Bill And Ted’s Excellent Family Adventure
The effects are a bit dated, but it holds up just fine.
To my great surprise the seven year old laughed riotously through most of it. She was a bit bored at the beginning, but once the famous old guys started to show up and bumble around on-screen she became swept up in the silliness and decided to stick around to the end.
There’s just something appealing about seeing Napoleon going down a water slide, and it doesn’t matter who you are.
Also to my great surprise was the overall level of wholesomeness to the film. Bill and Ted are just two affable fellas who have big dreams thrust into a goofy adventure to pass their history class. Their arc is literally learning to take things a bit more seriously. The film has no villain, just a goal and a set of obstacles to overcome. It’s amazing that it works as well as it does.
To say nothing of the nostalgia factor. A ninety-minute look back at mall culture, and done naturally rather than the ironically insulting way that modern shows like Stranger Things did it, reminds us of a better time. A time when you could go out and rub elbows with the rest of the world, kill an evening for a couple bucks, and not have your head on a swivel making sure that you weren’t about to be targeted by a mob of bullies and criminals whose antics were protected by the local politicians to keep you in line.
This film is a classic and it deserves more love than it gets.
I’m looking forward to the 30+ year later sequel.