"Dude, strange things are afoot at the Circle K."

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2011)

It's a testament to the entertainment value of this incredibly engaging time capsule movie that it continues to be very funny over 20 years later. It's a time travel comedy with an inventive gimmick: the title characters, two of the most definitive slacker dude archetypes in the business, along with Sean Penn's Spicoli from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", seem destined to flunk their history course, but thanks to the intervention of Rufus (legendary comedian George Carlin), they get some much needed help: a phone booth that allows them to access places and times in history, and collect a wide assortment of history making individuals. This allows for some truly side splitting fish out of water material. Stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are extremely well cast and work well together as the inseparable Ted "Theodore" Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esquire, who are determined to see their rock band Wyld Stallyns become a reality - with or without Eddie Van Halen. The movie is breezy, snappy stuff with some utterly hilarious moments, with the memorable Terry Camilleri as Napoleon completely stealing the show with his hammy performance - whether he's pitching a fit at a bowling alley, hogging the slides at a water slide park (appropriately named Waterloo), or greedily gulping down ice cream. The rest of the actors playing the historical figures are all funny, too, including Dan Shor as Billy the Kid, Tony Steedman as Socrates, Rod Loomis as Sigmund Freud, Jane Wiedlin (of rock band The Go-Gos) as Joan of Arc, Al Leong as Genghis Khan, Clifford David as Beethoven, and Robert V. Barron as a smiling Abraham Lincoln. Whether it's Billy and Socrates trying to pick up girls, Freud trying to analyze a detective interviewing him, Joan of Arc taking over an aerobics class, or Genghis Khan raising Hell in a sporting goods store, the antics in the final third get pretty hysterical. Hal Landon, Jr., as Ted's ticked off dad and Bernie Casey as teacher Mr. Ryan are good in support; 80's babe Diane Franklin has a small role as one of the princesses, screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon have cameos as the ultra annoying waiters, and real life music industry celebrities Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, Martha Davis of The Motels, and Fee Waybill of The Tubes make cameo appearances as well. And how many of us guys would have been happy to have a gal like Missy...I mean Mom...in our house? The soundtrack is pretty cool, and 22 years later, this movie is overall just too upbeat, likably silly, and clever to resist at all. Followed by the sequel "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" two years later, and two short lived TV series, one live action and one animated. Eight out of 10.