Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

365 Films

Entry #27

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

Directed by: Stephen Herek

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure has one of the most ingeniously stupid premises ever concocted for a film that it’s astonishing it took the medium nearly 80 years to finally crack it.  Two dim-witted metal-head teenagers, Bill S. Preston Esq., and Ted Theodore Logan (just writing out those names makes me smile) face expulsion unless they can muster up enough intellect to pass a history class.  Failure to do so will result in the break-up of their band Wyld Stallyns thus providing a bleak future for the fate of mankind.  It’s almost as if a bunch of producers and writers were sitting around asking themselves what would happen if two Jeff Spicolis got a hold of a time machine instead of a smart, enterprising young Reaganaught like Marty McFly.  The answer is comedy gold.  That’s probably how that meeting ended too, followed by a protracted slow clap from all participants.  This is a theme I will revisit in future entries so I should perhaps introduce it presently.  That theme is called “Movies That Would Suck Without Keanu Reeves”, wordy as that title may be, it is the absolute truth.  It should be said in all fairness to Alex Winter, who provides the hyperactive yin to Mr. Reeves’ laid back yang, the duo is essential and the film simply would not work at all without those two.  If you’ll bear with me on this, it is Mr. Reeves who provides the heart and soul of the film.  It could be the way Mr. Winter looks (forgive me sir, I’m a big fan of your work) or the fact that he can’t control his throbbing biological urges towards his Stepmother, he always comes off a tad on the creepy side.  Mr. Reeves’ Ted on the other hand creates the winning persona of a dimwitted innocent launched into events far beyond his meager control.  He has a demanding, mean old sob. of a patriarch who won’t stop bullying his own son.  He even goes so far as to threaten Ted with military service upon his pre-determined failure of high school.  He won’t even entertain the possibility that his son might not be a complete fuck-up and could pass the aforementioned history class.  What Mr. Reeves does here is a imbue the character with his own inherent likability that one can’t help but find themselves rooting for Bill and Ted.  This is a tricky thing to accomplish.  Think of all those occasions where moviegoers have sat in a silent stupor, grinding their teeth with rage at the latest variation of the “noble idiot” character.  Annoyingly dumb characters in American comedies appear with the same regularity as an Adam Sandler movie.  Comedies are often easiest to appreciate when you have no problem laughing at the exaggerated antics of the cast.  This detached, cynical method definitely has its pleasures, but when a movie like Bill and Ted comes along and dares us to care, that’s when you have something people will remember.  If you don’t believe me just try walking up to someone and yelling “Sandimashighschoolfootballrules!” Or, “strange things are afoot at the circle K”, and watch what happens.  I dare you.