Top 10 most overrated films Part 2: No's 5-1

Ok so now for the second part of my look at the top 10 most overrated films which will cover the last five, so let's give them a look and remember these are just my opinion and anyone can disagree with me on them.

5. Avatar

Right to kick off is James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar, which was his first film since Titanic (a 12 year hiatus) and it is essentially Dances with Wolves on another planet.  And the film to recap is set on the planet Pandora where the humans are mining for a valuable mineral however their mining threatens the existance of a race native to the planet, the Na'vi.  And the main character is Jake (Sam Worthington) a parapleigic marine who is assigned as a bodyguard to Dr Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who explores the planet with the use of avatars, which are genetically grown bodies in the form of the Na'vi, which are controlled remotely by human operators, which Grace and Jake both have their own avatar as do the others in her group.  And the story sees Jake infiltrate a Na'vi tribe where he at first is secretly sent to gather information for Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) but he soon becomes drawn to the Na'vi as a race and also becomes romantically interested in one of the female Na'vi, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).  And from here this is where Jake's loyalties are torn to the humans and the Na'vi and he must choose whom he will fight for.

In terms of scale Avatar is not entirely dissimilar to Titanic its an overblown movie which tries to a bit too over ambitious.  It also tries to convey some sort of environmental message as well but as a film it just feels like an exercise in self indulgence from its maker, James Cameron.  And here Cameron has gone for a carbon copy of Dances with wolves where an outside meets a tribe of natives and eventually becomes one of them.  So in the end there is nothing really new here on offer despite all its fancy technology and special effects and it has to be said that Na'vi tribe don't really make for a convincing use of CGI either. 

And to sum up ultimately Avatar is a boring, overlong and above all overrated movie which left me yawning by the end rather than anything else so that's why its on here.

4. Marvel Avengers Assemble

So at No.4 is the Avengers movie, which saw all the superheroes of Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow and Arrow all come together to form the superhero group that is the Avengers.  The story to sum up briefly is about how to director of the peacekeeping organisation S.H.I.E.L.D. (the anacronym is a bit too long to spell out!) Nicky Fury (Samuel L.Jackson) recruits Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk and Thor together to put together a team of superheroes to stop Thor's evil brother, Loki from conquering the Earth.  And well that pretty much sums it all up!

And the funny thing is this was one film I was really looking forward to seeing as I had heard quite alot of good things about it.  But.... in the end I just felt the film was really boring and the characters didn't really connect that well together and its story was pretty dull and uninvolving as well and in the end I felt it left alot to be desired.  The only bit that really stuck out as being good and was funny was when the Hulk kicked Loki's ass!  The film itself isn't horribly bad but it just isn't that great either and for a film that was directed by Joss Whedon (the creator behind Buffy, Firely and Serenity) I expected alot more than what we got here with The Avengers.

And that was pretty quick but in a nutshell this film was a real bore and it fell way short of expectations in the end.

3. Fight club

At No.3 is Fight Club and again this may surprise some people and I actually do quite like this film myself BUT it has to be said it is still overrated and there are things about it that annoy me but I will get onto that in a bit.  But to say a bit about the film quickly of course the story is about an unnamed office worker (although he is referred to as the narrator or Jack, played by Edward Norton) who suffers from insomnia and he tries to get over it by going to self help groups for people with cancer or other ailments.  However Jack (as I will just refer to him as for the sake of it) ends up meeting a woman named Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) who puts a spanner in the works of Jack's idea which causes his insomnia to return.  Not long after however Jack meets a someone on a plane named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and when he later arrives back at his apartment block he finds his apartment has been destroyed and he ends up calling Tyler and the two of the hang out and not before long they start up a fight club which attracts many members and it takes off but it soon grows out of control as Tyler's wild schemes get more and more ambitious and dangerous.

Fight club funnily enough wasn't a big box office success on its release but it soon developed a cult following and the film gained praise for its performances as well as for its intelligent script.  However for me even though it is an entertaining film its just a bit overrrated and it is quite annoying at times as Tyler Durden is basically a pretentious and arrogant dickhead who keeps making self congratulatory speeches and tries to find more ways to create chaos.  And the film also nearly chokes itself on its own cleverness as well given that it is filled with such knowingly smart dialogue but its delivered in a way that just makes you want to slap the writers.  It also muddles the timeline between Jack meeting Tyler and Jack meeting Marla and when they swap telephone numbers its before Jack even met Tyler yet she calls him on the number to Tyler's house before Jack had even met him!  Strange!

Anyway for me Fight Club is a good film but to be honest it is overrated and as such its not the classic its hyped up to be and so here it is at No.3.

2. Mad Max: Fury Road (updated 13.11.15) 

And as bit of a rehash at No.2 now is Mad Max: Fury Road, which for some reason everyone raved about this film calling one of the best of the year.  But is it really???!!  But I will say more about that in a bit first off I'll mention a bit about the story.

So the story follows its main protagonist, Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) a survivor of a nuclear war as the film takes place in a post apocalyptic wasteland.  Max is however captured by a war gang led by the tyrannical Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and is used as a universal blood donor and a "blood bag" for a sick member of the war gang named Nux (Nicholas Hault).  One day however Joe's five wives are taken by Furiosa who drives off with them in a gasoline truck prompting Joe to send out his forces to capture her and reclaim his wives whom he intends to use for breeding (one of whom is pregnant).  Max is then strapped to Nux's car during the pursuit but during the chase Max manages to free himself and take control of Nux's car and he later catches up with Furiosa and after an initial struggle he soon becomes Furiosa's ally and tries to help them escape the clutches of Joe and his army. 

When Fury Road was released earlier this year it was to widespread critical acclaim and some quarters even went as far as to say it was one of the best action films of all time.  However I just don't get it and don't see what all the fuss is about.  For me I just found this film to be too strange to really find it that great or engrossing or gripping in any way.  The characters apart from Max and Furiosa and the wives (and Nux later on) are all pretty loathsome and even with Max and Furiosa its hard to really root for them especially as they have little chemistry together on screen.  Tom Hardy's performance is also really monosyllabic and he rarely speaks more than maybe 10 words at a time!  And despite the fact that Max is billed as the main character he really is more like a secondary one and its really Furiosa who is the more prominent character in the story. 

So for me I have to say Fury Road is massively overrated, its lauded like it is one of the all time great masterpieces but it really isn't.  To be fair though its not a bad film and the action is impressive and visually it looks spectacular but visuals and action on their own don't necessarily make a great film.  And in view of all huge hype surrounding it the film just fell way short of expectations for me in the end and that's why Max Max: Fury Road sits here at No.2.     

1. The Dark Knight

OK so this is the point where you all go "WHAT????????!!!".  Yes I have put The Dark Knight rises at the top of this list.  Why???  Well I'll get to that in a bit but here's a quick summary of the story....

And to anyone familiar with the film will know the plot (SPOILER ALERT WARNING JUST IN CASE!!) which follows Batman (Christian Bale) taking on the psychotic terrorist, the Joker (Heath Ledger) who... well terrorises Gotham city and he ends up kidnapping both D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and his girlfriend and Bruce's sort of ex Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gylenhall).  However as the Joker is captured, Batman brutally interrogates the Joker he gives out false info as to where they were located and Batman only manages to save Dent and Rachel dies in an explosion and this causes a distraction to allow the Joker to escape.  And its from here Batman must try and track down and stop the Joker before he wreaks more havoc and destruction on Gotham. 

So why have I put it at the top of the list???  Well I just think in comparison to the other two films in the Nolan trilogy this one just get's lauded just a bit too much and some audiences have went as far to say its one of the best films of the 2000s!  But to be honest I just don't quite get it.  I think it is a very good film but to call it one of the greatest films of the last decade is just a bit of an overstatement.  The film also tries to be an epic movie in terms of its length but again it just feels too long and bloated with quite a few scenes that move too slow.   

I also find one of the annoying things about The Dark Knight is this is where Christian Bale really decided to step up Batman's ridiculously raspy voice and from here you just cannot take his Batman seriously!  I also think that Bruce and Rachel never really share any chemistry with one another at all even though Maggie Gyllenhaal is more convincing in the role than Katie Holmes was.  Also another thing is that Harvey Dent's transformation into a bad guy isn't quite so convincing and not only that I also think it seems daft that a guy with his face half burnt off can speak clearly and fluently without any speech impairments not to mention this guy decided not take any painkillers!  So basically how could they even justify Harvey Dent as being able to function normally after a horrible injury like that?!

And top it off the ending of the film is also incredibly silly as (SPOILER!) Batman decides to take the heat for the murders that Dent committed and also for Dent's death when surely the people of Gotham are hardly likely to accept his guilt.  I mean this guy is the protector of Gotham, he's not a murderer and surely the people of Gotham would know that by now!  And the one guy they should have pinned the murders on should have been the Joker, which would be far more plausible and it would give Batman no reason to go on the run!

But I don't mean to take away from the film itself too much as it is of course a very good one however and Heath Ledger is great and chilling as the Joker and his posthumous oscar was well deserved and it was just a sad loss that he passed away just before the film was released.  And the film also has some tense and gripping moments such as the opening robbery and also Batman and Dent's attempt to capture the Joker.   

However for me I still think out of the three films in the Nolan trilogy this is still the most overrated and as such a film that is highly overrated and deserves to be at No.1 given all the hype that is thrown at it, it doesn't quite stack up as high as people think it should but that's just my opinion.

Anyway so that was fun and I will be back with my list of the top 10 most underrated films soon, which will take some extra thinking!

So until the next un its bye for now and Happy Halloween! 

Top 10 most overrated films Part 1: No's 10-6

OK just for a change I thought I would do another top 10 list and this list will be about the most overrated films.  Now I'm not saying these are films I necessarily hate in fact some of them I quite like but they are on here because I just think they are overly lauded and in a way their level of praise received is a bit much.

So there might be a few surprises in here where some of you (or whoever reads this blog) will say "What???  How could you call that film overrated??!!" but again these are just my choices and you can all disagree with them. 

Anyway without much further ado here is the list.

10. Slumdog millionaire

OK to start off is this film which received rave reviews on its release and it went on to pick up 8 oscars including best picture and best director (for Danny Boyle).  To quickly recap the plot surrounds a young man, Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) who goes on the Indian version of Who wants to be a millionaire and ends up winning as the questions all relate to certain incidents in his own life but he ends up being tortured by the police first just before he reaches the final question as they suspect foul play.  So the film is told in a series of flashbacks and during the film and it also covers a bit about his love interest Latika (played by Freida Pinto).

However I just think this film is totally overrated and again its one of these so called feelgood movies which in actuality is really quite harrowing to watch as many of the events in Jamal's childhood and even his torture by the police makes for really uncomfortable viewing.  And again despite its appearingly unique premise its just another cliched feelgood love story with some funny moments interspersed with the unpleasant stuff and in the end I don't really think its that great a film.  Its not a bad film however just not a great one and as such I think it warrants a place on this list.

9. Inception

At No.9 is Inception and it really does again highlight while Christopher Nolan is a very talented filmmaker he can also be pretty hit and miss also and Inception for me is a case in point.  Quickly the film's story revolves around its main character Dominick Cobb (Leo DiCaprio) who is a professional thief who commits acts of corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of whoever he targets.  But Cobb is offered a chance to have his criminal record erased as a form of payment for undertaking a difficult task implanting another idea into the subconscious of another person, i.e. inception.

I think with Inception Nolan was just being a bit too clever for his own good and the film chokes itself on its own cleverness with a convoluted plot which left me confounded and baffled than anything else.  And while the film's visuals are impressive the action is pretty boring and uninvolving and there were also too many supporting characters to deal with despite its mostly impressive cast (apart from the rather dull Joseph Gordon-Levitt, sorry Joesph!).  The film also plods along pace wise rather slowly and it seems to take forever for Cobb and his gang to get started on their main task and any previous exposition just leaves you baffled more than anything else.

So to sum Inception is by far and a way overrated, boring, self indulgent and basically not a very interesting way to spend two and a half hours of your time.

8. Cinema Paradiso

OK this maybe the first what??? film on the list for some people as Cinema Paradiso is widely regarded as a modern classic.  And to quickly recap the story it follows the life of Salvatore Di Vita, an Italian film director who reflects on his life and it is told in a series of flashbacks which begins with Salvatore as a young boy who grows up during WWII in Sicily and he escapes his harsh reality by going to the Cinema Paradiso, the local cinema where Salvatore strikes up a friendship with the projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret).  Salvatore also falls in love with a local girl Agnes Nano and he later takes over as the cinema's projectionist and later Alfredo tells him he should follow his passion for cinema and be a filmmaker.

This was one film I had always kind of put off seeing it and when I finally I did I understood why as Cinema Paradiso is just a massive bore.  The story is of course supposed to be romantic and somewhat sentimental but it just didn't get me interested and it left me pretty indifferent to the story and its characters.  So by the end I was left bored and uninterested by what I'd seen and to this day I still can't quite fathom why this film is such a classic.  Perhaps a second viewing might change my mind but I doubt it and I don't hate it but in the end it just wasn't my cuppa tea.

7. Kick Ass

So this is another one of these films which on its release gathered alot of praise for its gritty action and its dark humour as it was based on the comic book of the same name.  The premise for the story focuses on the notion of real life heroes and as such it means the action is far more gritty than it would appear in a fantasy superhero world.  And the story focuses on a teenager, Dave (Aaron Johnson) who sets out to become a superhero who calls himself "Kick Ass".  However Dave soon get's caught up in a much bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) who is a former cop who is intenty on bringing down a crime boss and BD has also trained his 11 year old daughter to become a ruthless vigilante, Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and together they get involved deep in a big battle to take down the boss and his men.

It really has to be said that Kick Ass is not only overrated but for me it is one of the ugliest movies to have come out of Hollywood in quite some time.  And what makes Kick Ass so ugly as a film is its brutal violence and just how they try and pass it off as entertainment when it is anything but as the film's tone is so dark and mean spirited it made it almost impossible for me to get into it.  I also found it quite disturbing that they made an 11 year old girl into a remorseless killer who leaves no one alive whatsoever and she appears more like a girl version of Anton Chighur, a pscyhopath who kills anyone that stands in their way.  And unlike Quentin Tarantino's violence, which while it can be quite strong generally speaking it has a more comical feel to it, here the violence is just downright ugly.

So Kick Ass to sum up is not just overrated its also a pretty nasty mean spirited film and as such it more than deserves its place on the list.  

6. Gladiator

Next is Gladiator and while its still a film I really enjoy it has to be said that yep it remains as being pretty overrated.  And we all know the plot but quickly to recap, Maximus (Russell Crowe) is a Roman general who named as the successor to the emperor of Rome, Marcus Arelius (Richard Harris) but instead Marcus's son, Commodus who ends up killing his father out of rage for being passed over.  Commodus then takes control as emperor and orders Maximus's execution after he refuses to serve him.  And from Maximus's escapes the Roman soldiers and flees back to his home to find his wife and son murdered and he is later captured and taken as a slave and forced to learn to fight as a gladiator before he makes his way back to Rome to have a chance at revenge over Commodus.

Now to be fair Gladiator is a really entertaining film but I still think it is pretty overrated simply because Russell Crowe's performance is so dull and one dimensional its hard to understand why he won an Oscar for it.  The film does have more interesting characters in the ruthless emperor Commodus and Lucilla, his sister which Commodus harbours incestuous feelings for.  And only if Maximum's was a more engaging and interesting character it could have helped to make Gladiator a really great film instead of a merely good one.

So in the end Gladiator is enjoyable but its just overrated and not as good as its often given credit for.
And that's it for my first part and I'll be back soon with the 2nd!

Until then bye for now!                

Back to the Future Part II Revisited "Shark still looks fake!"

OK well the 21st October 2015 may have passed us by already but I thought I would take another look at my Back to the Future Part II post and redo it a little bit for fun given that we have passed that landmark date in the second film which saw some predictions come true and well...others didn't! 

But anyway I digress slightly so let's take another look at Back to the Future Part II.....

And yep as usual.... SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So to recap the story begins right off after the end of the first film, where Marty (Michael J. Fox) now having made it back to 1985 and having successfully altered the timeline to get his parents back together.  And the next morning, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) arrives in his Dolorean time machine and warns Marty that he needs to come with him to the future as there is something seriously wrong with in the future with his kids.  Marty travels with the Doc, along with his girlfriend Jennifer (now played by Elisabeth Shue) into the future in the year 2015, where the Doc tells Marty that he needs him to pose as his future son, Marty Jr (also Fox) in order to prevent his son from being involved in a robbery with Biff Tannen's grandson, Griff (also played by Thomas F. Wilson) which would eventually lead to his family's breakdown.  Marty meets with Griff and turns down his involvement in the robbery, when Griff taunts him about being a chicken, Marty loses it and the two of them fight, with Marty fleeing in the same style as he did in the first film when the young Biff chased him.  In the ensuing chase Marty manages to outwit Griff and his gang who end up being arrested by the police after crashing into the town courthouse.  With Griff and his gang now arrested, Marty's future is now apparently safe.    

Marty however unwittingly complicates things when he a buys a sports alamac in a memorobilia shop, and the book itself contains the result of every major sporting event between 1950 and 2000.  Marty however is soon caught out by the Doc, who warns him of the consequences of tampering with time and using the book would be very dangerous and convinces to dump in the trash, but Biff Tannen, now an elderly man in future, overhears their conversation and he ends up taking the discarded book.  Biff then follows Marty and Doc to a housing complex where the police have taken Jennifer to her home in the future, who was rendered unconscious by the Doc earlier.  Jennifer wakes up in her future home and hides just as she sees her future daughter (played by Fox!) and Marty's mother and Jennifer's future mother in law, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) arrive.  Later on the future Marty, now aged 47, arrives home as well and he is soon persuaded into a shady business deal along with a business colleague of his, Needles (played by Flea, bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers).  However Marty's supervisor having overheard the transmission calls up Marty and has him fired as a result.  Jennifer eventually sneaks out the house but encounters her future self on the way out and they both pass out in shock at seeing each other, which let's the Doc take the young Jennifer back.

However in the meantime, the old Biff has stolen the Doc's time machine, but he arrives back just before the Doc and Marty reappear with Jennifer.  When Marty and Doc arrive back in 1985, they drop off Jennifer at her home, and when Marty goes to his he finds the front door padlocked and he ends up going through his bedroom window only to find the house is now owned by a black family who chase him out.  Marty soon realises something has gone awfully wrong in that Hill Valley has now been turned into chaos, and he stumbles upon finding that Biff, aged 47, is now wealthy and corrupt, and married to his mother, with his father George having died back in 1973.  Marty meets up again with Doc who explains that the old Biff somehow managed to steal the time machine and travel back in time and gave the sports almanac to his younger self at some point in order for him to become wealthy.  And in order for them to put things right again, they must find out where and when the old Biff went with the sports almanac.  Marty then goes back to confront the Biff of 1985, who tells him he got the book from an old man back in November 12, 1955, and that the old Biff told him to kill anyone who tries to find out about the book, which leads Biff to try and kill Marty.  Marty however soon manages to escape from Biff, who also admits to killing Marty's father, George, as the Doc arrives with the DeLorean up on the top of Biff's hotel, who knocks out Biff by opening the car door on his face.  From here Marty and Doc travel back to 1955 where they must try and find a way to succeed in saving the future from falling into the hands of Biff Tannen.

THOUGHTS 

As a sequel to the original, BTTF Part II is a highly entertaining follow up and I would have to actually say its my favourite of the three films.  In Part II the plot is more convoluted but its also far more involving in that regard as well, as both Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale have created another very funny, witty and above all intelligent script which pokes fun at the themes of the first film and how even the Doc and Marty have to carefully tread around the timelines they have created in the different times.  It also clevely recreates some of the scenarios of the first film such as Marty chasing Griff and his crew, in a similar way to the first when he chased Biff, as well as how Marty must sneak around his other self when he is at the Enchantment under the sea dance.  Part II and III were also both shot back to back throughout 1989 so their release naturally followed one after the other with Part II in 1989 and III in 1990.     

And while the film is a bit silly in its depiction of the future in some ways, in others it is actually spot on such as its take on technological advances especially as we have since passed 21 October 2015.  As a few examples in the film in the future Marty plays an old one armed bandit video game, with a handgun, where some young kids look on incredilously at how it involves having to use your hands, and now we have the Microsoft Kinect system used with the Xbox, which no longer requires a game pad.  Other accurate predictions made shown in the film are the use of digital flat panel TVs, which we see in the scene in Marty's future home, where his son sits and watches 6 channels all at the same time, and also video internet chatting is displayed where Marty Sr talks with Needles over the shady business proposal.  So in these regards Part II really was ahead of its time in its thinking and just maybe Zemeckis and Gale knew something we didn't or perhaps they were able to get that Delorean to travel through time! ;-)  

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES

Performance wise Part II is also pretty good and the regular cast are all on form once again, with Michael J. Fox great once more as the young (and old!) Marty, who is thrown into sorting out his own future at the Doc's behest.  Fox has several highlights in the film and even the scenes where we get to see him play his incompetent future son and also even his future daughter are still fun as they are both so ridiculous!  Fox as Marty's son also get's a hilarious moment where he meets with the young bully, Griff, who asks him if he is in or our for the robbery and Marty says "I don't know I think I should ask my father!".  Also as Marty Jr, Fox uses a a line from Midnight Cowboy as a he walks onto the road a car toots its horn at him he shouts "Hey! I'm walking here!". 

Fox also has some fun with the character of Marty where he has to go back in time to 1955 and try and avoid coming into contact with his other self from that time at the school dance, when he is spotted by Biff's gang, he climbs up over the stage lighting rig above where his 1955 counterpart is playing guitar, and he drops sandbags onto Biff's gang, after this, Marty's other self moves behind the stage and looks confused at the unconscious bodies of the gang.  This also leads into a funny scene where the young Biff taunts Marty and calls him a chicken, where Marty angrily turns to him and says "Nobody ever calls me chick....!" and his other self opens the door in Marty's face, knocking Marty sideways to the ground!  Fox also has another funny moment where he wakes up in Biff's hotel room and he is comforted by his mum, who has had a breast enlargement done, and he says "But mom you're so... you're so.... big!". 

As the middle aged Marty, Fox has some funny moments where his elderly mother, Lorraine, makes dinner for them by taking a tiny frozen pizza which is placed in a special hydration microwave and she takes it out a few seconds later and its turned into a massive pizza.  And as Lorraine serves it up Marty says "Oh maw, you sure know how to hydrate a pizza!".  Also in the scene where the middle aged Marty talks to his co-worker Needles, who taunts him by calling him a chicken, he says "nobody calls me chicken, Needles! Nobody!!".  This of course proves to be a running theme in Parts II and III where Marty reacts angrily to being called a chicken, which ultimately plays a key part in his future.    

Christopher Lloyd is also great again as Doc Brown, and he has a gallon of lines to deliver, which he does in his own inimitable way at a frantic pace, with great energy.  Lloyd has many highlights in the film and great dialogue, such as when they arrive in the future and after the Doc parks the DeLorean, the rain is still on and he looks at his watch and waits a few seconds then the rain goes off, "Right on the tick!  Too bad the post office in the future isn't as efficient as the weather service!".  And also a bit later on when the Doc warns Marty about young Griff "Oh and watch out for that Griff character, Marty.  He's got a few short circuits in his bionic implants!".  And on the revelation that Jennifer has been taken by the police, possibly back to her future home, he says the consequences could be disastrous: "I foresee two possibilities.  One coming face to face with herself put her into shock and she'd simply pass out.  Or two, the encounter could create a paradox, which would unravel the fabric of the space contium and destroy the universe!  Granted that is the worst case scenario.  The destruction might in fact might be localised, limited to merely our own galaxy!" which prompts a sarcastic response of "Well that's a relief!" from Marty.  Lloyd also has a nice little scene where he accidentally bumps into himself from the past in 1955 when he encounters his other self set up the experiment for Marty to get back to 1985.  And the Doc's other self asks for a wrench on a toolbox, which the Doc hands to him without looking and they talk about the weather quickly, and the Doc's other self says "Nice talkin to you. Maybe we might bump into each other again in the future." and the Doc slowly walks away saying "Or maybe the past!".

Thomas F. Wilson this time has a meatier role as Biff, and he does a great job in playing both the young, middle-aged and elderly Biff Tannen (as well as Grff!).  And with the middle aged Biff proving the most dangerous and villainous and in that particular role he lends a bit more dramatic weight to the film.  Wilson has plenty of good moments himself, such as in the scene where the young Biff tries to woo Lorraine back in 1955 and he grabs her and says "When are you gonna get it into your thick skull, Lorraine, you're my girl!" and she tells him she would never be his girl, even if he had a million dollars, and she clubs him with the box for her dress and runs away.  And Biff runs after her yelling "Yes you will!  Its you and me, Lorraine!  Its meant to be!  I'm gonna marry you someday, Lorraine.  Some day you will be my wife!!". 

Later on Wilson has a fun scene when his older self and younger self meet in 1955 and the old Biff gives the young one the Almanac and the young Biff says "Thank you so much, now why don't you make like a tree and get out of here" and the old Biff smacks him on the head and says "Leave!  Make like a tree and leave!  You sound like a damn fool when you get it wrong!".  And the middle aged Biff also has some good lines such as when he first storms into his hotel room and finds Marty there and shouts at him "You're supposed to be in Switzerland you little son of a bitch!".  Wilson has some funny moments as Griff, Biff's young grandson, such as when he meets Marty, after having subdued the younger Marty Jr, Marty pushes him back and Griff says "Well! Since when did you become the physical type?!". and as Marty says no to Griff's proposition, Griff says "What's wrong, McFly?? Chicken???" and one of his gang plays the sound of a chicken.

Lea Thompson is also really good again in her role as Lorraine, who also has fun in playing the young, middle aged and elderly Lorraine.  Although her eldlerly take on Lorraine is a bit of comical and its really the middle aged Lorraine that lends a bit more gravitas to her performance as a woman forced into a loveless marriage.  Lea does also get something good lines in her role as Lorraine, particularly in her middle aged role as Biff threatens to cut off her money and he says "who's gonna pay for your cosmetic surgery, Lorraine?!" and she turns and says "You're the one that wanted me to get those things!  You wan't em back? You can have them!".  Also in the scene where she parks with Marty in the car before the school dance, she says to Marty in the car "When I have kids one day they can have anything, anything they want" and he quitely says "I'd like to have that in writing!".

In the supporting cast, Elisabeth Shue does a good job at filling in for Claudia Wells, who was in the first film but was unable to continue due to personal circumstances with her family.  Elisabeth although ultimately has a rather small role, but her best scene comes when she comes face to face with her future self and they both look at each other and screams out "I'm old/I'm young!" at one another before passing out.  And in the scene prior to that, while in her future house she sees a cheesy wedding picture of her and Marty which says "Chapel o Love" and she says "I get married in the Chapel o Love??? I gotta get out of here!". 

James Tolkan reprises his role as Mr Strickland and he is hilarious in this film as he is given a slightly bigger role and some great dialogue.  Tolkan's best scene is in the alternate 1985 where he encounters Marty on his porch and he is armed with a shotgun and he says to Marty who tells he gave him detention just last week "The school burned down six years ago.  Now you've got exactly three seconds to get off my porch with your nuts in tact!".  After this a gang do a drive-by shooting on his house and Strickland runs after them shouting "Eat lead, slackers!!!".  And in a later scene, back in 1955, Tolkan has another fun scene as Strickland, when he catches out the young Biff reading what appears to be the sports almanac, and he snatches it off him and says "You've got a real attitude problem, Tannen, you know that?  And one day I will get you where I want you: in detention!  SLACKER!!". 

Then there are some amusing brief roles from future actors such as Billy Zane, who plays a part of Biff's gang in 1955 and also amusingly observes how Marty from 1985 is wearing his leather 50's jacket one minute but then spots the Marty from the first film on stage in the zoot suit.  And Zane says the great line "How the hell did he change clothes so fast?!".   Jason Scott-Lee who plays one of Griff's gang in the future is not too bad although its a very brief role and has very few lines. 

And Flea from the RHCP also shows his aptitude for acting as he actually provides a good albeit brief performance as Needles, who taunts McFly by trying to get him involved in a dodgy business deal.  And Flea get's to say some good lines such as in the aforementioned scene when he taunts Marty Sr into the deal and he says to him that his Japanese will never find out and "Come on... Stick your card in the slot and I'll handle it. Unless you want everyone in the division to think you're chicken!".  And as Marty Sr is riled by this and says "Nobody calls me chicken, Needles!  Nobody!" Needles taunts him further saying "All right, prove it!".  

Also last of all its worth mentioning that Crispin Glover did not reprise his role as George McFly though, as it was reported that he was not happy with the salary Zemeckis offered him for his return to the role and that the other actors got more than he did.  So instead they cast Jeffrey Weissman to take over the role and they used a series of prosphetics such as a false chin and nose, as well as sunglasses to cover his eyes.  Glover later as a result was not happy with the likeness of him in the film and he even filed a lawsuit against Zemeckis for the unlawful use of his image on screen, which lead to the creation of clauses in the Screen Actors Guild that prohibited the usage of methods to create the likeness of another actor. 

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

Moving finally away from the performances onto the direction side of things, and Robert Zemeckis does another great job here with Part II as he get's a bit more ambitious with the scope of the story, shifting between three different time periods, it allows for a change in the dynamics of the film as well.  Zemeckis also makes good use of an at that time new technique in film making called digital compositing, as well as the Vista Glide camera control system, which is put to use in the scene where Michael is seen playing the three different versions of himself on screen at the same time, as well as the scenes where the older Biff meets his younger self. 

Alan Silvestri also reprises his duties as the film composer (and Zemeckis's regular composer) and he produces another good effort for Part II with some of Silvestri's usual rising passages of music until they hit a crescendo being put to use again.  Its a technique that can get a bit annoying after a while but overall its still a pretty good score from Silvestri.

FLAWS 

So as for the flaws.... does BTFII have any worth nitpicking over???  Well yes it does have one or two, for starters one of the things that might threaten to put off an audience about Part II is its somewhat intircate plot and perhaps there is too much to-ing and frowing going on.  However for me that is part of the appeal of the film in that it makes you think about what the consequences of each action taken of Marty and Doc's time travels, but its somewhat convoluted story is probably what generally makes this the least favourite of the three films in the public's eyes. 

Another thing that does hinder the film somewhat is the poor effects make-up for Michael J. Fox and Elisabeth Shue as they both look pretty unconvincing as 47 year olds in the film and it always struck me as one of the weaker aspects of the film's otherwise excellent production.  And it has to be said that some of the future scenes, especially the ones in Marty's future home feel a little bit too comical and superflous to the story, in which the only real relevant details are that Marty had an accident which changed his life and that he got fired from his job, but apart from that once Marty has stopped his son from going to jail and Biff stealing the time machine, you feel everything after that is a bit padded until we get to 1985.

In fact you could even argue that perhaps Doc could have told Marty about his forthcoming accident in the future to prevent him from making the mistakes that would change his life to a path he probably could have avoided.  But instead Doc just decides to let Marty figure it out for himself which he eventually does in Part III while dropping one or two hints. 

Another niggle arises from the moment in the film when the old Biff returns to the future after having stolen the time machine, he emerges from the time machine looking strained and in great pain as he pulls his cane out of the car and accidentally thwacks himself in the gut with it.  This scene doesn't really make a whole lot of sense as to why Biff looked to be in pain, and the only thing I can think is that the changes he made in the past by giving the Almanac to his younger self probably had other consequences in the future and maybe the older Biff would cease to be as a result once he arrived back in 2015.  And there was actually a deleted scene which was put in the DVD where we see Biff collapse and vanish, which would probably back this up.  But in the context of the released version of the film whatever the reason, it is left unexplained and it remains the film's main plot hole.

Also further to this point if Biff had changed the past by going back to 1955 then surely the events of 2015 should have been changed as well to shape around his corruption and power.  Although perhaps that is the point as due to living a life of wealth and excess maybe it cost him to die in the future so maybe that's why Biff appears to be in great pain and die off.  Also it seems a bit incredible that Biff would be able to drive the time machine wily nily without knowing what buttons to press or what speed to get the Delorean up to to activate its time circuits but seems to manage it no problem!

And last of all I have to say that the Sports Almanac book which features the sports results of every major event for the last 50 years is actually when you look at it a pretty slim book!  And if was to carry so much statistical information for five decades then surely it would be a massive bloody tome and not a skinny little booklet which is what appears to be!  Yeah OK for a few years I'd buy that but for 50???  Nah!  It seems to be another detail that doesn't quite add up but its nothing major.

So that's it for the flaws!

SUM UP

To sum up Back to the Future Part II is a very entertaining and intelligent film which is a worthy sequel to the original and it leaves the story of the trilogy nicely poised for the third act in Part III.  The cast also put in some nice performances and the fact that the film managed to predict quite a few of the technological advances that would be around in the year 2015 was actually kind of spooky but its also part of the film's appeal.  So Part II is still my favourite and well worth watching.

So that's it for my relook at BTTFII and I will be back with another all new post sometime soon if not this month then definitely in November.

So until the next one its bye for now.