"What-what the hell is a gigawatt?"

You'll all probably relate to this, at one time or another. You know, that time when you feel all nostalgic and you want to watch those movies that you watched as a kid, over and over and over and... Well, it seemed like this past weekend was perfect for it. And there's not just one movie to this post but TWO! Yeah, the SO allowed a mini movie marathon. But I think she was feeling just as nostalgic as I was, so all was good. There's one movie that is probably the single defining movie of my young life, at least from age 5-12, until Star Wars. That movie is... Back to the Future. And to top it off, I also get to talk about... Back to the Future... PART 2!

Pretty simple premise really. Doc Brown creates a time machine out of a DeLorean and his own invention, the flux capacitor. All you need is plutonium and enough room to get up to 88 miles per hour to generate the 1.21 gigawatts necessary for time travel (I know, it's so easy!). Marty McFly is there to witness it all happening for the first time when the Libyans (it was the 80s...) seek revenge for Doc stealing their plutonium, killing him. Marty jumps in the DeLorean and travels to 1955, only to ruin the moment when his mother and father met. So he has to get those two together so he doesn't disappear AND get back to 1985.

Part 2: Marty must go with Doc to 2015 to save his kids' futures, but all hell breaks loose when they go back to 1985 because someone (2015 Biff, archenemy of the McFlys) gave another person (1955 Biff) a sports almanac with scores through to 2000. Biff gets his money, kills Marty's father and marries Marty's mother. Marty and the Doc have to go back to 1955, get the almanac from 1955 Biff and not bump into their counterparts at the same time. All ends well, except Doc is transported to 1885 (because of a lightning strike to the DeLorean) and so Marty must get 1955 Doc to help him.

First movie: ingenious, original, funny. Second movie: exciting futuristic inventions, but uses jokes from first movie. My question has always been: how did the Doc and Marty meet? Doesn't it seem weird how close they are? What's that all about? I never understood their relationship, how close they were as friends. Were they acquaintances, colleagues, a weird uncle-nephew type of relationship? That's never explained to me, so I don't know.

And what about the future? They travel to 2015, only 6 years away. Where's hover conversion? Where are the hoverboards? I want my hoverboard! I expect it, because if I don't get one, I'm personally going to Robert Zemeckis' door and asking for a refund for purchasing the VHS tapes, the DVDs, and merchandise for the movie. He should have realized what he was doing to my generation when he introduced those hoverboards. Every single one of us wants one, and I'm not seeing that technology appearing anytime soon for the general public.

And what's with the different Jennifer's? First movie: Claudia Wells. Second (and third) movie: Elisabeth Shue. ??? You didn't think we could tell the difference? What happened to Claudia? ...AND I feel like an ass... because Wikipedia says her mother was diagnosed with cancer at that time, so Claudia was unavailable for the sequels. I'm truly sorry for what she and her mother had to go through. But Claudia, you are much hotter than Elisabeth (aka Daniel's "girlfriend" from Karate Kid) and will always be Jennifer in my mind.

So yeah, the movies were just so amazing. Looking back, the manure truck joke, the use of the boards to get away, calling Marty "chicken" so he'd get mad... a little overdone. But looking past some of the small things that can be considered annoying, this movie series is always fun to watch.

So why not Part 3? One, it was getting late that night, and two, the SO says she doesn't like the third one... I know. Yeah, it's in the Ol' West, but it's still Back to the Future. Again, it shows the same jokes, probably making the point that we are doomed to repeat the same corny jokes forever. Great.

So these movies are forever staying in the DVD collection, and I know the SO won't fight me on it. Next post: the next great thing that will change the way I (and the SO) will view movies in the future. Later!