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Editorial Reviews
Two dopey dudes go back in time to fetch Beethoven, Napoleon and other biggies for a history project.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Someone already made the point that Amazon's official reviewers often seem entirely out of step with their hordes of unofficial ones. This movie is a great example. It deftly avoids pitfalls that sink other films and does so seemingly effortlessly. It gains so much in sublety that it falls beneath the Hollywood radar of critical acclaim.
First, here's a film that delves into the real entanglements of time travel, but unlike Back to the Future, keeps it light. George Carlin plays himself, a burnt out hippie in the role of enlightened visitor from the future. Like Jeff Goldblum, he always plays himself, only the scenery changes-- check him out as the priest in Dogma (which is not at all a family film). Keanu Reeves does a great job in this film which, if it falls in the Doofus Duo genre, is at least as good as the Wayne's World and Dumb and Dumber films.
It's also cleaner. Anyone can write a dirty joke; try writing a clean one. This movie is full of them. Chesterton said it's harder to write a joke than a sermon. Obviously that's why there are so many (bad) sermons. This film succeeds with both good-natured humor and the light-hearted message of "Be excellent to each other." Has the Golden Rule ever been put better?
Why is this film so much better than its sequel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, which has an excellent if unrealized story line? Because all the special FX budget was spent on the "hell" sequence in that film, which bogs down the rest of the picture. There's a most excellent line of comic books that accompany the Bill and Ted saga, by the same artist who did Milk and Cheese. The story arc is both humorous and gripping. This is one of the few properties that really could deliver a few sequels and works well as an animated series. I join hundreds of reviewers who love this film in recommending this most excellent DVD.
First, here's a film that delves into the real entanglements of time travel, but unlike Back to the Future, keeps it light. George Carlin plays himself, a burnt out hippie in the role of enlightened visitor from the future. Like Jeff Goldblum, he always plays himself, only the scenery changes-- check him out as the priest in Dogma (which is not at all a family film). Keanu Reeves does a great job in this film which, if it falls in the Doofus Duo genre, is at least as good as the Wayne's World and Dumb and Dumber films.
It's also cleaner. Anyone can write a dirty joke; try writing a clean one. This movie is full of them. Chesterton said it's harder to write a joke than a sermon. Obviously that's why there are so many (bad) sermons. This film succeeds with both good-natured humor and the light-hearted message of "Be excellent to each other." Has the Golden Rule ever been put better?
Why is this film so much better than its sequel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, which has an excellent if unrealized story line? Because all the special FX budget was spent on the "hell" sequence in that film, which bogs down the rest of the picture. There's a most excellent line of comic books that accompany the Bill and Ted saga, by the same artist who did Milk and Cheese. The story arc is both humorous and gripping. This is one of the few properties that really could deliver a few sequels and works well as an animated series. I join hundreds of reviewers who love this film in recommending this most excellent DVD.
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Here's a whoppin' good adventure comedy that succeeds bedause it so unabashedly pushes the limits and risks absurdity. A couple of high school students are so clueless that when asked who Joan of Arc was, one replies "Noah's wife?". But this title pair are about to embark on a life-changing adventure! Suddenly they meet a strange dude with a telephone booth altered into a time-machine! What a concept of how to build a time-machine! I wondered if they thought about how we're living in a time when phone booths have become a rarity? How it won't be long, if things continue on their present course, until you couldn't make a time-machine out of a phone booth until you first used another time-machine to go back in time and get a phone booth? Well it's an interesting twist, whether intentional or not! Once back in time, the title characters transport several historical figures to the present, and thereby change their world. One of those figures is the very Joan of Arc they shortly before didn't know from Noah's wife! I found it most uncanny what historical figures they were able to bring back to the present, including no less that three that were me in former lives! They got it pretty right about Genghis Khan! I'm sure I would really really have liked twinkies when I was he! The part about Billy-the-kid they stretch a bit, even addressing him as "Mr. the Kid". Now no one really ever addressed me that way in my former life as Billy-the-Kid, but what a neat concept! Now some things of the present get streched just a bit too. For example, Bill and Ted get themselves out of one bind by use of a programmable audio tape player, programming it to play a certain message on the following afternoon. Now who's ever heard of that? Time-machines have become a familiar thing, at least in movies. But programmable audio tape players? Not even any video recorder that I know of can be programmed to play at a certain time; programming applies only to recording. Much less have I even imagined an audio tape machine programmable as to either recording or playing. So the movie does employ a few unrealistic devices. But it employs them most cleverly and hilariously!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
For starters, the Amazon review of this all-time classic is downright unfair. 17 years later (can those of you in your 30's believe this was 17 years ago?) Bill and Ted's still pulls a good audience as a TBS Sunday movie. We'll see if anybody remembers Marshall Fine in 17 years.
Both Bill and Ted's movies are warm, funny, witty and extremely optimistic fantasies. By no means am I the type to be offended by sex, drugs or violence (see my 4-star review of Hostel) but it is extremely difficult to think of a highly-successful comedy that didn't need any of the above. Only the most conservative of parents would hesitate to allow a 5-year-old to view this movie, and to be fair, there are a lot of lessons a child could learn from Bill and Ted. On the surface, a movie about airhead (and if made today, stoner) rock and roll loving high-school students, there is a lot more to Bill and Ted's. The movie is about friendship and accomplishment against difficult odds. It's about trying to succeed against insurmountable obstacles. If it's possible to fix a time machine with bubble gum, maybe it is possible to become the greatest rock band of all time without talent. And if not, it still makes for a great 2 hours that still leaves me smiling after countless viewings.
If somehow you haven't seen Bill and Ted's, I can't recommend the film highly enough. A list of influential and creative films of modern times would be incomplete without it.
Both Bill and Ted's movies are warm, funny, witty and extremely optimistic fantasies. By no means am I the type to be offended by sex, drugs or violence (see my 4-star review of Hostel) but it is extremely difficult to think of a highly-successful comedy that didn't need any of the above. Only the most conservative of parents would hesitate to allow a 5-year-old to view this movie, and to be fair, there are a lot of lessons a child could learn from Bill and Ted. On the surface, a movie about airhead (and if made today, stoner) rock and roll loving high-school students, there is a lot more to Bill and Ted's. The movie is about friendship and accomplishment against difficult odds. It's about trying to succeed against insurmountable obstacles. If it's possible to fix a time machine with bubble gum, maybe it is possible to become the greatest rock band of all time without talent. And if not, it still makes for a great 2 hours that still leaves me smiling after countless viewings.
If somehow you haven't seen Bill and Ted's, I can't recommend the film highly enough. A list of influential and creative films of modern times would be incomplete without it.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great 80s movie
I grew up loving this movie. I thought my 16 year old would enjoy it, too. I was right. We laughed so hard and had a great time.
Published 3 months ago by JenJen67
Excellent adventure indeed
One of the best movies of the 80's. Totally rad! Two young men/teenagers get into a phone booth that can travel through time... sounds crazy, but it actually works. Read more
Published 7 months ago by M
Most Excellent!!
The movie does not disappoint. It's as good as it was in 1989. It would have been great to have a few more extras.
But back then we didn't have the need for extras. Read more
But back then we didn't have the need for extras. Read more
Published 10 months ago by JjBerg
Dude!
This movie is an absolute classic. If you haven't seen it yet, you really should, since all of Keanu Reeves' subsequent roles are just various shades of Ted. Read more
Published 11 months ago by R. Weidmann
Whatever "it" is, this flick has it!
Meet Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan, two likable 1980s high school underachievers whose only goal is to have a totally bodacious rock band. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Alan Holyoak
ABOUT AS FAR FROM EXCELLENT AS YOU CAN GET!
OK, I know I'm going to get trashed for this one, but I can not believe this film is a cult classic! Read more
Published 19 months ago by ! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b
An 80's Classic!!!
I've always loved time travel movies, and it had been a long time since I watched this, so I decided to refresh my memory. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Pumpkin Man
Most Excellent!
This was no bogus buy, but in reality a most triumphant deal! The price was most excellent as well =]
Published on February 12, 2010 by Andrew Beckett
Bill and ted
Item was a little more worn than description indicated, but transaction was easy and fast.
Published on June 26, 2009 by Ann S. Verschave
Valley boys.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure was a film I saw at the drive-in when I was little and I loved this silly comedy to pieces. Read more
Published on January 16, 2009 by ADRIENNE MILLER
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