Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Bill &Ted's Excellent Adventure




Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is arguably one of the best worst movies of the 80s. For some inexplicable reason it launched Keanu Reeves' career, despite all of his most salient lines containing 'dude.'

The plot follows two lovable stoners on their quest to make a good grade on their history presentation the following day. Should Ted fail his history presentation, he will fail class, resulting in him being shipped off to military school in Alaska. If this happens, Bill and Ted can not form their band, the Wyld Stallyns, which obviously is imperative to both of them.

A man from the future shows up with a time machine to help them realize this goal, as the music the duo creates later would somehow become the basis of the future society of the world. The wonder twins travel back in time to collect historical figures for their presentation, managing to obtain Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, Socrates, Billy the Kid, Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Sigmund Freud, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Some of the most humorous parts of the movie are close to the end, when the historical characters are in real time (1989) and in the San Dimas shopping mall. Genghis Khan ravages the sporting goods store, Beethoven places four keyboards at once, Joan of Arc interrupts a work out program, and Socrates and Billy the Kid try to pick up girls, only to be interrupted by Freud, eating a corndog (perhaps an attempt at subtle humor). All of the characters wind up in jail.

Bill and Ted manage to bust them out of jail just in time for their history presentation, with the help of their time machine telephone booth. George Carlin plays Rufus, the man sent from the future to help the two stoners with their history project. The futuristic scenes that are shown are ironically dated, with a strong 80s/90s look prevalent in the characters.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a right of passage for every young film buff. Because it is such a bad movie, it is an excellent film. Or in the words of Bill and Ted, a 'most excellent' film.


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