As we muddle through the current lockdown,
Doug Harris, president of the Houston Film Critics Society, has been lifting
his and other people’s spirits by hanging on his balcony banners emblazoned
with quotes from classic movies. He’s also been encouraging fellow HFCS members
to post reviews of spirit-lifting movies available for streaming. Therefore, suitably
inspired by my favorite currently sitting president: Here is my original 1989
review of Bill & Ted’s Excellent
Adventure. Totally, just as it appeared back in the day in The Houston
Post.
How far can a comedy get on a single joke?
Just about 90 minutes, judging from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, an
exuberantly goofy farce sprinkled with moments of inspired silliness.
The plot is simple, if not simplistic: Two
chuckleheaded teen-agers, Bill and Ted, are given a magical telephone booth
that allows them to travel back and forth in time. The gift arrives at a
fortuitous moment — the boys are in danger of flunking a history class, and
they need some impressive exhibits to ace their final exam. So off to the past
they go, to corral Napoleon, Socrates, Joan of Arc, Billy the Kid and
assorted other “personages of historical significance.”
Scriptwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
obviously are fans of Fast Times at
Ridgemont High, and fondly recall the scene where an awesomely stoned surfer
(played by Sean Penn) took a make-up test in American history. Bill & Ted offers two Valley Guy
students instead of one, and allows them unrestricted use of an amusingly
polysyllabic vocabulary: “Ted, it’s pointless to have a triumphant video until
we have decent instruments!” “We are about to fail most egregiously, Bill!”
Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are
the heroes of the piece, would-be rock musicians who react with amazing
sang-froid when a futuristic visitor (George Carlin) makes the past available
to them. Occasionally, the boys are slightly rattled by what they encounter in
their time-travels. (“Whoa! Check it out! We're in the middle of a war, dude!”)
More often, though, Bill and Ted are highly entertained, if not noticeably
educated, by their first-hand research.
Under the energetic direction of Stephen Herek
(Critters), Bill & Ted gets by on high spirits even when its invention
flags. There is a very funny sequence that places the “historical personages”
in a shopping mall — Joan of Arc joins an aerobics class, Beethoven tickles the
ivories at a music store, Billy the Kid and Socrates try to pick up girls. The
finale, staged very much like a heavy metal concert, is guaranteed to please
the party animals in the audience when Bill
& Ted makes its inevitable debut on the midnight movie circuit.
To be sure, there are a few slow stretches
where time is marked and patience is tested. Overall, though, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is
an exceedingly pleasant surprise. And the best moments are those where our
heroes try to interpret history in their own terms. Socrates, they figure,
lived in ancient Athens, “when most of the world looked like the cover of the
Led Zeppelin album, Houses of the Holy.”
Like, totally visionary, dude.
