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Back to the Future - The Complete Trilogy (Widescreen Edition)

Back to the Future - The Complete Trilogy (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $27.98
Your Price: $19.59
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Terrific entertainment!
Review: "Back To The Future" has rightly attained classic status as one of the most entertaining films from the 1980's. It was an unexpected smash the summer of it's release, and one of those movies where images and phrases become part of popular culture within a weekend.
I feel the most impressive achievement by the filmmakers is the perfectly balanced tone of the movie. After all, upon going back in time, Marty (Michael J. Fox) finds his own mother has "the hots" for him. High potential for creepiness, but it's handled so deftly and sweetly it works wonderfully.

The underlying theme, echoed often by the filmmakers on the supplements, is the realization that your parents were once teenagers. Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover draw crisp portraits of Marty's folks, filled with delightful little details.

Zemeckis and company also balance the "period piece" nature of the film with the "sci-fi" elements in a way that neither one overwhelms the other. They also simultaneously remember the 50's with a rosy, reverent glow while tweaking it's nose a bit.

Watching it again after all these years, I was amazed at how everything works, and at how well it has aged. The funny thing, is that the movie is so well done, the 80's is presented as sweetly as the 50's, now seen from the 21st century. In a goofy way, the movie is its' own time machine. It takes you right back. It's a wonderful film.

Now for the sequels. Reductio ad absurdum, "Number 2" is the dark, twisted flip side to the first film. It's a Gordian knot of time travel complications. There is a level of genius in having a sequel that revisits the original from a different perspective, from tone to script to even camera angles...the "perspective" is skewed.

"Number 3" gives Doc (Christopher Lloyd) a chance to be the center of the film, and by going further back in time, the film offers more simple, less serious options to wrapping up the three films. It's a Western, giving Fox and friends a chance to play on horses, shoot guns and lasso things.

While the first film is perfect on it's own, the other two are infinitely better taken as a whole rather than as separate films. They're not totally necessary, but nicely fill out a sort of "BTTF" universe.

Smartly packaged as an affordable three-disc set, with nifty extras and outtakes that'll leave you begging for more (there's a great "appearance" by Roger Rabbit), this is one of the safest purchases you'll make!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good but not the same as original release
Review: Is the DVD version the same as the original? I don't think so. There seems to be some changes that are different. For example I thought that the background music of 'Mr.Sandman' was sung by female voices on the original. On the DVD version, it is sung by male voices. Has anyone noticed any other discrepancies?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fact: Sequels are horrible!
Review: The first movie in the trilogy is awesome: An 80's classic. Unfortunately the sequels aren't anywhere near as good as the original, especially the second film. Too bad you can only buy them all together. They should sell the first one ...and give you the [se]quels for free.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly one of the best comedies ever...
Review: Time travel films have had some major impacts on the film industry over the years, but even more so on American culture. You can look back to some of the earliest films and detect a hint of sci-fi / time travel in them; just take a look at H.G. Well's "The Time Machine." However, I think the biggest and best time travel film ever made is the 1985 hit "Back to the Future." Here is the plot summary:

It is 1985. Marty McFly (a young Michael J. Fox) lives in the small town Hill Valley, located in the middle of nowhere, and is friends with the town eccentric, Professor Emmet Brown (Christopher Lloyd) who, unknown to Marty, has just built a time machine after thirty years of ideas. A time machine that runs off plutonium.
After some unfortunate incidents occur, Marty accidentally travels thirty years back in time using the time machine, which is made "out of a Delorean!" - to 1955! Now, his only hope of getting "back to the future" is to hunt down the inventor of the machine: Doc Brown. Only a few problems; not only has Professor Brown not invented the time machine at this point in time, but Marty has also interfered with the past - by accidentally keeping his parents (Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover) from meeting, therefore disrupting the space-time continuum and keeping Marty from being born! (Also, keep in mind that his parents are his age in 1955.)

"Back to the Future" could be called a very controversial film. After all, after traveling to 1955, Marty's mother develops a crush on him. I would call that pretty controversial. However, unlike some other films, the controversy is not the only thing "Back to the Future" has going for it. There are many things that make this movie great. I'll analyze the plot first; not only does it have fun with the notion of time travel, but it sets a character that we care about in situations that we want him to be in. Let me expand on this...

I get tired when time travel films have a great premise, but get mixed up in boring subplots and fail to play with ideas they could have. A lot of people love "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." I'll admit that was a good time travel film, but "Back to the Future" plays with the actual notion of time travel much, much more, and by doing so creates some major laughs and "thinking" moments.

"Back to the Future" also has a great sense of direction. [...].

Produced by Steven Spielberg, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, "Back to the Future" gets 5/5 stars from me - it has originality, humor, great actors, an excellent plot, and mind-boggling "what ifs." it has to be one of my favorite movies, and if you see it, it might become one of your favorites, also.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Movie of All Time
Review: I have only owned this DVD collection for a month, but, man, I have seen each of them about 5 times! These movies have the greatest plots ever! The Back to the Future collection is three different movies, but you won't want to stop seeing them until you have finally finished the third one. This collection has one continuous plot that makes you keep wanting more. The plot, however, is seperate enough so that they are able to have three different movies, insted of one long (5 hours 40 minutes) one.

The first movie starts out with Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) at Doc's (Christafor Floyd) house. Marty McFly is part of a poor family who is bullied by Biff Tannen. Marty then finds out he is late for school, and then the actual story begins. As a summerized plot, Marty accidentally gets sent back to the past, in 1955. Then Marty must find out a way to get back to the future without disrupting the past. When Marty gets back, he finds his family is changed in a good way.

In the second movie, Marty firsts goes to the future to save his kids from getting landed in jail. He encounters Biff's grandson, Griff and the old Biff. His sweetheart, Jennifer, gets caught in her future house- and sees the older Marty get fired! All the while, Marty gets a sovenier- a hoverboard. After that, Marty must find a way to correct the disruptions that he has caused by going back to the past in 1955. While in the past, Marty sees himself when he was in the first movie, and must avoid apperences with himself and save himself from Biff's gang. After he corrected his mistakes, Marty tries to go back to the future, but finds that Doc accidentally goes to the past! This movie has great gimmicks, including the part where Michael J. Fox plays three parts- Marty, Marty Jr., and his daughter (who is nameless).

In the thrid movie, Marty finds out that Doc got sent back to 1885! Now Marty must find a way to resue Doc and himself from "Mad Dog" Tannen (an ancestor of Biff), find a way back to the future, and get Doc away from his sweetheart Clara Clayton. This part is the longest, but is more action-packed then the first two combined.

In order to find out more about the movies, how about buy them? I bet if you will, you'll see them again and again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I would give it 10 stars if I could
Review: These movies, especially 1 and 2, have been , my favorite since I can remmber and they will continue to be my favorite for a long time to come.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Who can remeber what you had seen in theatre back in 1985?
Review: Who can remember what you had seen in theatre when "Back in the future" premiered in 1985? When talking about Super 35 or matted version of this film, the experts's reviews posted here always said that this is what the director wanted you to see in the theatrical release, how on earth can they compare the theatrical verion with the versions (VHS, Laser Disc, Video CD and DVD) available in the market? "Back to the future" trilogy has not been seen in theatre since their first premiere, how come these experts all said that the widescreen version is the one shown in theatre back then, when and where do the experts did their comparison on these movies. I can say that all of us only remember the versions of BTTF available on VHS, LD, VCD and now DVD as these are the versions we can get access to, the comparison of the widescreen and full screen version can only be done on these available versions, no one can say that the widescreen version is exactly identical to the theatrical release save for the director. If the widescreen edition is what the director wants us to see, why didn't he shot the movie in Panavision, this will solve all the problem. The reason for shooting the film in Super 35 because the film has to be shown on TV which has an aspect ratio of 4:3, i.e. full screen format,to facilitate the pan and scan process, most of the movies shot in the 80's were film in Super 35, that is the main reason for the matted version, not because of what the director wants you to see. I would also like to see "Back to the future" in theatre to do a A+B comparison with the DVD version, can any of the experts posting their reviews about Super 35 tell me whom should I contact?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Why haven't you bought this yet?
Review: Everybody already knows that these are some of the best movies ever. So why not have them all on DVD? They look great the sound is great. It blew my old VHS version away. Plus it has great outakes and behind the scenes in the special features. You can spend hours watching the making of the trilogy. I'm incredibly happy that I bought this item. I think you will be too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Riding in the Dolorean
Review: This is a must have for anyone who found themselves wishing they had a friend like Doc who let them travel through time in the Dolorean. These movies are a staple of the 80's. Every time I watch them, I fall in love with them all over again. The extra features are great too. On each DVD, there is a making of the movie feature. There is so much about this film that you can learn from the extras. The out takes are great too. If you were a child of the 80's then this is the trilogy for you!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great DVD set, but you must get the corrected version
Review: I bought this DVD set back in December, but I didn't hear about the framing issue on the widescreen discs until after I had bought it. But I just called to request the mailer and sent the discs back. I now have the corrected versions and they are very well done. Back To The Future producer Bob Gale approved the corrected DVDs and verified that the framing is accurate. It is only Part II and III where the framing is incorrect. Back To The Future Part I is not affected.

Of course, this only affects the widescreen version. The full-screen version is misframed anyway, but that's the idea I suppose. Nobody who buys the full-screen version seems to mind that.

It is distressing to see just how many people have misconceptions about widescreen. I know that widescreen is new to most people, so I imagine that it can be confusing. This is one bad thing about DVD going mainstream. People cannot understand widescreen it seems. I wish that a television special would be created and aired in prime time explaining what widescreen is and how it works, so that once and for all we could put this ridiculous nonsense behind us. It just makes my head hurt and I tire of explaining it. But a widescreen advocate's work is never done it seems.

It's not an easy thing to explain either. It's very complicated because there are different cinematographic processes that result in different situations. The general misunderstanding about widescreen is that it always results in more picture information. This is false. It depends on the way the film was shot. Many films are matted (word meaning: cover up part of the filmed picture) to achieve the widescreen effect. The full-screen version of Back To The Future will have extraneous picture information in the full-screen version that was not seen in the theater.

So what's the point, then? What is seen in the widescreen version is all that was intended to be seen. Movies are framed and composed with their theatrical aspect ratio in mind. In the case of Back To The Future, it's 1.85:1. That's what was shown in the theaters and the widescreen version reproduces that. Also note that shots featuring special effects will usually have cropping in a full-screen version because effects shots are usually created in the theatrical aspect ratio.

Matted 1.85:1 movies are generally not considered widescreen movies because they are not filmed with actual widescreen processes such as Panavision or CinemaScope.

Please just be aware that not all movies are filmed the same way and therefore and not going to be the same in the widescreen version. This is no scam. No one is ripping you off. It's just the way that cinematography works.

If having Back To The Future in the original theatrical aspect ratio is unimportant to you, then you can buy your full-screen version. However, when you upgrade to a widescreen television, you will have black (or grey) areas on the sides of the picture. Whereas the widescreen version fills up a widescreen TV entirely. It's your choice.

To get the accurate theatrical aspect ratio, you must call Universal and request replacements for the widescreen version. Back To The Future Parts II and III are inaccurately framed. The technician doing the telecine transfer screwed-up big time and misframed the two films. There is too much space at the top and too little at the bottom. You will receive correct versions which are indeed in the correct aspect ratio.


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