Back to The Future: Critic Reviews

Mr. Zemeckis is able both to keep the story moving and to keep it from going too far. He handles Back to the Future with the kind of inventiveness that indicates he will be spinning funny, whimsical tall tales for a long time to come.

The counter-Freudian drama is handled with easy wit and flair, like a Shakespearian disguise comedy, and it made a whopping star of Fox.

Shows not only a fine comic touch but also some of the lighthearted humanism of a Frank Capra.

Director Robert Zemeckis confronts the oedipal heart of the time-travel genre with this zestfully tasteless 1985 tale about a teenager (Michael J. Fox) who is projected back to 1955 and then must arrange the romance of his parents.

Performances by the earnest Fox, the lunatic Lloyd, the deceptively passionate Lea Thompson, and, particularly, the bumbling-to-confident Glover, who runs away with the picture, merrily keep the ship sailing.

So busy being clever that it trips over its own ingenuity.

"Future" fandom resonates in the public imagination because it marries innocence with high-concept fun.

One of the mid-'80s most enduring and enjoyable confections: an infectious mix of comedy, fantasy, satire, excitement, and nostalgia.

The picture packs a wonderful wallop.

The most commercially popular of 1985.

Undeniably one of the greatest films of the 1980s and indeed, of all time, Back to the Future has endured so well because it walks that fine tightrope of managing to appeal to just about everyone...

'80s time-travel favorite has laughs, romance, action.

an undeniably fun film, one whose clever plotting, memorable characters, and deft balance of both wistful nostalgia and celebration of the here and now deserves comparisons to The Wizard of Oz

It's a timeless joke that never gets old: One day you will grow up to be your parents and they'll have the last laugh. The innovation here was in telling the joke backwards.

Back to the Future is one of the best popcorn movies ever made. It's ingenuity, time-traveling twist ups and wonderfully vibrant characters resonate in ways few films ever achieve.

A little more sophistication would have been no bad thing -- but a good script keeps it zipping along.

Delightful and sophisticated to a degree beyond the dreams of today's movies in similar vein.

Zemeckis' popcorn classic combines watertight scripting with broad but brilliant performances, all held together by Fox's stumbling charm.

This irresistible combination of dazzling effects and sly comedy propelled Michael J Fox to stardom and Robert Zemeckis to the front rank of Hollywood directors.

This film is WASTED on kids.

Boasts probably the tightest screenplay of any film in Zemeckis's body of work.

Thompson's funny, carnal performance forces us all to face an ugly truth: once, our moms might have been prowling teens too.

Probably the most carefully-scripted blockbuster in Hollywood history.

Amongst the finest family films of the 1980s.

To put it bluntly: if you don't like Back To The Future, it's difficult to believe that you like films at all.