First Take: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure- be excellent to each other...

SYNOPSIS: Two seemingly dumb teens set off on a quest to prepare the ultimate historical presentation with the help of a time machine.

It’s Bill and Ted week here on TheJackSmit.com, and to celebrate we’ll be looking back at the first two, before reviewing the new release. The original film became a cult classic back in 1989, and it’s obvious to see why. It may be cheesy, and it hasn’t aged too well, but at it’s core it just works.

Stephen Herek’s in charge here, and he does a very good, totally not bogus job at directing it- clocking in at 91 minutes, it feels like the perfect length for a comedy, and it passed the 6 laugh test with ease. Yes, some plot elements may seem a little far fetched, but this is a sci-fi comedy which came out two years after Back to the Future, so self-referential humour was a key thing for writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson (who cameo in all three films), who do a brilliant job creating a very unique plot. On cinematography duties is Tim Suhrstedt, and David Newman provides the score- both of them do a stellar job.

Now, performances- the iconic bit. Looking back all these years later, it is hard to believe that we were seeing a young John Wick. Keanu and London’s very own Alex Winter quite simply became their characters- it’s obvious the pair of them have remained friends to this day, and their performances really personify what it was (apparently) like to be a teenager in the 1980s. Supporting them is the legendary George Carlin, alongside Amy Stock-Poynton, Kimberly LaBelle, Diane Franklin and a mega cast of historical greats. If you ever wondered how to cheat at a history assignment, this is how to do it in style.

THE VERDICT

Excellent Adventure is a good starting point for anyone studying popular music and culture within the 1980s and 1990s- it spawned a huge bit of nerd culture, that resulted in two sequels nearly 30 years separated from each other, and kicked off the career of a man best known for Matrixes, bad-ass action guys, and toys named Duke Caboom.

RATING: 4/5

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey and Bill and Ted Face The Music will be reviewed at 9pm on the 23rd and 24th September respectively.