Movie Review – “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey”

Here’s the second movie review for the day. These
two were among the requested movies; check out this
page
for options, and links to add your voice.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Keanu Reeves as Ted

Alex Winter as Bill

William Sadler as the Grim Reaper, and a british guy
watching TV.

Written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon

Directed by Peter Hewitt

Complete information is available from the
IMDB
.

This
DVD release

includes English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese
spoken and subtitle
options.

Past movie reviews can be found here.

Premise

De Nomolos, an evil phys. ed. teacher, sends evil
robot versions of
Bill and Ted into the past to kill and replace the
good Bill and Ted.

High Point

Sadler’s Grim Reaper. He plays that character very
well, making me
laugh far more than anything else in this weak
sequel. (“See you real
soon.”)

Low Point

The lack of details retained from the original. Not
only did they
replace the actresses playing the princesses, but the
guitars Rufus
gave them are gone, the future fashions change
dramatically (and for
the worse), and the subtleties in the writing are
almost entirely
gone. (The “Star Trek” bit is all that’s left of the
best part of the
original.) The subtlety was replaced with utter
stupidity along the
same lines as the low point from the original movie.

The Scores

This was a cheap attempt to recreate the original,
journeying through
the afterlife instead of time. I give the
originality a mere
3 out of 6.

The effects were good when the good human
versions of the
characters were interacting with the evil robot
versions, but they
were horrible elsewhere. I give it 2 out of 6.

The story was shoddy, uneven, and generally
boring. It’s
very disappointing in almost all respects. I give it
3 out of 6.

The acting from William Sadler was good,
perfectly nailing
the deadpan character. Everyone else was mediocre at
best. I give it
4 out of 6.

The emotional response was low. If you
hadn’t already
noticed, Sadler was the only part of this movie I’m
happy with. The
rest was bland. Yes, there was the odd good
one-liner (“We were
totally lied to by our album covers, dude.”) but most
of the movie was
poorly paced, and just going through the motions.
Given that it’s the
same set of actors and the same writers, I find
myself wondering if
the difference is from Peter Hewitt. I don’t see how
it could have
been on set morale, given that this movie was a
guaranteed investment,
while the original was made by a company that went
bankrupt before it
was even released, only to be picked up and
rereleased by another pair
of companies a year later. I give it 3 out of 6.

The production was a bit better than the
original, if only
for the expressionist set design for Hell. I give it
4 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a movie that feels like an
excuse for a sequel
to a successful film, rather than a movie that had
any real
inspiration behind it. I give it 3 out of 6.

In total, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey
receives 22 out of 42.

4 replies on “Movie Review – “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey””

  1. I bet Reeves wished he never made this flick
    I can see him now, 3AM on a sunday going from blockbuster to blockbuster paying off the clerk and taking every copy of this movie and the other bill and tedd movie and telling him “this never happened….”

    • Re: I bet Reeves wished he never made this flick

      I can see him now, 3AM on a sunday going from blockbuster to blockbuster paying off the clerk and taking every copy of this movie and the other bill and tedd movie and telling him “this never happened….”

      Why, do you think his acting has improved?
      In everything I’ve seen him in from Johnny Mnemonic to The Matrix I still expect him to say ‘dude’ to every character.

      • Re: I bet Reeves wished he never made this flick
        In the Matrix, when Neo and Trinity are at the subway station, did anyone else chuckle that he was trying to escape through a phone booth?

      • Re: I bet Reeves wished he never made this flick

        Why, do you think his acting has improved?
        In everything I’ve seen him in from Johnny Mnemonic to The Matrix I still expect him to say ‘dude’ to every character.

        Don’t forget “Woah”.

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