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Andy K (10823 KP) created a post in Movie Fun and Trivia

Jul 16, 2018  
Who was originally supposed to portray Marty McFly before Michael J. Fox? Some scenes with him were even filmed.
  
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Benedick Lewis (3001 KP) Jul 16, 2018

Eric Stoltz...odd how the scenes are almost identical. Can’t imagine anyone else in the role now.

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Andy K (10823 KP) Jul 16, 2018

You da man!

Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future (1985)
1985 | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Great mix of fantasy, humour and drama. (2 more)
Kids and parents love this movie.
It was, is and always will be a true Hollywood classic.
Hey McFly! Funny, time-travel adventure with an unforgettable spirit and a bit of romance thrown in!
  
Just My Luck (2006)
Just My Luck (2006)
2006 | Comedy, Drama, Romance
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The premise of this movie is goofy, Lindsay Lohan's character is lucky, and Chris Pine's character is not. There's a Freaky Friday-esque (2nd time for Lohan) thing that goes on and they trade luck. This is not a great movie, but I love it. It also randomly features the band McFly. And, I'm probably going to watch it as soon as I purchase it on Amazon.
  
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
1989 | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Great Scott!
Mid part of the Back to the Future trilogy, in which Marty McFly experiences and travels to three distinct era's: the far-flung future of 2015(!)(I'm writing this in December 2020 - I want my hoverboard, dammit!), an alternate dystopian (from his and Boc Browns point of view) 1985 and finally back to 1955 as the point of divergence to (re)witness the events of the first movie.

With a cliffhanger ending, this film should really be considered the first part of a longer movie: indeed, I believe that was the original intention before the studios balked at the sheer running length of merging the events of Part II and the (Western) Part III into one!
  
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
1989 | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi

"Amazingly fun movie. My brother always argued this had the weakest storyline because Marty McFly is selfish and greedy and it’s about a sports almanac. It became a very destructive element. But I think it has really exciting visuals. The imagination. The props. The hoverboard, the fashion. Those shoes. That jacket that shrank and blow-dried. And then his cool hat. It’s just another one of those rad movies. That’s another one I can easily watch over and over and over again.I thoroughly enjoy the visual elements [of movies]. Between Terminator 2 and Back to the Future II, like, the logic they create, like, time travel…it makes no f—ing sense! You know, John Connor sends his father back into the past to f— his mom, what the f— is going on? But, then, it makes perfect sense. You just buy into it."

Source
  
Predestination (2015)
Predestination (2015)
2015 | Mystery, Sci-Fi
A story about a girl named Jane
It seems I've been watching a fair amount of Ethan Hawke lately, total coincidence. I have to say he is probably one of my favorite current actors as he always seems to select smart scripts. His recent film First Reformed was amazing as was another recent Hawke watch, Daybreakers. The directors of Daybreakers recast Hawke as a time traveling policeman of sorts trying to track down one last killer before hanging up his hat.

His current status as a lonely barkeep is interrupted when a stranger walks in, sits down and begins telling their story. Intrigued, Hawke sits down and listens to the tale of an unwanted orphan, a unique person misunderstood by society but maybe destined for great things. They try not to let the hardships of their life get them down, but disappointment lies around every turn. The interactions they have in their life may seem adrift and random, but maybe they have some deeper meaning about the meaning of life or at least their place in it.

Ok, this is kind of a vague description; however, if you take the time to watch this film (I sure wish you would) you will thank me for not saying too much

It is easy to get caught up in all the time paradox stuff when writing or watching a time travel film. What would happen if Marty McFly meets his future self or disrupts the meeting of his parents? Themes are a lot deeper here and the mystery continues to weave itself into a knot before slowly unraveling as the film reaches its end.

Hawke and Australian actress Sarah Snook are captivating together onscreen as their characters interact and their true feelings and motivations are revealed. Both are flawed in their own way, but also looking for redemption and validation that their time on Earth has meaning.

I was totally blown away by the smart, completely interesting story and hope I can convince others to view. Mesmerizing!

  
Show all 3 comments.
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Andy K (10823 KP) Nov 8, 2019

I love those types of films!

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Versusyours (757 KP) Nov 8, 2019 (Updated Nov 8, 2019)

Yeah mind melters lol

Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future (1985)
1985 | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
My entire childhood
So funny how seeing a "decked out" DeLorean in a Target parking lot the other day made me want to rewatch Back to the Future again soon. It had been on my rewatch list ever since I purchased the trilogy on Blu Ray on Black Friday, but just hadn't gotten around to it yet.

To say this movie (and the original Star Wars trilogy) defined my childhood is an understatement. The year 1985 meant I was 14 years old and lived within biking distance of the theatre where it was showing. Only Back to the Future and The Empire Strikes Back have the distinction of being movies I saw at least fifteen times during their initial run; at one point every day for a week straight.



The story of how the film got made is an interesting as the perfect screenplay itself. Basically Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale shopped the movie around after they had made a few films, including Used Cars (good movie), but studios weren't interested. Except Spielberg. Unfortunately, the duo had just worked with Spielberg on 1941 and it was a dud.

Luckily, Zemeckis directed Romancing the Stone in 1984, so they finally went back to Spielberg with that clout and got the deal done. BTTF was actually the first film released under Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment (with the E.T. logo) that Spielberg himself did not direct.

Then, casting. Filmmakers really wanted Michael J. Fox, but he was not available due to his TV schedule filming sitcom Family Ties. They had to move on, so they cast Eric Stoltz and filmed for 5 weeks.



Zemeckis felt like something wasn't right and asked Spielberg to take a look at the dailies. They agreed Stoltz was a good actor, but not right for the part of Marty McFly. They begged the Family Ties people to let Michael do both and they finally agreed. I can't believe how Michael did two full time jobs during production, but he did and managed to create an unforgettable character that will live forever in movie history.

If anyone ever decides it is a good idea to remake, reboot and/or get a sequel going I will personally go to their house and punch them in the face! ?

  
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Kevin Phillipson (10022 KP) Jul 29, 2020

Going to see it next week at my local cinema

Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future (1985)
1985 | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Almost a perfect film
I was flipping channels the other day and ran across BACK TO THE FUTURE, it was just about to start and since I hadn't seen it in quite awhile, I figured I'd catch the first part of it before venturing off to other surfing opportunities. As often happens in this sort of situation, I ended up transfixed by this film and watched the whole thing. After it was over, I asked myself why did I enjoy this film so much and my answer was fascinating (at least to me) -

BACK TO THE FUTURE is about as perfect of a film as there is.

Why? Let's start with the structure of this film. It follows the classic 3 Act structure. ACT 1: set up the premise, the gimmick (if any) and the stakes. ACT 2: escalate the stakes and throw in complications and obstacles. ACT 3: Resolve everything.

Seems like a pretty simple formula, right? So why do so many get it wrong? Quite simply, they don't keep it simple and then execute (almost to perfection) the simplicity of the structure. Let's break down the 3 Acts of BACK TO THE FUTURE.

ACT 1 - set up the premise, the gimmick and the stakes. The premise & gimmick is simple, time travel is possible and our hero travels back in time and is stranded there. The stakes are even simpler - our hero must find a way to get Back to the Future.

ACT 2 - escalate the stakes and throw in complicaitons and obstacles. The stakes are escalated by the fact that our hero interrupts the timeline of when his mother met his father, thus there is the very real possibility that he will cease to exist for his parents never met. Our hero must find a way to bring his mother and father together. The complications are that his parents are not the boring old fuddy-duddy's that our hero thought they were, his father is a peeping-Tom nerd and his mother is a randy high-schooler who falls in love (lust?) with our hero, her son. Further complicating things is that the time machine must find enough power to make the time travel device (the flux-capacitor!) work, power that is not readily available in this timeline. Adding one more complication to the mix is the school bully who is constantly after our hero.

ACT 3 - resolve everything. This is where this film excels. EVERY loose end is tied up. Our hero find a way to reunite his mother and father, the bully is put in his place, a source of energy is found and our hero's journey comes to a succesful conclusion.

There is much, much more to this film than those plot points, but I just wanted to show how deceptively simple and efficient this plot is. Kudo's must go out to screenwriter's Robert Zemeckis (more on him later) and Bob Gale for coming up with this idea and executing it so well. Gale (1941, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER) said he came up with this idea when he saw his father's high school yearbook and dreamed about going back to meet him. He stated that he doubted that he and his father would have been friends.

An interesting side fact: The University of Southern California Film school's writing classes use the screenplay for Back to the Future as the model of "The Perfect Screenplay". So, I rest my case.

But a "perfect" screenplay would be worthless without near perfect execution of putting the words and actions up on the screen - and this film achieves that as well. Director (and co-screenwriter) Robert Zemeckis (WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, FORREST GUMP) cleary had a vision of how to make this film and did not waiver from it. The action is strong, the fluidness of the film is solid and the performances are all top-notch. The only thing that might knock this film down a peg or two is some of the 32 "special effects" shots that - to look at it these days - seem somewhat archaic (see the flames between Doc Brown's and Marty's feet when the DeLorean first goes forward in time). But for the time, these special effects are state-of-the-art.

Speaking of performances, Michael J. Fox became a movie star with this film, and rightfully so. His Marty McFly is charming, quirky, intelligent, dorky - all at the same time. His uncomfortableness with his teen age mother is palatable. Credit must go with Director Zemeckis, who - after he couldn't get Fox released from his contract on the TV show FAMILY TIES - went (famously) with his 2nd choice, Eric Stoltz. When Stolt's seriousness and "method" acting was not meshing with the type of film he wanted to make, Zemeckis made the bold decision to fire Stoltz and worked out a deal where he can use Fox at night while Fox shot Family ties during the day.

Playing against Fox, brilliantly, is Christopher Lloyd as "Doc" Emmit Brown. A two-time Emmy winner (at the time) for playing crazy Jim Ignatowski on the TV show TAXI, Lloyd played Doc Brown as "part Einstein, part composer Leopold Stokowski", creating what would be the benchmark for "brilliant, scatter-brained scientist". Leah Thompson does the finest performance of her career as Marty's mother and Crispin Glover was beyond quirky as Marty's nerd/loser Dad. Finally Thomas F. Wilson is the embodiment of bully as "Biff" Tannen.

After the success of this film, two other BACK TO THE FUTURE films were made - films that I feel were good, but somewhat diluted the perfection of this film. No matter. Sit down, relax and enjoy one of the most "perfect" films ever made.

Letter Grade: A+

A rare 10 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)