Still excellent after all of these years.

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2012)

I had some reservations about showing Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure to my kids and their friends, not because of the content, which barring a rude subtitle is strictly PG, but because I feared that it might have dated really badly (I hadn't seen it for many years and I didn't want my kids laughing for all the wrong reasons). I needn't have worried: although the film is unmistakably a product of the late 80s, with some truly heinous fashion choices on display (Alex Winter's cropped top is most egregious!), its unprecedented sense of fun and silliness ensured that everyone had a most triumphant time.
Bill & Ted, as played by Alex Winter (from The Lost Boys) and a young Keanu Reeves, are a pair of likable dolts from San Dimas who are destined to become the saviours of humanity, but only if they pass their imminent oral history report with flying colours. To help ensure their success, the pair are provided with a time-travelling phone-booth by cool-dude-from-the-future Rufus (George Carlin). This set up allows for loads of bodacious time-travel chaos, with the duo bouncing through the ages, collecting famous historical figures along the way.
Obviously, this all sounds extremely daft, and many might quickly dismiss it as worthless, brainless nonsense, but the script by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon is surprisingly astute, with lots of ingenious parodoxical moments to boggle the mind, plenty of clever historical jokes (I love Bill and Ted materialising in front of Joan of Arc like a vision), and even a totally cool message: be excellent to each other (and party on dudes!). All this plus Genghis Khan (played by everyone's favourite mustachioed character actor Al Leong) cleaning a toilet, Napolean experiencing the joy of water flumes, the lovely Diane Franklin as an English princess babe, and some early classic examples of Reeves' trademark 'Whoa!'. What else can I say but 'Excellent!'.