Though he’s perhaps now best known for his action roles it took Keanu Reeve the best part of twenty years to shake his California slacker dude image that can be blamed squarely on the Bill and Ted films. Frist seen in 1989’s Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure his portrayal of righteous dude Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan along with his most excellent best buddy Bill S Preston Esq (Alex E Winter) who set out to make a school history report utilizing actual figures from history by using a time machine. The film made a decent $40m and a sequel was quickly greenlit two years later with Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey that is now available on 4K UHD for the first time.
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Adventure…..
This first sequel saw two evil robot doubles of Bill and Ted sent back to ruin their future, the real dudes find themselves facing an untimely demise. Cast into the beyond, they must outwit Death himself, navigate Heaven, Hell and everything in between, and find a way back to save their babes and get back in time for the Battle of the Bands. Excellent!
Embracing the daftness of the first film it saw them team up with the grim reaper (or at least Ingmar Bergman’s version of Death as seen in The Seventh Seal) played by William Sadler. A decent array of actors joined them including Pam Grier, comedian George Carlin and most unexpected of all, the late Joss Ackland. And all of that time travel mayhem was helmed by director Peter Hewitt in his feature film debut.
It was as gleefully daft as the first film and Reeves and Winter were awesome dude (sorry but had to shoe horn it in somewhere). It’s not without its issues with moments that occasionally drag but the film did similar business to the first earning $38m and there are decent gags in there.
Those bonus features….
But this 4k UHD limited edition of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Adventure has a load of bonus features which are most triumphant (‘Stop it!’ –Ed)
4K ULTRA HD BLU–RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original lossless stereo audio
• Optional remixed DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by actor Alex Winter and producer Scoot Kroopf
• Audio commentary by co-writers/co-producers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
• Bill and Ted Go to Hell, a 2016 retrospective documentary, featuring interviews with Reeves, Winter, Kroopf, Matheson, production designer David L. Snyder, production illustrator Simon Murton, and actors William Sadler, Amy Stock-Poynton and Hal Landon Jr.
• The Most Triumphant Making Of, a 2005 retrospective making-of featurette, featuring interviews with Winter, Kroopf, Matheson, Solomon, Hewitt, and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure director Stephen Herek and production designer Roy Forge Smith
• Score!, a 2005 interview with guitarist Steve Vai
• Air Guitar Tutorial
• Vintage behind-the-scenes EPK from 1991
• The Linguistic Stylings of Bill & Ted, a 2005 decoding our heroes’ distinctive verbal quirks
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
• Collectors’ booklet featuring original production notes and a Bill & Ted Speak glossary
There are some decent enough archive features on this but it is the commentaries that are best but the obvious person that is missing is Keanu himself who is glaringly absent and a commentary with him, Winters and director Peter Hewitt would have seemed an essential.
The problem with Bill ….
Reeves persona as Bill is one he was saddled with for years that he went out of his way to shake taking on an action role (Point Break – ‘Surfs up, dude!’), an indy film (My Private Idaho – Bogus!) a horror film (Dracula – ‘Whoa, Van Helsing & Dracula – be excellent to each other!’) an art film (Little Buddha – ‘Most bodacious Buddha!’) and even Shakespeare (Much Ado about nothing – ‘Party on Beatrice & Benedict’) over the course of three years and it would not be until Speed and then The Matrix that audiences finally dropped the slacker dude association …..and yet in 2020 he returned for a third Bill and Ted film ‘Face the Music’ that was released during lockdown and died a death earning a paltry $6m and by now audiences were in love with his John Wick films.
For a generation the Bill & Ted films are good fun and a reminder of simpler times when sheer gleeful silliness was celebrated and in a current age of disaffected youth that’s not a bad thing to revisit.
related feature : When Keanu Reeves was blacklisted
related feature : Mark Dacascos talks about how he confused then made Keanu Reeves laugh in John Wick 3
Here’s the Bill & Ted’s Bogus Adventure…….
