Review of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) by Distant C — 02 Feb 2013

Although it's premise makes it sound like an after school special on the Disney Channel. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is a terrific blend of science fiction and subtle comedy.

It tells the story of Bill and Ted, 2 underachieving high school rock fans who need to get an A+ on a history report otherwise they will flunk out of high school and Ted's uptight father will send him to military school. Their history teacher tells them that the report needs to be "most outstanding". Having a hard time coming up with a way to make their report unique, they find themselves in an encounter with Rufus- a man from the future who gives them a phone both shaped time machine to help with their project. Bill and Ted find themselves travelling back in time getting guest speakers from history to use in their report including Napoleon, Joan of Arc, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln and Sigmond Freud. (Hey did anyone else catch Sigmond Freud with the corn dog?).

Although many people won't get a lot of the humour and find the film to be a bit goofy, it's a worthwhile watch. It also doesn't leave too many plot holes in the time travel concept. Something a lot of movies have a hard time with.