The basic story starts in the present, with a 1985 teen, Marty McFly, who is assisting a scientist, Doc Brown, an eccentric inventor, working on time travel. Doc Brown is very busy, working on a time travel machine in the form of a DeLorean. During a 1:00 am experiment in the middle of a mall parking lot, the terrorists show up with guns blazing. It seems that Doc Brown tricked them out of their plutonium, that he needed to fuel the DeLorean. In order to escape these murderous thugs, Marty jumps into the DeLorean and travels back in time to 1955. After inadvertently changing history by preventing his parents' first meeting, on his way to finding the 1955 Doc Brown, he must now not only find a way back to his future, but also must be playing matchmaker for his mother and his father to be, or risk never being born. Boy, he had his work cut out for him!

The ingenious script is crafted by Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale. {Zemeckis and Gale met at U.S.C. film school in the 70s, later teaming for numerous films including "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Used Cars," and "1941," among others}. This screenplay flawlessly intertwines action, comedy and drama throughout the storyline. The premises explored in this film are fascinating. Besides the pros and cons of being able to travel back in time, how would our lives be different, if we could go back in time and change our family dynamics? What revelations and truths about our family would we discover, and how would this change us?

The talented cast, armed with personal talent, a great script and terrific direction work together to create a really entertaining, upbeat movie.

Christopher Lloyd is a hoot as the time travel scientist. With his white hair, and over-the-top delivery make him a fun, viewer friendly, eccentric, bright scientific inventor. "Great Scott!"

Michael J. Fox is perfect as the energetic teen, Marty McFly. Fox is thoroughly charming, and constantly in mission, whether it's helping Doc Brown, protecting his mother, riding a skateboard, standing up to the 1955 version of Biff, coaching his father to believe in himself and be assertive, or inventing rock and roll at a '50's high school dance.

When Marty finally comes back to his time after his unique adventure, he finds that things have changed drastically, from his efforts in the past, which is fun to see. Since both his parents experienced some fundamental changes in their thinking and attitude back in 1955, partially because of him, his 1985 world is going to be a new reality to him.

Lea Thompson - Does a great job playing Marty's mom, Lorraine; both as an adult and a teenager. Despite Marty's early efforts to get her to be interested in George McFly, she at first falls for Marty, because of his antics which temporarily defeat Biff. A scene where Lea Thompson, playing Fox's mother as a teenager, comes on to Fox is rather squirmy, but fun. Lea Thompson does a good job showing her character's personal growth due to events she goes through, making her quite a different 1985 mom, as Marty finds out when he gets back to 1985.

Crispen Glover - does a terrific job as playing the whiny, push-over, unconfident 1955 teen, George McFly, the person that Marty must somehow not only instill a crash course in personal courage and confidence, but also must motivate him to ask Lorraine Baines, (Marty's would be mother) to The Under the Sea Dance, where they originally fell in love with each other. The personality transformation that happens to his character, George McFly, is most convincing and enjoyable, which points to Glover's talent as an actor.

Thomas Wilson - is perfectly cast as George McFly's tormentor, and the overall town bully. His strong performance as the obnoxious, full of himself bad guy really adds to the storyline suspense throughout the movie, especially helping to galvanize all the characters' growth in a key scene, during the all -important dance.

This "feel good" film is enthusiastically recommended for family viewing.