L'Excellente Aventure de Bill & Ted

Two high school friends must pass their final history assignment or face the end of their dreams of forming a rock band.

I saw this movie aged nine on its original release and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think my mind was blown by how cool it made the subject of history seem and how harmlessly likeable the main protagonists were. Unlike me, my parents, who are Baby-Boomer generation, sat through it with me and did not appreciate Bill and Ted's dumb valleys, surfer dude, stoner-like personalities. Much to their distain I rewatched it more than once.

I watched it yesterday, aged forty with my four yearly daughter and appreciate how it might have come across to my mother at the time. However, the key to enjoying it as an adult is not taking it the slightest bit seriously. The dumbness of the main characters is part of what makes them so charming and the concept that a future of civilisation will be based on a Californian teenage sub-culture is a joke you just have to buy into and enjoy.

The basic plot structure is solid and it uses all its silliness in a clever way with the time-travel sci-fi moments. I love the little details like the stolen car-keys and Ted forgetting to wind his watch.

Some jokes hit the mark more now than they did for me as a child, particularly some of the innuendo involving Bill's stepmom and Bill's confirmation to Sigmund Freud of his 'minor oedipal complex'. Ironically, looking back at this time-travel themed movie is like taking a journey back to the 1980s with it's fashion, music and shopping-mall culture.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are perfect as characters who are essentially two halves of the same brain. George Carlin is to coin a phrase 'excellent' as their guardian angel type friend from the future. Also, the visual effects during the time-travel sequences stand up reasonably well by today's standards.

I took a lot of entertainment from it as child and my daughter stuck with it till the end.

For me it is a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was probably one of the most compelling films I've experienced since I first watched it. It has an idea only an indie director could possibly think of, but it avoids all of the campy expositions which would turn it into some bad "B" film. The story was great, and it was really one of the best depictions of high schools idiots in the history of Hollywood. I mean, you did not see these guys taking tokes or drinking in their spare time, which really vexed some people. They're just stupid for the sake of the story. While the technical aspects weren't special, they worked when they needed it. This film also had one of the best music soundtracks in the history of Hollywood, even if it was from the 1980s. Too many good things to say about this film besides the fact it is a film which doesn't take itself seriously.

June 8, 2002 was an 80's renaissance for me. Playing an emulated ColecoVision on my PC, listening to Huey Lewis, Prince, and Men At Work, watching the A-Team on TNN, and seeing this film from 1989. I still enjoy the decade of feathered mullets, jerri-curled hair, acid-washed jeans, skinny ties, dominant pop music, and terrible fashions. The 90's will never have that to live down (except terrible fashions, but not as bad).

When Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure became the surprise hit of 1989, it made a star of everyone's favorite Lebanese-Canadian-U.S. rock 'n rolling actor, Keanu Reeves, who is one of the top stars at the box office today and one of the few likeable people in Tinseltown. It seems that he still carries a bit of Theodore "Ted" Logan in all his movies.

He and Alex Winter (an indie film dynamo) play Bill and Ted, a couple of 80's California dudes who want to start their own rock band (Wyld Stallyons). However, both are flunking in high school and will be expelled unless they get an A+ in history. To make matters worse, Ted will be sent to the military by his father, therefore squashing their dreams of rock stardom. Enter Rufus (George Carlin), a man from the future who plays Clarence to the boys George (shades of It's A Wonderful Life) who gives them a telephone booth. With it, they decide to use it to collect great historical figures and bring them to San Dimas, California to show them how mankind has evolved.

Surprisingly, the film holds up today. Bill and Ted are truly likeable boneheads and both Reeves and Winter deliver fine performances. Carlin is funny in his appearances, showing that he doesn't need trash-talk to be entertaining. The dialogue is truly amusing, probably because no one talks like that any more. The only weakness is that it's an 80's film, so if you didn't grow up in that era, you might not understand why there's music playing throughout the film, or why everyone looks and dresses so weird (yes, that's how everyone looked in the 1980's). The DVD version is quite nice, but it only has a trailer as a bonus. Still, a must watch, and much better than all the copycat films (including the horrible Dude, Where's My Car?). Party On!

This movie rules. Am I afraid to admit it? Nope, 'cause it's the truth! I know by reading some of my reviews I sound like some stuffy person who doesn't like any fluffy comedies or unintelligent humor, but that's not always the case. Yes, there are good fluffy comedies that promise a really fun watch.

I can't even count how many times I've seen this movie, but somehow it never gets old. 'Bill and Ted' is of course NOT a great movie, but it never pretends to be one, and I guess that's why I like it so much.

I've always had a huge fascination with the idea of time travel (why else would I love 'Back to the Future' so much?), and this movie actually makes it look really, really fun. Not to mention that Bill and Ted's mispronunciation of the historical figures' names ("So-crates!") makes it all the more hilarious.

Did I mention that Rufus is totally awesome? No? Well go ahead and kick me in the face!

It's hard to get upset at two very likable dummies who wouldn't hurt a fly. That's Bill and Ted, two Valley-type teens from back in the late '80s who play two really two guys who wind up going on a time-travel trip while trying to help themselves pass a history presentation.

I've always enjoyed time travel stories but they've all been fairly intelligent......not stupid, like this. However, this was still fun to watch. Any time you get to see Billy the Kid, Abraham Lincoln, Socrates, Beethoven, Napoleon, Joan of Arc and others all in the same movie - especially with these two modern-day airheads - is pretty entertaining.

Keanu Reeves was perfect for the role because he sounds stupid no matter role he plays! Alex Winter, I don't know. George Carlin has been goofy for 50 years so anything stupid he says wouldn't surprise me.

This is comedy at its lightest but it's pretty inoffensive, safe viewing for most anyone and if you need a laugh - even from something dumb - this would fill the bill.