First Take: Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey- ...and party on, dudes.

SYNOPSIS: A tyrant from the future creates evil android doubles of Bill and Ted and sends them back to eliminate the originals.

The difficult second film. One year removed from the end of the Back to the Future trilogy, and with added death (pun very much intended), the sheer demand for more Bill and Ted prompted Orion to make more. Unfortunately the sequel fails to reach the heights of the iconic 1989 film, but that isn’t to say that it has some big developments for the plot.

Pete Hewitt is the director on this follow-up, and considering he would later helm the 2001 Garfield movie… yeah, the pacing isn’t as tight as the first instalment. It’s still a 1 hour 34 minute movie, but some elements could have been refined to make it more understandable, a lot of that is due to the clear parody of The Seventh Seal that writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson created for this second outing. Behind the camera is Oliver Wood, who does an OK job, and David Newman returns on scoring duties.

Performance wise, all the usual talents are there- Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter continue to make those two roles their own, Hal Landon Jr once again makes sure those two are following the rules of the law, and George Carlin provides all the exposition we need. Joining them this time is William Sadler as Death (one of the highlights), Pam Grier, Joss Ackland, and a few cameos from major bands of the time- South Park theme writers Primus are one of them.

THE VERDICT

Bogus Journey doesn’t quite reach the same level of awesomeness as the original, but what it does give us is enough to keep fans happy for, well, let’s say 29 more years?

RATING: 3/5

Bill and Ted Face The Music will be reviewed at 9pm on September 24th.