Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Amazon.com

Like, radical, dude—but not nearly as funny as it should be, even though it was a box-office hit. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are a pair of dim Valley boys, whose life is made heinous by a school history project. Enter George Carlin as a futuristic dude with a time-traveling phone booth. So Bill and Ted go back in time to round up a gang of historical figures (Socrates, Joan of Arc) to bring back for their presentation. Abe Lincoln at the mall? That’s about as witty as it gets, rendering this the kind of comedy that gives teenaged audiences a bad name. —Marshall Fine

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Time travel in the movies is at an all time high in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Bill S Preston Esquire (Alex Winter) and Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) are in danger of flunking History class. They’re rescued by Rufus (George Carlin), a resident of San Dimas 700 years in the future—a future in which their band Wyld Stallyns has brought about world peace and the best water slides in the universe. Entrusted with a phone booth time machine, they pick up various historical personages to give a colourful stage show for their final exam. The hip 80s rock sensibility paved the way for many comedies that followed Wayne’s World, with air guitar and phrases like “bogus” and “dude” entrenching themselves way beyond the film’s cult following. The film spawned a number of spin-offs including a bodacious cartoon and comic book series. —Paul Tonks