Back Again

As a little treat for ourselves, we watched Back to the Future Part II (1989). It's fun to watch something that is just that good.

While the first episode took place mostly in the 1950s past, this one travels to the future for a bit of fun with Marty McFly's dopey son and evil ancient Biff Tannen. While they are there, Biff travels back in time to set his younger self up with future knowledge. So when our heroes return to 1985 (the present), it is a horrible, Biff-ruled dystopia. Sort of an It's a Wonderful Life turn of events.

As in the first movie, every detail counts. A lot of the comedy comes from re-running or reframing jokes from the BttF1. But a surprising amount is quite dark - evil, alterna-1985 is quite realistically squalid.

It is almost the future (2015), and it doesn't look like we're going to get hover boards or flying cars. But it is amazing how accurate their images of the 1980s was, from within the 1980s. They really nailed that 80s nostalgia joint, showing a lot of self-awareness.