A fan-favourite action movie that people can’t stop watching over and over again is available to watch for free this weekend. Back to the Future Part II, the follow-up to cinematic classic Back to Future, is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
The flick, which fans say left “a huge mark on pop culture” has been hailed as a “masterpiece” despite its imperfections. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the first Back to the Future film came out in 1985, with the second and third movies launching in 1989 and 1990.
The second film sees high school student Marty (Michael J Fox) and eccentric inventor Doc (Christopher Lloyd) return to the DeLorean to travel into the future in an attempt to put 1985, and their lives, back to normal.
The synopsis on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “In this zany sequel, time-traveling duo Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown return from saving Marty’s future son from disaster, only to discover their own time transformed.
“In this nightmarish version of Hill Valley, Marty’s father has been murdered and Biff Tannen, Marty’s nemesis, has profited.
“After uncovering the secret to Biff’s success – a sports almanac from the future – Marty and the Doc embark on a quest to repair the space-time continuum.”
While the sequel film only has a 64% fresh score from critics, audiences have given it a much higher rating of 86%.
This is lower than the first movie, which has a 93% critics score and 95% audience rating.
The critics’ consensus reads: “Back to the Future II is far more uneven than its predecessor, but its madcap highs outweigh the occasionally cluttered machinations of an overstuffed plot.”
Fans have left plenty of glowing reviews for the movie, with one writing: “Back to the Future (any of them) are certifiable masterpieces!”
“One of my all-time favourite films, and it was so awesome seeing it in theatres again,” a second person penned.
A third person commented: “An awesome sequel, part of one of the greatest trilogies ever made.”
Meanwhile, critics also left favourable reviews, with CBR’s David Reddish writing: “Back to the Future Part II left the biggest mark on popular culture, sparking imagination and inspiring more adventure.
“Whatever its flaws or negativity it inspired from fans of the first movie, it remains the defining entry in the series.”
While Hannah Rose from the same outlet added: “One of the greatest and subtlest selling points of Back to the Future was its cuteness.
“It might be odd, even trivial, to call a big-budget, epic sci-fi film cute, but this is an accurate description.”
“Imperfect, but very lovable,” David Jenkins of Little White Lies summarised, as Entertainment Weekly’s Ira Robbins wrote: “Another fantastic voyage in a thoroughly entertaining contraption.”
TIME Magazine’s Richard Schickel was also impressed, saying: “Satirically acute, intricately structured and deftly paced, it is at heart stout, good and untainted by easy sentiment.”
However, not everyone was a fan, as Variety pointed out: “Zemeckis’ fascination with having characters interact at different ages of their lives hurts the film visually, and strains credibility past the breaking point, by forcing him to rely on some very cheesy makeup designs.”
Meanwhile, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader argued: “By the end, you may feel that you’ve just sat through a feature-length commercial for both part one (which has to be seen to make this sequel comprehensible) and part three (a trailer for it literally ends part two).”
Back to the Future Part II is available to stream on BBC iPlayer from Saturday, August 2.