Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is not a very good movie. In fact, it’s pretty bad – but that doesn’t mean it’s without certain charms. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure stars a young Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as the titular characters, two comically idiotic slackers who need some serious help to pass their history class. Luckily for them, that help comes in the form of Rufus (the late, great George Carlin, woefully underutilized), an emissary from the future who brings with him a time travelling phone booth (frankly, I’m surprised the BBC didn’t sue for this).
The two titular characters embark upon a journey through history, having silly encounters with historical figures and learning a little bit (really, emphasis on how little they learn) in the process. They abduct several key historical figures to bring to the present (1989, that is), and quickly find out that historical figures like Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Socrates maybe don’t fit in terribly well at places like bowling alleys and malls.
There are some cute quirks to the film; for instance, every time that Bill and Ted do a little air guitar riff, the audience actually hears it – it’s a nice touch. The two have incredibly idiosyncratic California accents, comically over the top, and the dialogue is stilted to an amusing extent.
Overall, though, there’s not much to recommend about this film, especially when certain “features” to the film haven’t aged particularly well. I can see why this film has attained a certain level of cult success, but it’s also just not for me.
Bill: We gotta go. It’s a history report, not a babe report.
Ted: But, Bill, those are historical babes.
RonAckner.com 