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| Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup | | Rating: 3
| BACK TO THE FUTURE II ended with Doc Brown and Marty McFly buried up to their necks in time-travel mayhem. The fun of BACK TO THE FUTURE III should have been watching Marty and Doc solve all the paradoxes they created in part two. But unfortunately, director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Bob Gale somehow got sidetracked with the idea of making a Western.
Virtually all of BACK TO THE FUTURE III is set in the Wild West circa 1885 so you have to judge the film _first_ as a Western and _then_ as a time-travel movie. As a Western, BACK TO THE FUTURE III is as flat as a pancake. The plot is merely a sequence of ho-hum cliches, from the big showdown to a train hijacking. They say the Western is dead; Back to the Future III seems determined to prove it.
Worse yet, the movie doesn't seem to care if its story line is consistent with the first two films. Parts one and two were meticulously thought-out in terms of the dangers of time travel. Part three, on the other hand, shows blatant disregard for the time continuum. The filmmakers sweep all of the dangling plot strands from part two under the rug and then expect you to forget about them. You're supposed to believe that in one fell swoop, Marty and Doc fix all of the paradoxes in all four of the time periods.
BACK TO THE FUTURE III is the only installment in the series that wastes the supporting cast. Thomas Wilson sparkled in the last movie as the various versions of Biff, but here he gives a tiresome, one-note performance as "Mad Dog" Tannen, Biff's ill-tempered, Wild West ancestor. Lea Thompson, who always has been so charming as Marty's mother, has two meaningless scenes as his Great Great Grandmother. Mary Steenburgen has the unenviable task of bringing to life a half-baked love affair with Christopher Lloyd, who, according to the New York Times, receives his first ever screen kiss in BACK TO THE FUTURE III.
There's a sense of complacency about part three; it seems as if the filmmakers just phoned the movie in after they came up with the Wild West gimmick. The film lacks the creative flair and whimsical imagination that has made the series so much fun. Even Bill and Ted's adventure was more excellent than BACK TO THE FUTURE III.
P.S. How does a city boy, like Marty McFly, know how to ride a horse so well?
By : Randy Parker
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| | Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup | | Rating: 4
| "Back To The Future III" was a sequel that didn't have to me made, but as far as unnecessary sequels go, this is one of the best. It doesn't have the originality of the first two films, but it is still a good, decent movie.
Just like "Part II," this one picks up right where the last one left off. Marty (Fox) gets a letter from Doc (Lloyd) from the year 1885 and learns he is happy and not to rescue him. But Marty is still stuck in 1955 (again) and needs the help of the 1955 Doc to get back to the future. But when the two realize the Doc of 1885 gets killed, the 1955 Doc wants Marty to rescue him (after all, that's going to be him someday). So Marty goes back in time and hilarity and adventure ensues.
It seems that every time Marty travels through time he gets stuck somewhere. This time he becomes stuck in 1885 when he rips the fuel tank of the DeLorean, thus the car cannot run without gasoline, unless they can get a train to push it up to 88 m.p.h. (ah ha!). There's a lot of the standard time traveling confusion and conflicts, almost exactly like the situations that occurred in the first two, but surprisingly enough it doesn't wear itself out. And for the first time, Doc gets the girl.
Mary Steenburgen co-stars as Clara Clayton, a school teacher who was supposed to fall into a ravine but Doc saves her at the last minute. And so a romantic affair develops between the two, and this is a nice little surprise. It's nothing too sappy and it's nothing too implied either, and it also affects the plot of the story. The chemistry between Lloyd and Steenburgen is pretty convincing, they have a cartoonish charm of sorts.
Meanwhile Marty is having a problem with the "Biff" of this time period - Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Wilson). When he continues to insult and provoke Tannen they decide to settle it once and for all at a shootout, except that it's scheduled at the time when Marty and Doc are supposed to hijack a train to go back to the future. The grand finale of this film is not unlike that of the original movie. It involves being in the right place at the right time and of course little obstacles crop up to get in their way.
Overall, "Back To The Future Part III" has a lighthearted adventurous tone to it. I hope next time Doc will build a time machine that is impossible to damage, or have it run out of fuel or power. What good is traveling through time if you keep getting stuck somewhere?
By : Chad Polenz
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