back when clarissa explained it all

From 1991 through 1994, Nickelodeon aired an entirely wholesome teen sitcom entitled Clarissa Explains It All, starring Melissa Joan Hart. It was about an endearing, not-so-ordinary girl named Clarissa Darling, who played armchair philosopher in every bit of her spare time.

Every grade school girl with access to cable wanted a cool older friend like Clarissa. And why not? She was just a regular junior high girl with regular problems... except she had everything an aspiring pseudo-alternative suburban teenager could hope for: the world’s coolest room, her own computer, a killer fashion sense, a pet reptile named Elvis, and a skateboarder guy friend named Sam who had a mushroom cut and never visited through the front door, opting instead for a ladder to her bedroom window. Plus, she listened to Pearl Jam and spent an inordinate amount of time plotting revenge against her obnoxious younger brother, Ferguson.
From namecandy.com, A tribute to Clarissa Darling: The Best-Named character of 90s Nickelodeon

I'd also like to add that she had two very visible, unbelievably understanding parents; advanced computer software that did exactly what she wanted with just a few clicks; and full-color illustrations that popped out while she delivered her opinions on everything. Sometimes she even had a bit of magical powers like Sabrina the Teenage Witch (a.k.a. Melissa Joan Hart's other memorable '90s role).

Early 90s Preteen Fashion Checklist:

• Oversized soft denim button-down shirt
• Printed Vest
• Cycling shorts with bold print
• Retro head scarf
• Slap bracelet and / or friendship bands
• Worker boots

In Clarissa's world, life seemed so easy and breezy. Sure, she had problems like an ordinary teen, but everything was resolved before the twenty minutes were over. How perfect could life be for a young girl? That's pretty much why Clarissa was fun to watch - even I thought so, and I was a few years older than the intended audience.

monday music trip: waterfalls [TLC]

To this day I still don't know what it means to be chasing waterfalls. No one I asked has ever given a satisfactory explanation. And even more of a mystery is what it means to just stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.

Listed by VH1 to be one of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1990s, Waterfalls has got to be TLC's biggest hit. It was nominated for a Grammy, and won Video of the Year in the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards.

I've never been a TLC fan, but I used to love watching this video. The group's water clones were so spankin' spectacular, I think that's the reason they bagged Video of the Year. Those singing-dancing transparent versions of T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli - somewhat reminiscent of the lifeform in The Abyss (1989), i.m.o. - were the latest conquests of cutting-edge animation.

Besides that, there was 3++ minutes of skillful visual storytelling. In a style similar to what those old Aerosmith videos were known for, Waterfalls was like a movie trailer that got you curious for more.

Another significant thing about Waterfalls is the dance step - the movements were so minimal that it was easy for me and my girl friends to follow (Like I said in a previous post, the '90s were a great time for bad dancers). TLC made rhythmic shoulder-jerking look sexy, even in their raggedy CrazySexyCool getup (A note to kids of today: Those spunky TLC hairstyles were never exactly a big trend but were more like the group's signature style, so no need to imagine hordes of people walking around looking like that ;> ).

Last bit of trivia: Waterfalls was shot in a set in Universal Studios. What looks like a sea disappearing into the horizon was in reality a raised platform covered with water, with a trompe l'oeil backdrop. Yup, that balmy, blue sky with the feathery clouds was all just an expanse of painted plywood; the "sunlight" was mostly electric. Really clever, yeah? (But wait... waterfalls = sea? Mixing metaphors much?)
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back when mark wahlberg was known as marky mark

Sometimes I wonder if he's trying to fool us into forgetting about what he did in the early '90s. But sorry Marky, you were already too ubiquitous back then for anyone not to remember.

Feel the vibration, I say.  Feel it, feel it.

Mark Wahlberg is today one of the most recognizable and well-respected actor-slash-producers. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 2010 for his performance in The Fighter, and he was nominated in 2006 for The Departed.

He does well in dramatic or action movies, but if you've seen The Other Guys and Date Night, you'd say he's not so bad at comedy either.

Of course before any of that, he was that kid who loved showing off his underwear while he walked around with a mic in his hand.  I don't just mean  that his jeans were too low and made his boxers go peekaboo. He really showed off his underwear - more on that later. He was also known as the obnoxious little brother of Donnie, a.k.a., one of the guys in the boy-band that started it all, The New Kids On The Block.



Mark Wahlberg the Hollywood actor and Marky Mark the rapper seem like two different individuals. I don't blame him for transforming his persona so drastically.  I mean, just look at that.

He was the archetypal '90's white rapper: ultra-low jeans, backwards cap, douchy duckfaced smirk and inane lyrics.

Images from here and here.

 He was the frontman for a group with one of the lamest names ever:

Image from here.
There he is, the one with the mandana.

Fortunately for the world, the Funky Bunch was a one-hit wonder. To their credit, their only hit remains one of the most easily identifiable tunes from the '90s. Good Vibrations is often used in movie soundtracks to this day, and some time ago it was done by the kids in Glee.




Showing off his muscular physique in Good Vibrations opened the door for more exposure, in what probably turned him into a star: those yummy Calvin Klein ads.  Despite the rapping and the duckfaced poses, Marky was really hawt.

Calvin Klein ads nicked from here.

On here with supermodel Kate Moss.

What's wrong with this picture?
Mark Wahlberg is 5'8", while Kate Moss is 5'7".
 He's likely standing on a box or something.

I suppose it was due to those ads that he felt better naked in public and decided it was ok to parade around in his tightie whities during his live performances. Or perhaps it was in his contract with Calvin Klien to habitually showcase the product he was endorsing. Why, oh why did he think it was sexy to spew out white-rapper lyrics with his baggy pants around his ankles? No, not even the rock-hard pecs make up for the idiocy.



He made mothers nervous because he just really was far from the ideal role model. I don't recall if it was before or after he did some time in jail when he began to invade the movies.

From here.

Since he was used to dropping trou anyway, his earliest notable role was a struggling porn star screen-named Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights (1997).

And here.

But I think he got more attention as Reese Witherspoon's psycho boyfriend in Fear.

Thank goodness, he's since evolved and repackaged himself as a serious actor and family man.  Now that he's grown up and more importantly, cleaned up, I guess it's safe to say that the artist formerly known as Marky Mark is even more loved by the public, even without the Hershey-bar abs.

friday flick fix:walt disney's flight of the navigator (1986)

Walt Disney's

Flight of the Navigator ( 1986)
Directed by Randal Kleiser

For quite some time now, the blogosphere has been abuzz about a remake of the 1986 Disney Classic Flight of the Navigator, slated to be released this year. Flight of the Navigator happens to be one of my favorite childhood flicks. Though I've forgotten most of the details, the main storyline remained in my memory. To fuel the nostalgia, I decided to give it a re-watch.

I'm not so proud of this, but I viewed an illegally-acquired copy. You can't really blame me, alright? It's one of those hard-to-find old titles which are probably available only in video tape format. Besides, the world has had a shortage of VHS players.

So - I saw it again for the first time in more than two decades. It felt like being reunited with a friend from elementary school. After viewing, I concluded that the exact same movie that my seven-year-old mind classified as slightly dark and fast-paced actually wasn't. ^_^ The reason why I couldn't remember a lot of detail is because there actually wasn't much to it. It's a movie for kids after all. Synopsis here.

I also realized that the lab assistant of sorts - the older girl with the fluffy neon thing in her puffy, brown hair - was a young Sarah Jessica Parker:



Why I loved that flick then, and still remember it fondly:

• Well, for one thing, it was Disney. All children loved Disney.
  
  
• There was a kid in there.

• There was a sleek spacecraft, an alien robot that served as an AM/FM radio, and gross little extraterrestrial lifeforms.
  

• The CGI was phenomenal (for its time).
  
  One of the things I remembered the most was the metallic outer membrane of the craft. I thought it was pretty enough to wear around my neck, and I imagined it would be cold to touch.
  
  My favorite part has always been the appearance of the steps. I couldn't get over the fact that they looked solid and liquid at the same time. It was amazing too that they were suspended, with no obvious marks of what I called "camera trickery":
  
  

• Little me found the concept of time travel eerie, but intriguing.
• It had a sweet ending.

The moral lesson:
Don't go exploring into a dark wooded area alone, and especially do not go playing around with an alien spacecraft that might not take you back to the proper year.
And be nice to your annoying younger sibling because he might be your guiding light / saving grace in the future when he becomes older than you.


I've read some sentiments by Gen-X-ers over the rumored upcoming remake, and most of them think it'll unnecessary ruin their happy childhood mementoes, like many of the remade movies already have. I personally don't mind seeing a Flight of the Navigator 2011 with better graphics and a slightly more complicated plot involving Mulder and Scully types. But no thanks to a love interest for the 12-year old protagonist, if ever.

back when there were laceless running shoes that came in neon colors

Earlier today, the Hubby and I stopped by the mall and glimpsed a whole window display of neon-colored running shoes.

Are neon-colored footwear back in fashion? 0_o Wasn't there a time when we all thought they were hideous? Is there some social experiment going on to determine how many people will succumb to fads no matter how much of an eyesore they are?

While we espied a few pairs with an avante-garde take on shoelaces, the Hubby asked me if I remembered Puma Disc. Some time in the 1980s, Puma released running shoes that didn't have to be tied; they had this dial that you simply had to turn to adjust.


I don't remember Puma Disc at all actually. :p

Coming to think of it, it wasn't such a bad idea. I mean the dial-adjustment, not the neon colors.

back when everything we needed to know we learned in clueless

As if!

monday music trip: i alone [LIVE]

I Alone is a single from Live's Throwing Copper album, circa 1994. I remember loving that tape so much and playing it over and over.

Imagine, I listened to it on casette tape. Casette tape. We high-schoolers didn't buy CDs then because CDs were a pricey luxury afforded by grandparents and single uncles.



I recall considering Throwing Copper one of my favorite albums, but I don't even remember half of the songs in there anymore. I'm sure though that one of the things I liked about this band was the way frontman Ed Kowalczyk conveyed sensitivity and emotion without screeching like one of the big-haired glam metallists from the '80s/ early '90s. In the days when too many new artists tried to emulate Kurt Cobain's unpolished heroin-addict delivery or Eddie Vedder's deep baritone, Live's sonorous vocals were noteworthy.
The song starts mellow and tender, almost sparse; Kowalczyk mews mellifluous somewhere between a yawn, a sigh and a bitter cry. The music builds up, and he suddenly, vigorously lashes into one of the most intense and easily recognizable rock choruses from the '90s. I alone love you, I alone tempt you ... The enraged ardor is so palpable, it'd be easy for a listener to dive into it, drown in the anguish and vomit it out as his own. It's one of those things perfect for angrily pogo-dancing and banging your unwashed tresses to.

Contrary to what many listeners think, this isn't really a love song. According to the band, it's a commentary of sorts on organized religion. I couldn't find a quote of them sufficiently explaining the lyrics, but here's a tiny snippette in Wiki. Fans of the song have many interesting interpretations, besides.

Now that I can take a good look at the words (thanks, Google), I see it. I could make my own exegeses, but I'd rather leave you to make your own than share mine. ;)

it's easier not to be wise
and measure these things by your brains
I sank into eden with you
alone in the church by and by
I'll read to you here, save your eyes
you'll need them, your boat is at sea
your anchor is up, you've been swept away
and the greatest of teachers won't hesitate
to leave you there, by yourself, chained to fate

I alone love you
I alone tempt you
I alone love you
fear is not the end of this

it's easier not to be great
and measure these things by your eyes
we long to be here by his resolve
alone in the church by and by
to cradle the baby in space
and leave you there by yourself chained to fate

oh, now, we took it back too far,
only love can save us now,
all these riddles that you burn
all come runnin' back to you,
all these rhythms that you hide
only love can save us now,
all these riddles that you burn yeah, yeah, yeah

But it would've been the quintessential post-grunge love ballad anyway - raw, angsty, with half-intelligible free-verse poetry that could mean a multitude of things. It could most of all be the crazed, possessive rambling of a rejected lover, rancid enough to rival Alanis Morisette's You Oughtta Know.

I used to listen to this song in my old bedroom, headphone volume on max (or full-blast when it came on the radio) to swim in Kowalczyk's sentimental soul-spillage. I had no idea what the verses meant, but I loved how they trickled out of his mouth. The chorus that roared loud and strong provided words for how I felt over this guy I was crazy about but preferred a beautiful idjit over me (I was the perfect girl for him, he just couldn't see it, dammit).

The music video is simple but decent by mid-'90s standards. Extreme close ups of the front man gazing directly into the camera while appearing depressed, neurotic, angry and high at the same time - that is so freaking '90s. I'm pretty sure I've seen Anthony Kiedis, Scott Weiland, Steven Tyler and a few others do that. The band spazzes out in the buildup, slamdancing and flopping their bad hair and too-long sweater sleeves. I've seen many other bands do that too. I feel so sorry for the drummer; he didn't have his instrument in there with him so he seemed to just randomly throw himself around while singing second, unsure what to do with his messy ponytail.

They all look so freaking unkempt - it's disturbing, isn't it? Clumpy hair and slouchy clothes that look like they haven't been washed for days (I mean both the hair and the clothes) were fashionable then. But yes, that's '90s grunge culture for ya: everything must be well-put-together in such a way that doesn't look so well-put-together. Labor for hours to look like you didn't care about how you looked. I must confess. I used to walk around in that too. :p

And yeow, look at Ed Kowalczyk's jeans. Don't they seem too high at the waist? Or does it only look that way because he has a short torso? He often appeared on television in that getup, by the way - jeans, no shirt, padawan braid. He's not beefy or anything, but he's not bad-looking at all. But then he looked too plain next to the Vedders and the Cobains of course.

Speaking of Kowalczyk, a bit of trivia: You might have spotted him as an extra in a certain seminal movie starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt:

Image from here.

When I saw that scene I knew the waiter looked extremely familiar, I just couldn't place him. Now I know for sure. That's a still from the 1999 flick Fight Club, by the way.

back when people used the phone to connect

Before the days of incessant Twittering and status updates --
Before there was anything like Facebook chat or Skype --
Way before the dawn of texting and even the now-obsolete chatrooms --

We used the telephone, now called the "land phone". It was the choice device for bonding with a friend or with someone you wished to become more than just a friend.

I love this scene from Daria where Trent calls our female antagonistic protagonist. It's hilarious because that sort of thing really used to happen.




Just as teens today are known for obsessive texting, teens back then were scorned for talking on the phone too much. There could be all-night talkathons over nothing in particular, which, unless there was more than one line at home, rob everyone else in the household of phone usage until the next day. I knew a girl who talked to a guy for almost 24 hours straight. My own personal record is a mere 17.

To the disappointment of our grandparents who rue the demise of the handwritten loveletter, courtships and breakups could happen without having to see each other face-to-face. Guy calls girl, guy asks girl, girl says yes, they go out. It was cheap and despicable, right Nana? But what Nana didn't know and couldn't have possibly imagined was that people could even have sex over the phone. As tasteless as that was, it seems pretty tame now compared to sexting and cybersex, eh?
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back when we wore things we would be mortified to be caught dead in now

I admit it. I used to think these fashion trends were cool. But they're hideous. They just seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that we are older (and supposedly wiser), it's quite embarrassing to recall how the need to project some sort of image often won over common sense. I'm pretty sure anyone who was alive at that time could come up with lengthier list of '90s fashion faux pas, but these are some of the most impractical and baffling.


1. Cycling shorts as casual wear
Image from here.

Cycling shorts are fine and absolutely appropriate at the gym - or well, when you're cycling. But how this was once considered sexy outerwear is beyond me. As if the tight fit and the sheerness of the fabric weren't enough to showcase your legs' deformities, designers thought of producing them in prints and bright colors.

Cycling shorts on men was particularly disturbing.

Image from here.

2. Platform sneakers, a.k.a., Spice Girls shoes

Platforms made a comeback from the '70s but the Spice Girls took them to absurd heights. Ladies in the '90s have Baby Spice to thank for many a twisted ankle.

Image from here.

Sandals, I get - they went with flared pants as part of the '70s retro thing going on in the '90s. But sneakers? The whole point of wearing sneakers is for added mobility; platform sneakers just don't make sense.


3. Matted hair

Nicked from here.

You would've rocked it if you were a grunge demigod making a huge dent in pop culture. It would've been rebelliously rad if you owned your unwashed hair, hopefully without smelling unwashed yourself. But whether you smelled nice or not, this sort of look is just unattractive, especially on a woman.


4. Sandals worn with socks and shorts

From here.

This is actually quite practical for wearing indoors during cold weather, when you just want to be comfy and at the same time warm. Wear this on a sunny day with shorts - the way we did back then - you would be a walking contradiction.


6. Tapered non-fit jeans

Nicked from here.

Shown here worn by the cast of the original cast of 90210. I cannot believe these people were considered cool.

Whenever I look at a photo from the '80s and early '90s of someone wearing tapered jeans, it makes me shudder. This trend is quite baffling. For one, it doesn't look comfortable at all. For another, it makes your pelvis appear longer and your a&& bigger. It makes your thighs and hips look chunkier, and your legs shorter.


7. Baggy, saggy pants

Nicked from here.

I don't think I have to explain why this is an atrocity.

monday music trip hold on [WILSON PHILLIPS]

One of the best songs from the year 1990. Hold On is one of Wilson Phillips' first singles, released with a first-rate music video that inspired girls (and gays) to attempt to sing in three-part harmony. That year, I was in seventh grade, and printed vests over button-downs were fab (see Chynna Phillips in the video). I'd never heard anything like Wilson Phillips before then, and was instantly enthralled.

Coming to think of it, I don't think I've heard anyone like them ever.

back when there were too many massacres

WARNING: NOT A VERY HAPPY ENTRY.

My early teen years took place at a dark, bloody time in our country's past. A recounting of growing up in the '90s would not be complete without mentioning this period that made our mothers gasp and fathers go tsk, tsk, tsk. It also explains why, in muffled paranoia, our curfews were set a few hours earlier for a while.
I was around twelve when the slaughter of the innocents began - a stretch of time in the early nineties, in which occurred several unrelated murders, mostly of youths. I'd rather not go into the details, but if anyone would be interested, I'm sure Google can find the related articles. There were so many cases that it seemed like everyone in the city knew someone who knew someone somehow connected to a victim's family. Inspirations overflowed for crappy Carlo J. Caparas movies starring Kris Aquino, the ones with awkward subtitles under the awkward subtitles (something idiotic like Karumal-dumal: The True Story of the Downtown Massacre: God Save the Little Angels).

But seriously. There were random shootings and kidnap-killings, rapes and rape-slays; chop-chops, salvages, and massacres; frat initiations gone awry. AM radio was abuzz about one heinous crime after another - the victims, the suspects, masterminds - and the messy trials that followed.

There was the 1990 murder of Cochise and Beebom. A UP Law student and his girlfriend (a graduating senior) were nabbed during a date, killed, violated and dumped. It was said that Cochise was mistaken for someone else; Beebom was collateral damage.

There were the UPLB students Allan and Aileen, who suffered a similar fate at the hands of a city mayor.

Then there were quite a few fraternity hazing fatalities - promising students of the best universities, snuffed out by unnecessary violence.

In 1991, there was the 25-year old random target of road rage. He was gunned down by a self-important a*****e going the wrong direction on a one-way street.

There was the Hultman-Chapman double murder in the same year. On their way home from a party, two young men and a 16-year old girl were shot by the son of a former chief justice. Chapman was killed instantly; Maureen Hultman died in an Intensive Care Unit months later. She was just a few years older than I was.

Images of Maureen became all too familiar as media appealed for prayers and justice. I recall there was a clip of her that seemed to be a screen-test, showing her as a beautiful and healthy aspirant model. That image was repeatedly juxtaposed with a shot of her in her hospital bed, hardly recognizable, head shaven and crusted with blood, near-dead on a respirator. That latter image, I recall, used to flash every now and then on ABS-CBN with the text, "Justice for Maureen".

That image also became easy reference for parents whenever their teenaged kids asked for permission to attend a party.

The most sensational of all was (and still is) The Vizconde Massacre. Estrellita, her daughters Carmela, 18, and Jennifer, 7, were slain on June 30 1991. It was a high-profile, grossly sensationalized case, in which suspects were a Senator's son and a few other young men from well-to-do families. Everyone tuned in to what was dubbed as "the trial of the century" and had opinions on this and that.

This multiple homicide was jolting because it was too close to home. Literally. We lived in the same city where the massacre took place; family friends whose house we frequented was on the same street as the Vizcondes. What was extra disturbing was knowing that the crime occurred right at the victims' residence, within earshot of many neighbors, in the evening when everyone was home and still awake, in an exclusive village that supposedly had high security, while there was a security guard on duty. On top of the feeling that not even our own homes were safe, it cemented the ominous sense that evil-but-influential people could manipulate things to their own ends.

What was even closer and eerier for me was the butchering of a girl named Katrina. Her story was not as well-known as the others - it did make it to the news, though not the headlines. It was a terrible murder nonetheless.

I knew about her because we went to the same school. She was the friend of a classmate, a few batches ahead of us. I never knew her personally though I met her younger sister and brother, and I'd been to a party at their house. That same house where she died. It was hard for me to swallow that this girl who wore the same uniform that I did, walked the same halls, ate the same awful cafeteria food, did not just die but was murdered. Was actually murdered. She was hacked to death by their trusted gardener, in an act of misdirected rage. She was just fifteen.

All of the killers in the above cases were eventually put away. Due also to those odious crimes, legislators were compelled to review the death penalty. Sadly, in the past several years, a lot of those sociopaths from the high-profile cases were acquitted, for what purpose no one knows, all thanks to a certain crooked former president -- and that is a whole other story.
Now that I am older and have been a guardian of sorts to teenagers, I reckon it was a valid reaction for our parents to have been so concerned about our gimmicks, our associations and late-night parties in those days. There may have been bit of an overreaction from a few moms and pops, but I suppose it was hard to shake off the fear that their son or daughter could go next.

Since I was a kid during that time, I didn't quite grasp that those victims were young, because they were much older than I was. In relation to my age now I see how extremely young they really were. They had entire lives yet to live, but were rubbed out far too soon. They could have been today's leaders, today's parents, educators, fighters for justice, advocates of tasteful arts and so on. Due to a couple of unscrupulous bastards, they never grew up to be who they were meant to be. Let's hope and pray nothing like this ever happens again.

friday flick fix back to the future

Images from here.

The Hubby and I marathoned the Back To the Future movies a couple of weeks ago when we were experiencing jet lag. We agreed that an 80's sci-fi comedy with the likes of Michael J. Fox makes for good late-night company. ^_^ The last (and first time) we watched the three movies straight was around this time last year; I was supposed to write an entry in time for the 25th anniversary of Back To The Future (1985) in 2010 but some things came up and I hardly had any time for blogging.

So, anyway.

Robert Zemeckis' Back To the Future (starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd) was another one of our Betamax frequents when I was a school-age child. I think it was everybody's go-to Beta tape - can't imagine any '80s kid who never watched it at least once. Personally I'd memorized the details and bits of dialogue from watching it again and again and again.

Love the soundtrack too; Huey Lewis and the News were very hip in those days.

BTF was so flipping cool, with the cute guy dressed in a life-vest and sneakers; the cute girl in grandma's clothes, and the time machine dressed in a luxury car, and all the space-time jargon around the Flux Capacitor. There was an incestuous love-triangle-turned-love-square, but things ended happier ever after for the McFlys.

The DeLorean was a hot piece of automobile in the mid-'80s. It was streamlined (yeah, compared to the staple box-types) and supposedly ultra-modern. Its doors flipped upward like wings instead of opening the usual way, and that was ostentatiously, outrageously wyckid.


Logically, an amped-up DeLorean in a hip movie about time travel raised its popularity.

But it took only a few years for people to realize that those unconventional doors were massively inconvenient, not to mention unnecessary, so it isn't a wonder that we don't see cars like that anymore.


Michael J. Fox was like one of the hugest teen idols outside of the Brat Pack. Though at that time I think he was around a decade to old to be considered a teen, but he looked young and starred in a couple of youth-oriented flicks.

He was the original Teen Wolf (1985), a well-loved '80s classic that has now become another unfortunate victim of re-imagining (The original Teen Wolf was a wholesome comedy, by the way, for you kiddies who think everything you watch nowadays is original).

Something as big and as top-grossing as Back To the Future was sure to have a sequel, specifically since the last shot in the movie was superimposed with a huge TO BE CONTINUED. Back to The Future II (1989) thus came four years after.


Four years felt like a lifetime for a kid like me, but pleased as I was, I was half-surprised producers even bothered to grind out the sequel.

But -- Great Scott! What happened to Jennifer!?

Image from RetroJunk.com

Part II pulled a switcheroo, subtly slipping in a new actress for the same character. The whole last scene of the first movie was the first scene of the second, re-shot exactly as it was but with a different Jennifer. The new blonde who played Marty McFly's old girlfriend was Elizabeth Shue, who was later in Melrose Place, The Saint and Hollow Man.

I don't even remember who the original Jennifer was.

Something I do remember about this second movie was that it was nominated for (or did it actually win?) best visual effects. The particularly impressive scene was the one where Michael J. Fox played an aged Marty McFly, Marty junior and Marty junior's sister, all in one shot. Back then, that was an incredible feat of manual film editing.

Another bit that was so amusing about the second movie were the references to the first. Like for example that part where Marty McFly lies semi-conscious on a bed in the dark, being nursed by his mother. And all the 1955 scenes that make it into the timeline. I'd hate to retell everything here, but if you've seen both movies, you'd know what I mean.

A whole chunk of movie II was set in 2015. Seeing the flick for the first time in the cinema, we all probably thought the moviemakers did an amazing job of extrapolating what would happen thirty years into the future. Well I certainly did, and I even hoped hoverboards, smart homes and self-adjusting clothing really would come around soon.

Watching it again in 2011 - which really isn't that far from 2015 - all the "futurism" seems so ludicrous (but not in a bad way, mind you; it's still a comedy after all). For one thing, today's graphics are no longer so angular. Hover technology is still lightyears from becoming mainstream, and not even NASA's astronauts wear intelligent clothing.

On the plus side, the concept of video-communication is more or less consistent with today's goings on, except that we use the internet now instead of phone lines and Fax machines.

That Retro Cafe scene where Marty taught a couple of kids how to play a video game from the '80s - that's hilarious because it's quite spot-on that the little kids of 2015 would call it a baby's game. Video games today are a far cry from Marty's Lone Gunman, which was already quite advanced in 1985.

One of those kid actors was the young Elijah Wood in his first screen appearance (left) :

From RetroJunk.com

Other notable appearances: Before he was known as the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Flea was in the second and third movie as Needles.

Image from RetroJunk.com

Billy Zane of Titanic fame, also then a nobody but already cute, was one of Biff / Griff's henchmen (right, back):



Just as the first installment closed with TO BE CONTINUED, Part II finished with TO BE CONCLUDED, immediately followed by a teaser trailer of the third movie.


Part III came a year after II. For Marty McFly though, all these things took place within the span of a few days.

Marty and Doc continue their adventure in 1885. The DeLorean gets smashed after Marty gets home, Doc constructs a steampunk time machine with a train as a base. Marty develops character and therefore saves his future, and everything ends with a high note.

In my opinion, this is the least spectacular of the trilogy, but it does give some sort of conclusion.

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At the beginning of this post, I mentioned the Hubby and I had a bit of jet lag. Early June this year, we spent a week in California and one of the places we visited was Universal Studios, where much of Back To The Future was filmed.



On the studio tour, we were shown the set that was once used for the Hill Valley clock tower:

Photo mine

(which was also the courthouse for Liar, Liar and the town square for this period movie)

... and one of the prop DeLoreans:


And that concludes today's trip back to my childhood years. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!