Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure [DVD] [1990]

Uplifting comedy, with lads Reeves and Winter on the verge of flunking their history class unless they come up with some extraordinary final report. To their rescue arrives a guest from the future who provides a phone booth, that enables our heroes to travel back in time. Collecting celebrities in order to spice up the report, they get more than they bargained for... Film did for the 80s what Clueless eventually did for the 90s: establishing the status quo of the period's youth culture with irreverent vernacular and a refreshingly fast pace. Thanks to the engaging performances of the two leads the film is entertaining for both the young and the young at heart. Here's to a goodnatured movie that works completely without any grossout jokes and doesn't dare to be meanspirited. So take a seat, recline and "be excellent"! As for the disc: These are the DVD times of documentaries, outtakes, deleted scenes and commentaries, therefor a theatrical trailer is as sad an extra feature as can be. The photo gallery also doesn't sweeten the pot. But the widescreen picture is brisk, the colors are saturated and the soundtrack rocks...come to think of it, that is more than I can say about my videotape and it makes the DVD - you better believe it, dudes - worth its money.

Another great, innocent eighties teen movie about rock, hope, the future, the past, the present, babes etc. It may seem to send out the message that rock fans are dumb, these two are, but it is a comedy and wouldn't work if they weren't. The film is simply about friendship and trying to do something worthwhile in your life, that even a high school nobody can make a difference. Hardly original ideas, but given a totally excellent twist for the genre.

Bill and Ted are two typical high school losers from San Dimas. They love their rock music, dream of being in a band and meeting some radical babes. Reality states otherwise- that exams are approaching and if they fail, it's off to military school. As they believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife, their prospects of passing their history final are not good. One night, hanging around the Circle K, they meet themselves-from the future, and a guy named Rufus. He tells them they must pass their exam or there will be grave consequences for the world. They must travel back in time to find historical figures to bring back for their exam, travelling in a phone booth of course. On the way they fall in love, meet many people and get into a few scrapes. Soon though, their historical figures run riot in a local mall and get arrested. Time is running out- but they have a time machine...

A silly idea, but very cleverly executed, and the result is much smarter than you might expect. Keanu and Alex are both excellent in their roles, and the rest of the cast are all very good. Special mention to Terry Camilleri who is very funny as Napolean. He gets some of the best lines-'Le Glace?' and 'Idiot!' amongst others. There are many one-liners, the film creating an inane language of its own which is both repeatable and harmless. The plot does fly all over the place, but it remains easy, and deals with the concept of time-travel much like Back to the Future did. There are many references which rock fans will get, modern audiences may not understand half the film now and will no doubt see it as extremely cheesy. The dialogue and fashion may have dated hideously, but so will all today's teen shows and movies. This however retains charm over the years, and is still cool. There are many interesting ideas here, some very funny moments, and is more original than many would admit. Good solid entertainment, executed with a unique style. Not many extras on the DVD though.

I remember when I first saw this film many years ago, when I was little. I loved the film back then and I love the film now. This film stars Matrix star Keanu Reeves, along side Alex Winter. This film has good humour and a good storyline.

Bill S Preston Esquire (Alex Winter) and Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) are high school teenagers, who are rather stupid, and don't have much common sense. The two have formed a band (which consists of just the two of them) called Wyld Stalyns, and so far, they're rather terrible. They can't play and they really do need to learn how to. In the meantime, they're failing history. They know bugger all. Ted has no idea who Joan of Arc is; he guesses Noah's wife, and Bill describes Nepolean Bonaparte as a "short dead dude". In fact as far as they're concerened, the only thing they have learned is that Cesar was a salad dressing dude.

Everyone in their year has to do a history report the following afternoon. Unless they get an A+, they'll fail history, and they've got a 1 in a million chance of learning everything they need in one night and passing history. Worse of all (to them) if they fail, Ted's father Captain Logan, who's the police chief of their home town San Dimas has decided that if Ted fails history he'll have him sent to a military school in Alaska. In fact he has already signed Ted up.

Lucky for them help is on the way; 700 years into the future, in the year 2688 a man named Rufus (George Carlin) is sent back in time to 1988 with a phone booth time machine to help Bill and Ted pass history. He lends them the time machine to ensure they pass. They also have to do this by the following afternoon; for some reason no matter where or WHEN they are, the clock in San Dimas is always running. So they embark on their most excellent adventure, where they collect historical figures throughout different time periods.

They gather the following historical people; Napolean, Billy the Kid, an ancient Greek philosopher called Socrates, Sigmund Freud, Genghish Kahn, Joan of Arc, Beethoven and Abraham Lincoln. This is an excellent film that is not to be missed, especially if you love to watch time travel and comedy films. There are funny moments throughout the film. Napolean is hillarious, such as during the bowling scene and the Waterloo scene, when he cuts lines and moves kids out of the way so he can have a turn on the water slides. Then there's that scene when they're in medieval England and attempting to free the princesses. They run into the king of England, who has his men behind him and Bill says. "How's it goin' royal ugly dudes?". Then he addressed himself as the Earl of Preston and Ted introduces himself as the Duke of Ted.

The funniest scene in my opinion is when the historical people are at the shopping mall and getting into mayhem. This is one of the best films ever made and it's very enjoyable to watch and very entertaining. Get this film now.