Not "excellent," but party on anyway dudes

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2009)

Two teenage "dudes" living in California in the 80s go back in time to avoid flunking history: that's the kind of plot that may not make for a great movie, but will certainly charm you. Bill and Ted are total metal head idiots and when placed in the scholarly context of history, this blatant contradiction is at the least amusing. "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" sort of makes short order of its time travel concept, moving so quickly that the premise never has time to fully cook and so neither do the characters, but the fast-paced teenage mischief humor works in its own way for this movie to be enjoyable.
When Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are on the verge of failing history, we learn that if Ted fails, he flunks out of school and his father will ship him to military school. As a result, he and Bill won't be able to pursue their dreams of forming their own metal band called Wild Stallyns. That's when they get a visit from Rufus (George Carlin) of the future, where apparently Bill and Ted are worshipped. Since the future depends on Bill and Ted staying together, Rufus provides them a time-traveling phone booth to complete their report.
The boys travel quickly through time, treating everyone from the ancient Greeks to the medieval Englishmen like 80s surfer dudes. While they're not met with open arms wherever they go exactly, no one seems to notice their 80s duds and poor English. The historical figures that they capture don't exactly seem too alarmed that they're being jammed in a phone booth either. "Bill and Ted" prides itself on everybody being stupid, I guess, but with that in mind one begins to appreciate the shenanigans for the absurdity they are. I mean, Napoleon going bowling and cursing in French, followed by getting kicked out by some middle-aged white dude, is funny in its own way.
Bill and Ted aren't totally lovable characters, but their naivety makes it hard to dislike them for their dumb behavior. Neither is a particularly good actor (even though that didn't seem to stop Keanu Reeves from finding future work) and their 80s lingo and jokes are pretty hit or miss with the more subtle, intelligent jokes that you have to listen for to pick up on registering the highest marks. The other good parts of the film come toward the end with how the historical figures react to the 80s.
"Bill and Ted" is a good movie for tweens and those who have some sort of nostalgic connection to the 80s, everyone else will find it amusing and likable comedic material, but nothing much beyond that considering it doesn't make much of an effort to do so. Slackers are as slackers do.