Where to start? I guess... The soundtrack! I quite liked the 80's pop/rock (not the candy). It was... cool. I'm not an expert at this, So I'll just move on. The title sequence. For a little bit, I thought that it was CGI. But as it progressed, I found it looked practical. It looks pretty odd. But at the same time dazzling. And then the opening scene with George Carlin's character, Rufus. He described the world as a thriving utopia where the water is clean, the air is clean, even the dirt is clean, and other things. And after things like The Matrix, WALL*E and Sonic '06, I'm tired of dystopian futures and I was glad to see a hopeful, lighthearted future in this movie. Also, George Carlin. I feel like I've seen him before. I looked up his filmography and all I could find that I recognized was Filmore from Cars. It's kind of ironic how he was an authoritative presence among stereotypical period dudes in this movie and then in Cars he becomes a stereotypical period dude! Heh! Anyway, Rufus is trying to help Bill and Ted stay together so that mankind would live happily... But if he was the one who kept them together, himself being from the future that Bill and Ted created, how the heck is this possible?! It's a paradox! Aaah! There are a good amount of these in this film. I'll talk about some of them later. Anyway, in the present of 1988, which was a year before the film was released, we find Bill and Ted, jammin' out. And dude, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves were totally rad! Their performances as dumb 80's teenagers was very funny. Though it's weird seeing Keanu all serious in The Matrix. They have to go to school, where if they flunk history, they flunk school. Hm. I homeschool, so I can't say if that's an accurate representation of school. So yeah, I've been focusing on these little details in every single scene... Maybe I'll refrain from it next time. So anyway, that was a great scene at the Circle K, when Rufus shows up to give Bill and Ted the time machine. Only thing is... THEY BLATANTLY STOLE THE TARDIS FROM DOCTOR WHO. Be a little creative, people. And also, the phone number system is needlessly complicated. I mean, it's from the future! They could just talk to a Google Hologram instead of looking through a book that should be way bigger than it is. What I liked about it, was when Future Bill and Ted give advice to Present Bill and Ted. "What number are we thinking of?" *pauses* "69, dudes!" I don't know why that's funny, but it was. This movie is very quotable. My favorite line, I'd say, is "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K." I can't explain it, but LOL. The CGI for the "Circut of Time" or whatever looks very dated, and reminds me of Tron. Well, Tron's CG fits with its primitive computer world. This doesn't. Whatever. Nitpicks. Moving on, we got a scene in the French war against Austria where they just abduct Napoleon Bonaparte. Okay then. It's not like the world is gonna be different. And then there's that whole sequence in the western where they get Billy the Kid. Another quote here. "If I win, I take it all. If you win... *pauses* I take it all," Yup. And at the end of the sequence they just abduct him also. They abduct a whole bunch of historical figures, and everything turns out the same! It's like Marty meeting his future self in Back to the Future Part II. That's just not gonna happen. There are a number of these historical sequences. I'll focus on a couple. Like the one at the medieval times. There's this fake-out where you think a heavily suited Ted is dead, but of course he got out of the suit. Very predictable. And then the scene in the future. So... what is this place? Why do a whole bunch of crowds go to this weird cave? Is this, like, the Bill and Ted synagogue? I don't know. Then they break their antennae... What the heck? Do they really have to rely on this 700-year old technology? They fix it... with gum, and then they get the rest of their historical figures, like Joan of Arc, which I couldn't really tell was her and thought was a young boy. But it was her. Back in the present, Napoleon is bowling and then he completely fails.... and he continually swears. Um... Why is this rated PG? This is 1989, where UHF and Last Crusade are rated PG-13. But whatever. Napoleon goes on the water slide and becomes super-addicted to it to the point that he keeps cutting in line. Napoleon wants his way. And then after this there are more paradoxes. The scene where Ted goes to his dad's police office to rescue all the imprisoned leaders, and they find the keys that his dad has been missing, and it turns out that their future selves did this for them. And then they get in a bad situation, and Ted tells himself "Remember the box..." and a trashcan from his future self falls from above conveniently solving their problem. Wow. I'd think after this was over that they never get around to it, thus cancelling out themselves. But whatever. And there's this tension where the school finals are going, and the principal is constantly looking at the clock. I did kinda feel that tension a little bit. But not entirely. And then the finals are over, and Bill and Ted are like WAIT! and this whole sophisticated concert lighting system is present. How long did that take to set up? And the whole oral report goes, and I have two things to say. The first is that Abe Lincoln says "Fourscore and... 7 minutes ago" AND IT'S HIMSELF!!!! HE WOULD BE CORRECTING EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE WHOLE SCORE MEASUREMENT!!!!! AAAAAAAARRGH! Sorry, that just drove me crazy. And that is not entirely how I felt. That was an exaggeration. And second thing, he got an A+, which wouldn't be right because he kept misinterpreting Socrates, which was funny, but still. They give a little speech at the end, which is "Be excellent to each other, and... PARTY ON!" That captures the lighthearted and hopeful feel of this movie for me. Great! And then at the end Rufus tells them that one day they're supposed to write an album that shapes the course of history. That's interesting. 80's rock saving the world. I like it. And then Bill and Ted do some so-so jamming and Rufus says "Well, they do get better." and we end the film on that.
SO WHAT DID I THINK?!??!! Well, all those nitpicks were just nitpicks that I thought were worth mentioning, but overall, I thought it was pretty great. Not the kind of movie that I would watch over and over, but maybe something I'd revisit in a bunch of years. Oh yeah, and then there's that sequel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, which I've heard has the two dudes get killed and they find themselves in Hell where they must beat the Grim Reaper at a bunch of licensed board games in order to resurrect themselves. Hm... Doesn't sound great. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 53% too, so I'm not gonna watch that. It's probably bogus.
And that concludes my mess of a first Movie Thoughts review. Next week it's gonna be huge. I'm not reviewing one movie. But then after that it'll be one movie. So that's nice. But if you have the time, you'll enjoy next week's huge post. Well, I hope you enjoyed it! What do you think of this movie? What is your favorite part! Comment! I can only count the number of times people have commented on my blog, so it'd be nice if you could. Alright! See ya later, dudes!
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