The "Bill & Ted" Franchise

[StevePulaski]

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
Directed by: Stephen Herek

Bill (Alex Winter, left) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) meet their future/past-selves in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Rating: ★★★

It's been opined, cheekily or not, that nearly every subsequent role Keanu Reeves has gotten after the rousing success of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and its sequel is some variation of his character Ted Logan. It's not a far-fetched idea. Sure, roles like Speed and John Wick throw a monkey-wrench in that theory, but Reeves' laidback coolness has gotten him far over four decades and even further in the present. Reeves is now among the class of few celebrities that are meme-famous and loved simply for existing.

Watching a film like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure after seeing Reeves in so many different projects over the last 20 years confirms that, if noting else, the man has range as a performer and there's a reason significant adulation is thrown his way. The film catapulted his notoriety and popularity amongst the masses in the late eighties, and created one of the most memorable buddy duos in an era where buddy comedies were all the rage (Beavis and Butt-head, Wayne and Garth, Pryor and Wilder, etc).

The central schtick of Bill and Ted's big-screen debut is that two ne'er-do-well teenagers (Alex Winter and Reeves, respectively) are on the verge of flunking their history class due largely in part to their own ineptitude but also due to their fixation on getting their rock band The Wyld Stallions off the ground. The dudes are hopeless to learn that not only are they almost certainly guaranteed to fail history, but Ted's father is already making plans to ship him off to military school. One evening stroll to Circle K turns into a life-changing encounter with the mysterious Rufus (George Carlin), a time-traveling liaison who appears in a mysterious phone-booth that acts as an unassuming time-portal. Rufus appears along with future versions of Bill and Ted that prove to the two dudes that time-traveling is possible. This motivates the two (from the past, that is) to travel back throughout history, snatch the likes of Napoleon, Genghis Kahn, Abraham Lincoln, and of course Socrates (So-crates) from their own timelines, and take them to their school in the present so they can hopefully pass their class.

The personalities Winter and Reeves create for their characters are your cut-and-paste primitive and primal nineties stereotypes. Bill is a curly-haired, bodacious dolt who carries the weight of the two in the planning department while Ted is quite easily surprised yet genial and good-natured as a whole (think a slightly more competent "Ed" from Ed, Edd n Eddy). You don't believe either one of these characters has a bad bone in their bodies despite both lacking significantly in the cognitive department. So much of Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon's script is predicated on the Valley slang and dude-isms the two use to communicate, and the juxtaposition of that with two characters doing the last thing you'd expect them to be doing (traveling through the bowels of time, changing history with every stop) is the kind of endearing amalgam that shows why this film has withstood the test of time, save for some kitschy special effects.

Even in my younger years, however, Bill and Ted were a little too cartoonish for me. I preferred the happy-go-lucky nature of Wayne and Garth in Wayne's World, especially seeing as the plot was more (not much) grounded in the real-world as opposed to introducing historical icons at every turn. Notwithstanding, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure features a handful of whip-smart and watchable set-pieces that keep the energy of the project high. The water-park sequence involving the stout Napoleon discovering a water-slide is made memorable thanks to great POV shots and swerving camera-angles that compliment an ensuing montage, and Genghis Khan destroying stores in a mall is the rare idea that sounds hair-brained on paper but makes for a delightfully absurd aside when carried out.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure skates by largely on the charisma of its duo and its tactful handling of asinine elements that shouldn't work as well as they do. Perhaps it's because Matheson and Solomon don't bother much with the logic of the setup because, after all, there is none. This is why it's ultimately unfair to compare this series to Back to the Future. One franchise is keen on developing all the emotional heft, complex interworkings, multiverses, and character development associated with one of the most compelling science-fiction ideas we know. The other is simply in it for a good time, not a long time, and ultimately succeeds.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Dan Shor, Terry Camilleri, and Terry Sheedman. Directed by: Stephen Herek.

[StevePulaski]

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
Directed by: Pete Hewitt

The dim-witted duo of Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter, left) and Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves, right) come face-to-face with the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.

Rating: ★★½

It's hard to deny that Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey runs deep with ingenuity and ideas. It's a sequel to a hair-brained but amusing time-traveling comedy involving two dim heroes that make O.C. and Stiggs look like Rhode scholars. Immediately, one fears it's a retread of its predecessor. On that note, you might be surprised to learn that it's a buddy comedy where one of its primary gags is lampooning an Ingmar Bergman picture that is often considered to be one of the best films of all time. That kind of ambition is hard to find.

But Bogus Journey isn't as "excellent" as Excellent Adventure, and dare I say it grinds its gears despite being less than 90 minutes long. It's a collage of surrealist set-pieces that sends the amiable Bill and Ted all through space and time, literally to hell and back. Its visuals are competent and the mad-dash annihilation of linearity is the stuff few comedies of this breed wouldn't ordinarily go near. There's fun to be had throughout this sequel, but it wears thin as you realize you're at the mercy of its pacing and many plot-threads.

The movie begins in the future, 2691 to be exact, where students at Bill & Ted University learn about historical icons such as Beethoven, Thomas Edison, and Jim Martin of Faith No More by actually meeting them thanks to the famous phone booth. Rufus (George Carlin) is a proctor who guides the new generation through the process, but even he is at a loss when De Nomolos (Joss Ackland), an evil overlord, pledges to reverse history by going back in time and eliminating Bill and Ted (reprised by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, respectively). De Nomolos has invented robots that look and act exactly like the pair and sends them back through the bowels of time in order to destroy Bill and Ted and create an entirely new, ostensibly bleaker future (present, technically).

After their incredibly gnarly adventure, Bill and Ted are still their old selves, however; still trying to win a music contest and get their band Wyld Stallyns off the ground. This time, they have acquired two new bandmates — the lovely ladies from the 15th century (Annette Azcuy and Sarah Trigger). It doesn't take long for their robot counterparts to track them down and send the two to meet the Grim Reaper (a fine performance from William Sadler). Bill and Ted challenge the Reaper to modern games like Battleship and Twister, a smart send-up of Bergman's The Seventh Seal, where Death played chess with a medieval knight with the knight's soul as the award. Long story short, Death loses the challenges and must accompany Bill and Ted on their journey as they try and stop their evil-selves from drastically altering the course of history.

The ambition of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is present en masse. This isn't a stroll down memory-lane, lifting ideas and moments from Excellent Adventure in an attempt to create the same movie twice, and that's ultimately what few wanted. But Bogus Journey goes as far as to complicate what was once a simple, mostly digestible premise. It morphs the formula into one that uneasily shifts from one backdrop to another, where Bill and Ted come in contact with everyone from Satan to the Easter Bunny. It's a melting pot of ideas that doesn't quite melt together, and in its attempt to up the ante on the concept, it sidelines the inherent charisma of Winter and Reeves, who feel along-for-the-ride as the film gets too deep in the weeds of surrealism.

Excellent Adventure featured memorable sequences involving Napoleon at a water-park and Genghis Khan destroying an indoor mall, two instances that invited absurdist comedy into the picture while furthering the plot and inclusion of the historical characters. Bogus Journey has more ideas that feel half-baked by comparison. After their run-in with the devil, the film hurries itself by having Bill and Ted meet God, along with an alien duo known as Station, prep for the Battle of the Bands that will hopefully bring peace to a galaxy rife with unrest, and encounter De Nomolos just as his robot creations are patching up the last of their dirty-work. The premise feels complicated even for a science-fiction-laden buddy comedy, and it lacks the grace afforded to the original that made even some of the more outlandish moments feel so sly.

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is at least a pleasant watch because it isn't keen on being a remake of the film that introduced us to the titular ne'er-do-wells. With a new director in Pete Hewitt — who would go on to hit his stride in the mid-aughts helping long-dormant properties in the form of Garfield and Thunderbirds see a big-screen revival — and cinematographer who bring a brand new visual flare, there's an entirely different feel this time around. All of this is welcome to a point, but once the concept and ensuing antics prove overstuffed, one longs for the simpler times when it was just two dudes, a phone booth, and a Circle K that got them into this mess in the first place.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, William Sadler, Joss Ackland, George Carlin, Annette Azcuy, and Sarah Trigger. Directed by: Pete Hewitt.

[StevePulaski]

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)
Directed by: Dean Parisot

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter reprise their staple roles in Bill & Ted Face the Music.

Rating: ★★★

I can't say Bill & Ted Face the Music is a great film, but I will say it was indeed most bodacious. There's a high smile-factor present; the kind you experience when you're rekindling with old friends you haven't seen in a blue moon. Sure, they have more wrinkles than the last time you saw them, but their spirit remains unchanged. In these "uncertain times," this kind of simplicity and wholesomeness is difficult to come by.

Once you get over the fact that our titular heroes have notably aged, and Alex Winter feels just a smidge more natural in his role than Keanu Reeves, you'll find that Bill & Ted Face the Music isn't merely a cynical cash-grab or an 82 minute burst of nostalgia. Screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon (who wrote the first two Bill & Ted films) have waited far too long to revisit these characters to make them go through the motions. They grant them a narrative that not only compliments their personalities, but addresses their legacy in a way that makes them ponder their own shortcomings. Sooner or later, we all must face the music, so to speak, and come to grips with our successes and where we could've done better.

Bill (Winter) and Ted (Reeves) are long-removed from the history class they needed to pass and it's been a hot minute since they had their first run-in with the Grim Reaper. They are still married to the princesses (Erinn Hayes and Jayma Mays) from the first film, but are now parents to daughters aptly named Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine, Bombshell) and Thea (Samara Weaving, Ready or Not). Nonetheless, things have hit a bumpy patch largely due to the fact that the men are incapable of doing anything individually. They even attend couples therapy together. Bill and Ted are so simpatico that their wives are tired of feeling they are married to both men.

Perhaps one of the key reasons for their inseparable nature is that their band Wyld Stallyns has yet to write the fabled song that will bring the universe together. In the present, their band's fame has dissipated to the point where they're playing dives while wracked with pressure to write that come-together song. Enter Kelly (Kristen Schaal), Rufus' daughter — Rufus does get a loving tribute early in the film — who travels to the men and takes them to meet The Great Leader (Holland Taylor), who tells them they have to write the song that brings humanity together or mankind will cease to exist.

With that, Bill and Ted decide to cheat the system. They use the trusty phone-booth to go to the future to steal the song from themselves, leading them to meet multiple future iterations of themselves. In a shockingly "realistic" way, the versions of themselves they meet are some combination of shallow, aloof, and alone. Meanwhile, their daughters get the privilege their fathers did so long ago, as they travel back in time to try and form a dream band of iconic musicians and composers such as Mozart, Louis Armstrong, and of course Kid Cudi. Along the way, Bill and Ted too rekindle with Death (William Sadler) and encounter an eccentric robot named Dennis Caleb McCoy (Anthony Carrigan, Barry) that winds up being the most playful supporting character of the bunch.

It's good to see that despite it being 29 years since Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey hit theaters, our heroes haven't lost their amiable nature. Here are two characters who believe in their heart of hearts that creativity and friendship are the threads that keep humanity stable, and they're honestly not wrong. It's all so simple in their world: "be excellent to each other." I know this is ultimately a silly comedy, but in divisive times, why the hell can't we as humans grasp that concept and move forward?

There's something about a breezy comedy that makes you consider your own destiny and whether or not you're on pace to live up to it. In that sense, Matheson and Solomon are cognizant that many fans of Bill and Ted are now in their mid-to-late forties, even fifties. That's about the age thoughts of the future and legacy truly manifest into thoughts that wash over us just as we're about to go to sleep at night, and Face the Music addresses these ideas most excellently. Bill and Ted are aghast to see themselves as both cocky, punk-rock neanderthals still going through the motions and hulking monsters that rule the prison-yards and not much else. It's then they truly grapple with their outlooks and whether or not they've truly lived the most bodacious versions of themselves.

Like Bogus Journey, albeit more successful, Face the Music exercises a lot of creative freedom in crafting rad situational comedy. There's a plethora of sets and colors that keep things kinetic and lively. We never spend too much time in the same setting, and unlike the second film, we don't feel whisked away by the frantic pace nor bombarded with surrealist diversions. Bill & Ted Face the Music is leisurely paced, and when things get hairy in the third act, or even a little too complicated, there's no harm in leaning back and just marveling at two familiar, lovable faces slipping comfortably back into the roles that made them names in the first place.

NOTE: Bill & Ted Face the Music is now streaming on Amazon, Google Play, and Vudu.

NOTE II:Check out my review of Bill & Ted Face the Music on my web-show Sleepless with Steve. Catch the show Wednesday evenings at 8pm CST at twitch.tv/sleeplesswithsteve!

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Kristen Schaal, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Erinn Hayes, Jayma Mays, William Sadler, and Kid Cudi. Directed by: Dean Parisot.