Despite how incredibly dated it is (as teen movies tend to be within six months of their release), despite how flippant it is with the rules of time travel, and despite how aggressively dumb (but not as dumb as it looks) it is, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is all but irresistible. An Alex Winter/Keanu Reeves comedy is a dicey proposition under the best of circumstances, and their characters don’t have more than a single joke to them, but where that dooms other comedies, it serves to make Bill and Ted charming, and frequently hilarious. Part of this might have to do with just how committed this movie is to its own eccentric concept, but it helps that for as silly as it always is, it’s still a movie that’s really jazzed about history and learning.
Bill (Winter) and Ted (Reeves) are live-action counterparts to Beavis and Butthead (or spiritual cousins to Wayne and Garth), living in San Dimas, California, in the years between Valley Girl and Clueless. Their band, Wild Stallyns, sucks pretty bad, but all they really want to do is make videos in their basement (while loudly announcing each other’s names), so that doesn’t faze them. Little do they know, it will eventually become the basis for all human society, so the fact that Ted will get sent to military school if they don’t pass their history assignment is actually a big deal. Luckily, Rufus (George Carlin) is here from the future to help, providing the boys with a time-traveling phone booth that allows them to visit a number of figures that they previously knew nothing about, including Napoleon (Terry Camilleri), Socrates (Tony Steedman), Abraham Lincoln (Robert V. Barron), Genghis Khan (Al Leong), Sigmund Freud (Rod Loomis), and Joan of Arc (Jane Weidlin of the Go-gos). It’s difficult to imagine a history course that incorporates all of these figures, but just go with it: that’s pretty much what every character in this film does, even as laws of time and space are being bent like a pretzel.
There’s little to no explanation as to why Bill and Ted aren’t extremely annoying; their range of character and intelligence really should put them in Ace Ventura territory. One guess is that they’re so good-natured that it’s impossible to actively dislike them, but another is that the movie is genuinely in on the joke in a way they don’t seem to be whenever Adam Sandler steps onto the screen. Everyone in the modern day recognizes what ignoramuses they are, but Rufus and everyone else from the future (including Clarence Clemons, Fee Waybill, and Martha Davis) and past regard them with such god-like reverence that it’s not hard to see the joke. Then again, maybe there’s something profound to the maxim, “be excellent to each other”. Lincoln certainly thinks there’s something to it.
The relationship that the two have with the various historical figures they meet, though, is what seals the deal. Not a single one of them ever appears discontented, or even inconvenienced, by being drawn out of their time periods and into their history report. In fact, they all seem downright enamored of the twentieth century (Beethoven, Clifford David, in particular, seems taken with casio keyboards). Perhaps the greatest triumph of Bill and Ted is that it makes this seem (in its own ridiculous way) anything but heretical; after all, if Billy the Kid (Dan Shor) is down for the party, why shouldn’t you be? Considering how many subtle in jokes for the wise there are (Freud enjoying a corn dog; Ted comparing Socrates to Ozzy Osborne for their ‘corruption of youth’), it’s a pretty guilt-free affair for anyone too concerned with their dignity.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The disc contains "The Original Bill & Ted: In Conversation with Chris & Ed", "Air Guitar Tutorial with Bjorn Turoque & The Rockness Monster", "One Sweet and Sour Chinese Adventure To Go", and radio spots, and the theatrical trailer.
"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" is on sale November 13, 2012 and is rated PG. Comedy. Directed by Stephen Herek. Written by Chris Matheson, Ed Solomon. Starring George Carlin, Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Jane Wiedlin, Terry Camilleri, Dan Shor, Tony Steedman, Rod Loomis, Al Leong, Robert V Barron, Clifford David.
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