courtesy of it's ream of homages and sly observations, is one of the best trilogy sandwich fillers going. Munch it. 8/10

A review by JPV852

Written by JPV852 on 2020-10-28

This was one I think I was slightly disappointed in when I first saw it in theaters back in '89 and even with subsequent viewings on VHS and DVD, however I've come to appreciate it more over the years post-2000s. Lots of fun though feels disjointed at times going back and forth in time from 1985 to 2015 to alternate 1985 and back to 1955. But I did like the technical aspects re-creating the events of the first movie. **4.0/5** PS: Still remember back in the day seeing a TV special and believing the hoverboard was real, lol.

A review by SoSmooth1982

Written by SoSmooth1982 on 2023-04-22

My favorite out of the series. I like this one better, because your rewatching the 1st one as the 2nd one is helping the 1st one at the same time. So you get to enjoy the 1st one again with new twists added from the 2nd one. But you can't see yourself watching the 1st one while watching the 2nd one, because the 1st one is not suppose to see the 2nd one watching it, and vice versa. Otherwise something bad will happen if the 1st and 2nd one see each other. Lol you get what I'm saying!

A review by Arcanum101

Written by Arcanum101 on 2023-05-23

Don't bother. Just rewatch the original again and be thankful.

A review by kevin2019

Written by kevin2019 on 2024-11-29

"Back to the Future Part II" is a refreshing and inexhaustible source of entertainment and inventive fun for everyone. It features an abundance of memorable action sequences which have been brought to the screen with innovation and skill and great visual imagination. It also draws upon events featured in the original film to create an entirely different slant on the same sequences, but this time around the motivating factors in doing this retread are entirely different. Of course such sequences as these could mean a distinct lack of creative inspiration, but fortunately that is never the case here because they are visually inspired and they only add to the overall fabulous enjoyment to be had.