My Review of Back To The Future Part II (1989)

 

Written by Robert Zemeckis And Bob Gale

Directed by Robert Zemeckis 

Doc: "Don't talk to anyone, don't touch anything, don't do anything, don't interact with anyone, and try not to look at anything."

How do you follow up one of the most iconic movies all time, sequel wise? Well, you retain what worked about the movie in question and then you push things into another direction.

The first movie explored the possibility of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) not existing had George (Jeffrey Weissman) and Lorraine (Lea Thompson) never got together. This movie explored a much worse conundrum. What happened if they fell apart? This was something that Marty and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) would find out.

Yup, what if things in 1985 has resulted in a dead George and Lorraine in a relationship with Biff Tannen (Thomas F Wilson). It's a relationship where Biff was abusive to Lorraine and her children but especially with Marty. Yes, it's because Biff became aware of time travel and decided to change his own fate, which making the McFly family's much worse as a result. All because of a discarded almanac.

This was also a movie where Jennifer Parker (Elisabeth Shue) got to see her own future with Marty. This involved children named Marty Jr and Marlene (both played by Michael J. Fox) with Marty, which also trying to stay out of sight. At least Jennifer had something to do in this one.

Speaking of future kids, Marty Jr wasn't exactly the sharpest either. His whole plot was getting framed for a crime that Biff's grandson, Griff (Thomas F. Wilson) had committed but that was resolved fast enough in lieu of the dystopian version of 1985 that made up the best bit of the movie.

I think the future scenes were fine and had their moments before Jennifer thought they were just a dream. The dystopian 1985 plot just worked better, further solidifying Biff as a proper threat. Biff's proper nasty when he he had any semblance of power and once again, it was gratifying to watch him get his just desserts.

- Both Claudia Wells and Crispin Glover were replaced in this movie, though the latter would return for the third movie. Marty also got to use a hoverboard.

- The movie ended with Doc being revealed to being alive in 1885, nicely setting up the final part of this trilogy.

- Standout music: Michael Jackson's Beat It.

- Chronology: October 26th 1985, a dystopian version of 1985, 1955 again and 2015 in Hill Valley, California.

Back To The Future Part II certainly upped the stakes and I do think it's mostly worked as a sequel. It definitely had fun raising the stakes for Marty and Doc, gave the recast Jennifer a bit more to do and continued to prove how horrible Biff and his bloodline are.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Back To The Future (1985)

Written by Robert Zemeckis And Bob Gale

Directed by Robert Zemeckis 

Marty McFly: "Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"

Dr. Emmett Brown: "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

I turned forty this year and I was overdue in writing a review for the highest grossing movie of that year. Yup, of course I had to finally get around to this very movie.

It's such a simple take on time travel and it's consequences. You've got an average teenager in Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox). He's got a geeky father, George (Crispin Glover), an alcoholic mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) along with two siblings Dave (Marc McClure) and Linda (Wendie Jo Sperber). Oh and a girlfriend named Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells).

Some of those relationships are a bit more explored than others but it's Marty's relationship with eccentric scientist Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd) that was a good focus. Mostly because Doc's experiments with time travel had quite the effect on Marty and the future/past of his parents.

The time travel machine of choice was a car named the DeLorean. Marty went from being in 1985 to ending up in 1955 where the origins of his parents romance came very close to not even happening. In fact, Marty really had to play matchmaker with socially awkward George and the more rebellious Lorraine.

Of course what the movie needed was a really good villain. We got that with local bully Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson). He was George's boss in 1985 and his tormentor in 1955. He also got a little too handy with Lorraine and even came close to scuppering Marty's plans in 1955. His fate in 1985 after Marty changed things however was a nice comeuppance for the character.

Now this movie could have been a nice one and done but even before it was enough of a box office success to justify two sequels, Doc's reunion with Marty and Jennifer did set up further adventures. Something had to be done about their kids.

- Doc had the "Great Scott" catchphrase as well as dogs named Einstein (1985) and Copernicus (1955).

- Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly before the role was recast with Michael J. Fox.

- Standout music: Hey Lewis And The News The Power Of Love.

- Chronology: 1985 and November 5th 1955 in Hill Valley, California.

Like every one on the planet, I love Back To The Future. It's a perfect movie that has aged brilliantly, never outstayed it's welcome and will always put me in a good mood when I watch it. A classic for the right reasons.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of Frankenstein (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Guillermo del Toro

The Creature (to Captain Anderson): "My maker told his tale, then I will tell you mine."

If ever there was a film that needed a full theatrical release instead going down the Netflix route, it was this one. It's seriously a shame this didn't go that way because this would definitely be a Nosferatu (2024) monster hit.

Broken into three parts, we started off with the Prelude. This part was somewhat the conclusion to the story between Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and The Creature (Jacob Elordi). The Creature was trashing a ship in a bid to get revenge on his creator. Then there was Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen). He had the pleasure to hear both perspectives.

Let's start with Victor's Tale, shall we? We got a look into his younger days as a boy (Christian Convery). He had a strict father, Leopold (Charles Dance) and a loving mother, Claire (Mia Goth) and a younger brother named, William. Leopold preferred William over Victor and the latter was obsessed with stopping death.

Anyways, the years passed and William (Felix Kammerer) had a fiancée named Lady Elizabeth Harlander (Mia Goth). Elizabeth forged something of a connection with Victor while the latter inadvertently killed her uncle, Henrich (Christoph Waltz). Oh and there was The Creature himself.

Yes, we saw the dynamic between Victor and The Creature and it's one where the latter was the more sympathetic of the two. There were times when Victor's impatience with The Creature got so bad that Elizabeth found herself thoroughly disgusted with his mistreatment. Of course,Victor would then try to kill The Creature, only for the latter to be immortal.

As for The Creature's Tale, it's a bit shorter than Victor's but just as engaging. His friendship with a blind old man (David Bradley) was one of the nicest moments in the film. The blind man did everything with The Creature that Victor failed to do but sadly, it was also a relationship that ended in tragedy.

Speaking of tragedy, what should've been William and Elizabeth's wedding ended up being their demise as Victor and The Creature's conflict created such a disaster around them. I mean, it's definitely all Victor's fault, which was a realisation that he came too, albeit much too late.

Those final few minutes with Victor and The Creature were some of the best from the movie. A beautiful culmination of their volatile relationship as one of them died and the other lived, while choosing something other than revenge. The final shot in particular was just beautiful.

- Andrew Garfield was originally signed up to play The Creature before being replaced with Jacob Elordi.

- Mia Goth did double duty as both Baroness Claire Frankenstein and Lady Elizabeth Harlander. I'm genuinely surprised they didn't go down The Bride route with her as well. Charles Dance previously appeared in Victor Frankenstein (2015).

- Standout music: The score from Alexandre Desplat was exquisite. 

- Chronology: 1857 in the North Pole as well as Europe for the majority of the film.

Frankenstein (2025) quite frankly, turned out to be a massive triumph. It's absolutely gorgeous and beautifully Gothic to look at. The performances from Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth are on fine form and Guillermo del Toro wrote a fantastic script and directed the hell out of it. I loved this movie.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of It - Welcome To Derry: "Now You See It"

 

Written by Guadalís Del Carmen And Gabe Hobson

Directed by Andrew Bernstein

Lilly (re Pennywise): "What is that?"

Will: "It's a clown."

After the early Halloween release of the previous episode, I had over a week to wait for this third one and it certainly had some great moments in it.

First of all, let's check in our new/old Losers Club. Lilly and Ronnie made amends and both Will and Rich joined them in a bid to help free Hank from a potential death sentence. Rich had the notion of an orisha being to blame.

This meant a botched ritual at the graveyard where the kids ended up having to deal with a lot of different spooky goings on. On the plus side, at least their photos actually developed and wouldn't you know it, Pennywise briefly showed up as well. 

Aside from a brief photo appearance of Pennywise, the rest of the episode gave a nice backstory for General Shaw. In flashbacks, he encountered It as a child (Diesel La Torraca) and formed a friendship with a Native American girl named Rose (Violet Sutherland).

In the present, Shaw reconnected with Rose (Kimberly Norris Guerrero) and wanted to work with her not to disturb ground while enlisting Halloran to do some recon with both Hanlon and Russo. Let's just that Halloran's ability managed to freak both Hanlon and Russo.

There's a nice where Halloran had dinner with Leroy and Charlotte and confided in the former more about his abilities. I've got to admit that I'm really liking Chris Chalk's take on Halloran so far. 

- This episode introduced us to Madeleine Stowe's mystery character. She encouraged Lilly to make amends with Ronnie.

- Hank smokes a certain brand of cigarettes and it's not Pall Mall. He was also threatened with Shawshank. 

- Shaw's slingshot was the thing that Halloran used to locate. 

- Chronology: Flashbacks to 1908 for Shaw/Rose before going back to 1962.

Now You See It helped to move things a little bit further. Halloran got some great screentime in this one and the graveyard scene had some nice scares. Though not as strong as the first two episodes, I still enjoyed this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 26-30 Reviews

Settling into the second season, we've got photo sessions from hell, the misfortune of winning the lottery and a very bad child.

Episode 26: Photo Finish

In this episode, you had a photographer played by Patty McCormack. She was in a stagnated part of her career until she got an offer from a provocative magazine to take more risque photos. Any career satisfaction she might have gotten from that went out the window when Freddy started killing her subjects. The second story involved three FBI agents coming afoul of Freddy while investigating a family homicide in Springwood. 6/10

Episode 27: Memory Overload 

In an early role for Kyle Chandler, he popped up as a student named Chuck. The character was fearful of his military father and sought protection from his alcoholic professor named Windom. There's a nice twist in relation to Chuck and Windom's real connection. The second story had a woman named Barbara being hoisted by her own petard for tax evasion, not to mention a talking computer. 6/10

Episode 28: Lucky Stiff

This episode really was just one long story with various twists and turns. Lenny and Greta Nordhoff were an unhappy couple but when the former won the lottery, the latter was pleased and schemed with her lover. Lenny died and Greta had to dig his corpse to get the winnings. Greta also killed her lover but then found herself blackmailed into marrying a gravedigger. It's a decently executed episode. 6/10

Episode 29: Silence Is Golden

Easily the best episode of the bunch. The first half focused on a shock jock named Rick Rake who incurred the wrath of a mime. By the end of the part, Rick lost both his wife and his job/voice. The second half focused on the mime, who was a jewel thief that tried not to kill anyone. Unfortunately for him, both his girlfriend and his fence had different ideas. There's a commentary from Freddy about bad women that's repetitive of the previous episode. 7/10

Episode 30: Bloodlines

Another episode where the stories were better connected to one another. The first half focused on escaped convict Woody Burton (Marc Alaimo) terrorising his estranged wife, Joyce (Sheree North) and son, Jack (Chris Nash), resulting in death. The second half then focused on Jack as a family man with a demonic daughter (Irina Cashen). The daughter in question was definitely evil and there's shades of The Omen in this episode. 7/10

Next blog I'll tackle Monkey Dreams, Do You Know Where Your Kids Are?, Dreams That Kill, It's My Party And You'll Die If I Want You To and What You Don't Know Can Kill You.

My Review of Boots: "The Crucible"

 

Written by Andrea Ciannavei And Andy Parker

Directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez

Cameron (re impending war): "It's like summer camp."

What an ending. Now, if this show doesn't get a second season and with Netflix, that's very likely these days, I'll admit that this episode somewhat left things on a very satisfactory note. I hope it gets a second season though.

For the final part of the recruits to become Marines, there was the Crucible. Another exhausting challenge that saw characters step up for another while one character had a much needed epiphany of their own.

At the start of this show, it felt like Cameron's journey was the one that mattered the most and it still did but I found myself engrossed with everyone's journey in this episode alone. Even the likes of Slovacek stepped up when he needed to and it was rather nice to see that.

Getting to the Cameron, Jones and Sullivan arcs, it's interesting how our three gay male characters all turned out by this finale. Jones put himself in harm's way and might just have succeeded in order to get his medical discharge. It's a shame if we've lost that character but it did make sense what he did here to preserve himself.

Then there was Sullivan. He chose both desertion and a dishonourable discharge over admitting to being gay. I mean, he did finally admit it to Cameron, which offered some character growth but he still chose to damage himself nonetheless. 

As for Cameron, he stepped up for himself. He confronted both Jones and Sullivan, helped with saving the former, completed the Crucible and when Barbara tried to give him an out, Cameron opted to stay with the Marines. The growth with him as a character was amazing to watch throughout the season.

As for the other recruits - both John and Cody's relationship got tested with the death of their father, everyone has Santos back in getting him to the finish line, Ray moved past his father's need for approval, Slovacek showed some empathy for others and Nash got the Honour Man that Ray had been covering all season. I'd like to say Hicks showed some growth but that guy's still a chaotic mess.

- There's a dedication to Norman Lear (1922-2023) at the end of the episode.

- Cameron's actually 17, not 18 as believed and formed a nice rapport with Fajardo. Both McKinnon and Howitt had some sweet moments as well.

- Standout music: Hicks getting into the spirits of things with David Bowie's Changes and Queen's Under Pressure with David Bowie of course.

-Chronology: The thirteen weeks since the first episode were up and there's the conflict with Kuwait and Iraq that's clearly a lead for a second season.

The Crucible worked both a series finale and a season finale for the show. Much as I want a second season and hope we get one, I can't deny that closure was provided. Overall,I immensely enjoyed this show.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Boots: "Love Is A Battlefield"

 

Written by Dominic Colon

Directed by Tanya Hamilton

Jones (to Cameron): "I can take it. Just be careful with my eyes. They're pretty. You and me, remember?"

Well, I definitely can say "fuck you, Sullivan" after this episode. Projection's a hell of a bad drug and this episode, he took his insecurities out on both Cameron and Jones in the worst way possible.

Worst of all was that he knew exactly what he was doing. He did it earlier in the season with Cameron and Ray, although they've since reconnected. He could tell that Cameron and Joshua were about to have a closer connection and he made sure to sever it. I actually hated him for that.

I get that in his warped way, Sullivan thought he was protecting the pair of them by pitting them against each other. After all, his own relationship with Wilkinson ended horribly with the latter now charged with sodomy. Sullivan's brand of "cruel to be kind" didn't go unnoticed. Even McKinnon rightfully called him out on it.

Yep, Sullivan made his own despair into everyone's else problem. His pointed commentary about bar fights also came to fruition by the end of the episode. Seriously man, I know it's the 1990s but see a fucking therapist already. 

Getting back to Jones, I loved his character. Jack Cameron Kay was great in every scene he shared with Cameron and Sullivan. Cameron finally had another gay guy he could talk with, flirt with and of course, Sullivan had to go and wreck it. Seriously, fuck that guy. Jones on the other hand, I'm already intrigued by him.

I don't know if Jones's sleepwalking was genuine of faked but he didn't lie about wanting to get medical leave. It's what Sullivan used to get Jones to ultimately go along with his assignment. Is it too naive to hope that Jones and Cameron will make amends in the finale?

- Ray met his potential love interest again in sick bay. However he didn't get her name. Sullivan sang at Maitra's wedding.

- Santos incurred McKinnon's  wrath by trying to sneak a phone call. I'm guessing guilt was the reason for Howitt allowing Santos that phone call.

- Standout music: Alannah Myles Black Velvet, MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This and Love And Rockets No Big Deal.

Love Is A Battlefield made for a strong penultimate episode but the Sullivan parts of the episode took a frustrating turn. I do think Jones could be a great addition to the recruits. 

Rating: 8 out of 10