A most bodacious film!

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2011)

I find that IMDb's scores out of 10 are usually reasonably sensible and accurate, however, for Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure I couldn't understand why it was so low! The film starts with Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) on the verge of failure in their history class and flunking out of school. Ted will be forced to go to military school if they do fail and the only thing that can save them is the deliverance of a most bodacious history project the following day. In the midst of their hurried studying a strange, cool looking dude called Rufus gives them a time machine, in the shape of a 1960s phonebox, and tells them to use it to travel back in time and gather various historical figures in order to complete their project for the next day.
What ensues is a film of pure wonder and joy. Various historical characters such as Socrates (or so-crates), Joan of Arc and Genghis Kahn are picked up along the way and throughout the film Reeves and Winter are superb in their enthusiastic portrayal of the very teenage, very boneheaded Bill and Ted. A lot of people seem to damn this film for not being funny but I found it hilarious. There aren't any cheap or childish jokes, in fact quite of a lot of it is extremely well written and very witty.
Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, the writers of the film, have said that the characters of Bill and Ted came from an idiolised version of their friendship, Chris and Ed = Bill and Ted. Given this you shouldn't go into the film expecting cinematic brilliance but rather a lot of fun, some good laughs and both a mocking and realisation of teenage dreams. Don't expect to have your heart strings pulled,your rage barrier smashed or you're life changed; just let yourself be taken on a most excellent, most bodacious and most unprecedented adventure and have fun!