Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Movie Review

Many film-goers expected this flick to be nothing more than another brainless teen-comedy, but found themselves pleasantly surprised. When two amiable but intellectually challenged Valley Boys find themselves in danger of failing their history final, they're rescued by Rufus (George Carlin), and his time-traveling telephone booth. It seems that Bill and Ted are destined to become the founders of a future utopia based on heavy metal music (?!). This paradise will never come to pass if they fail their test, so Rufus has come back to give the proto-heroes a chance to brush up on history first-hand. Along the way they meet a host of historical figures and put every time-travel cliche through the wringer. This is a good-natured, wonderfully entertaining film. Too bad the spate of “dumb teen” movies that followed didn't match it in quality.

1989 (PG) 105m/C Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Bernie Casey, Dan Shor, Robert Barron, Amy Stock-Poynton, Terry Camillieri, Rod Loomis, Al Leong; D: Stephen Herek; W: Chris Matheson, Edward Solomon; M: David Newman. VHS, Beta, LV, 8mm COL, SUE, NLC