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Review: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - 1989


Story - Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine.

Cast - Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin

Crew - Stephen Herek (Director), Chris Matheson (Writer), Ed Solomon (Writer)

Runtime - 90 minutes

         

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a hilarious movie that uses the concept of time travel and takes it to the next level. This movie is a perfect combination of goofiness and taking stuff seriously. I don't think I've ever seen a movie like this before, other '80s teen movies take stuff too far in either direction. 

The use of characters from another time and bringing them to "the present" is a concept used in many movies -At points, this film reminded me of Mr. Peabody and Sherman- but while those movies use those characters they feel the need to continue stereotyping such historical figures or make them incompetent or dumb, here we see them retain some of their personality, making their interactions with real-world objects and situations endearing. For example, Joan of Arc, In this movie she feels so relatable as a girl who, by the situation where she lived, didn't or couldn't enjoy herself as a teenage girl, here we see her wearing comfy clothes and being amazed at the aerobics parlor at the mall, such an amazing depiction of her character that I don't think I've ever seen in any other place. If that was another movie they would probably put her in a beauty salon or even poke fun at her religious beliefs but they abstain from doing so and that's why I love how she is shown here.

At a 90-minute runtime, this movie finishes with an awesome presentation of the character's opinion of San Dimas -the place where Bill and Ted are from-, leaving us satisfied with what we have seen and leaving room for more adventures. I understand there are two more movies set in this universe but sadly lack the same critical and audience acclamation as the first one. I will try to make time to see the rest of the movies because this one left me completely astonished. 

I give this movie a strong recommendation and I believe the people who will love it the most are the ones who enjoy shows like Regular Show. This is basically a live-action version of Regular Show.



         

Final Score -5/5

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