Back to the Future II

If you think of the best trilogies in film history, Back to the Future always comes to mind. With the charm of leads Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, every film of Back to the Future worked with so many genres and appealed to every age group. Even the third Back to the Future from 1990 is a hidden gem. That said, the strangest movie of the trilogy will always be the second one from 1989.  

Now going forward to the future on the date October 21, 2015, Marty McFly (Fox) and Dr. Emmett Brown (Lloyd) must deal with events of McFly's future son and a sports almanac. The plot also takes us back to an alternative crime-filled year of 1985 and the year 1955 that we dealt with in the first one.      

Right from the opening act, the film becomes very odd. The year 2015 is filled with so many gadgets and ideas. We have flying cars, hoverboards, bizarre outfits, and the Cubs win the World Series. Even if at times 2015 looks like dated 80's products and I wish all of this wasn't only in the opening act. There are some very imaginative ideas here that are very original and hold up twenty-five years after being released. Once you enter the alternative 1985, the film seems to wants to lecture about the ideas of poverty and crime in a way we should all like. As they always able to do with any movie they are in, Fox and Lloyd are able to work with whatever plot requires and they are so likable. Even the secondary of cast of Jennifer Shue, Lea Thompson, and James Tolkan are a hit.                                                                  

Once you get past the future of 2015 and the 1985 ideas, this sequel badly wants to go back to the success of the first movie and getting back to 1955 again. It is creative in the way that it ties to back to the new plot but these are not new elements and the charm just doesn't come back through.  A good chase scene and highly interesting ending are able to save it's last act though.


The plot is mismatched and very uneven because of all the time travel. Still, Back to the Future II  has it's highlights and definitely should not be overlooked. This movie will never be on the same par with the first and third movies of this trilogy though.

3.5/5

Left Behind

The year 2014 could go down as a lot of things in terms of film trends but the most surprising are the religious films that came out and what they became. From Son of God to God's Not Dead to Noah, a film based off the important bible character to the upcoming December's film, Exodus: Gods and Kings. Some have been received better then others but all have made money and some good money The latest addition to the Christian film trend is Left Behind, a sloppy and very derived piece. With Left Behind, the worst of these films is literally left for last.

Based of the popular book series and a remake of the straight to dvd trilogy all of the same name, Left Behind follows around Rayford Steele (Nicolas Cage), a sleazy pilot who takes off his wedding ring before every flight and on a simple day on the job encounters the rapture while up in the air. At the same time and back at home, Rayford's daughter and son Chloe and Raymiee (Cassi Thomson and Major Dodson) both encounter the rapture at a mall.

This is marketed as a Christian film but once it's comes together, I don't really see the Christian themes? Ok, the rapture is happening and the character of Irne Steel is surely is pointing to the audience to believe in God and the film does makes a reference towards John 3:16 in the bible but even with this, Left Behind's script is very uneven and lacks direction. It just sits around with long out drawn out scenes and pacing that never really never knows where to put it's foot in the door. Considering that the movie only uses for the most part two settings, the low budget appears to be a problem. Also, if this is a Christian film, why is it rated PG-13? I think it is as "unchristian" a film that you can find that is marketed as "Christian".

We can also along the way compare this to the another film with an airplane setting, Non-Stop also from this year. Non-Stop is a film about a hijacking on a plane with an air marshal as the main character. The movie wasn't all that effective at times but it still knew how to be claustrophobic and tense. Why shouldn't we expect the same thing from Left Behind? People are disappearing on a plane, characters are frantic and the pilot has nowhere to land the plane safely. Using absolutely awful effects to close, the scenes with the plane are set on some very cheap sets.

Maybe the biggest theme overall to this film is the aging actors and really all of them with dying careers. Lea Thompson plays mother Irene Steele. An actress of the 80's in classics like Back to the Future and Some Kind of Wonderful but her career faded once the 90's came along. Playing passenger Simon and maybe barely in one scene, Quinton Aaron is back in a film after a his phenomenal performance in The Blindside. He was a heartthrob on the popular show One Tree Hill but never really made it in film, Chad Micheal Murray plays author Cameron Williams who rises up as a leader on the plane. Even American Idol constant Jordan Sparks shows up as passenger Shasta Carvell and it's a casting choice that is a question mark its shows with her subpar acting. The biggest joke to the cast is Cage himself. He is a hard character to root for knowing the character's antics but  he is a character giving nothing to do and who is really just sitting around in his cockpit seat. This is a pathetic cast who member's time and career has come and gone or who's time will never come. 

This is a film that is very messy and leaves many obvious points not addressed . What is it's message or purpose? Why wasn't this direct-to dvd because the quality of this film is surely at that level?  Who is the target market because I don't see the religious community supporting this due to tone of the movie and the PG-13 rating? Why in the world is Cage taking roles like this now?

Left Behind's only question is just how bad is it. Well, pretty bad. It is a film that doesn't need to be remembered in the religious trendy movies of 2014 or even remembered on it's own. It also shows just where Cage's career has gone to and that he has hit rock bottom. I thought his career couldn't have gotten much worse but I guess I was wrong. And hey just keep in mind, two sequels to Left Behind have just been announced!


1/5