Review of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) by Rod W — 11 Jul 2009

Something(s) got lost from the 1st film. The film got real dark, even before Bill & Ted died. The 1st film set up that in the future Earth's people have finally achieved harmony and peace, but in the 2nd film all is well except for manical Gym teachers who hate the lovey-dovey world, to change the world back to a darker chaotic form he send the robots to kill Bill & Ted, they die go to hell and eventually find a way back to save the Princesses.

Both films had the same set of writers. The first was a fun, hearty romp thru time to pass a high school history test which will change the course of human history, in this film it's as if the writers have decided they now hate thier own creations of Bill & Ted.

The first movie Bill & Ted had a large supporting cast of characters that helped for goofy moments, in this one Winter and Reeves are the large cast as they play multiple roles. Now, I like a lot of the moments in the film as they get some funny lines but the darker tone just feels wrong.

The film spends too much time on the evil robots and takes too long for the good supporting characters to join in. One of the fun moments I liked in the first film was them picking up another person to join the time travelling gang.

The film just gets too serious (if thats possible.) Production wise the 1st film was a relative hit but the soundtrack had relative small time bands (the biggest Extreme was still unknown) and this time the soundtrack is loaded with big acts like KISS.

I wish they stayed with the smaller bands as it kept more in theme with the film of 2 struggling guys trying to make thier band huge!