Back to the Future

Episode 97: Back to the Future (1985)

Theme: Oxymoronic Titles Month
Hosts: Oz & Curtis

This week, Oz and Curtis kick off Oxymoronic Titles Month with Back to the Future — the only movie that begins with “Power of Love,” ends with a flying car, and somehow makes the sentence “Your mom has a crush on you” a PG-rated plot point.

Join your two favorite temporal knuckleheads as they sort through:

• The Movie Marriage: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure × Teen Wolf + Bill Nye the Science Guy + Tony Hawk Pro Skater (which Marty invents before Tony Hawk is even born).

• Marty McFly, a chill 17-year-old who skate-hitches behind trucks, blows up speakers, and can’t grasp basic concepts like “time” and “consequences.”

• Doc Brown, the world’s most dangerous grandfather figure — a man who lives alone, buys plutonium from Libyan nationals, and owns a clock budget that rivals NASA’s.

• George McFly, the dweeb so dweeby even Oz and Curtis admit they’d bully him a little.

• Biff, a peak-80s villain who is somehow terrifying, hilarious, and constantly covered in manure.

• Lorraine, who says she never parks with boys… immediately before parking with Marty, lighting a cigarette, and going full Oedipus Complex.

• A School Dance, or as Doc calls it, a “rhythmic ceremonial ritual,” featuring Marvin Berry and the single most problematic origin of rock ’n’ roll ever filmed.

• The Clock Tower Finale, where Doc risks electrocution 19 times just so Marty can headbutt a DeLorean into functioning long enough to rewrite history.

From manure trucks to paradox-proof Polaroids to the eternal mystery of how a 17-year-old and a 70-year-old became best friends, it’s a sci-fi classic tighter than George McFly’s left hook.

Final Verdict:

Oz — 85 out of 85
Curtis — 1.21 Gigawatts
Both — Great Scott.

Next week: The boys saddle up for the oxymoronic glory of Urban Cowboy (1980), where John Travolta two-steps his way into a honky-tonk toxic romance and Scott Glenn refuses to wear sleeves.