Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (Exclusive Series) (HBO Max)

Initial release date: February 17, 1989

Studios: Orion Pictures/Interscope Entertainment

Tagline: Party on, dudes!

History is about to be rewritten by two guys who can’t spell.

Plot: Bill and Ted are high school buddies starting a band. However, they are about to fail their history class, which means Ted would be sent to military school. They receive help from Rufus, a traveler from a future where their band is the foundation for a perfect society. With the use of Rufu’s time machine, Bill and Ted travel to various points in history, returning with important figures to help them complete their final history presentation.

Cast

Keanu Reeves - Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan

Alex Winter - Bill S. Preston

George Carlin - Rufus

Terry Camilleri - Napoleon

Dan Shor - Billy the Kid

Tony Steedman - Socrates

Rod Loomis - Freud

Al Leong - Genghis Khan

Jane Wiedlin - Joan of Arc

Robert V Barron - Abraham Lincoln

Clifford David - Beethoven

Hal Landon, Jr. - Capt. Logan

Bernie Casey - Mr. Ryan

Amy Stoch - Missy/Mom

J. Patrick McNamara - Mr. Preston

Frazier Bain - Deacon

Diane Franklin - Princess Joanna

Kimberley Kates - Princess Elizabeth

Writer(s): Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon (Bill and Ted Face the Music)

Director: Stephen Herek (The Chaperone; Man of the House; 101 Dalmatians)

Rated PG (90 minutes)

In 1989, everyone was introduced to two time traveling dudes named Bill and Ted while they were going on an ‘Excellent Adventure.’

‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ delivers lots of very hysterical moments and great music. It’s one of those movies that will easily keep you entertained and distracted from everyday life for a little bit.

This 1989 fan favorite will keep you laughing while Bill and Ted go through their historical travels to get historical figures for their report. This is actually the second time I have seen this movie. The first time was when I was getting ready to review ‘Face the Music’ for the Examiner.

This highly enjoyable comedy does have a few corny parts, but a lot of ‘80s comedies had those corny moments. The montage of the historical figures checking out the mall towards the end of the movie is very humorous and is probably the funniest bit of the movie. Overall, even though ‘Excellent Adventure’ is a silly movie at times, it will keep you laughing right until the very end.

‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ is currently available on the HBO Max streaming service.

Here are some interesting tidbits for ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’:

• The phone booth time machine was given away as a contest prize by Nintendo Power magazine, which was promoting ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure.’

• In the original script, the time machine was a 1969 Chevy van. The filmmakers thought that was too similar to ‘Back to the Future,’ so they changed it to a phone booth (apparently unconcerned that ‘Doctor Who’ uses a police telephone box as a time machine).

• Originally, the plot was to have Bill and Ted visit, and accidentally cause, all of history’s greatest tragedies, including the sinking of the Titanic and the crash of the Hindenburg.

• Characters say “dude” 70 times and “excellent” 30 times.

• All of the figures that Bill and Ted pick up through history are shown on the blackboard in the opening scene.

• The screenplay was written by Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson in early 1987, based on a comedy stand up routine they had performed while in college. Director Stephen Herek called the screenplay “incredibly laugh out loud,” but recognized that because some of the off-center humor targeting a specific audience, the movie was “either going to be a huge hit or a huge flop.”

• Herek stated that shopping the movie for distributors was difficult; Warner Bros. wanted to produce it within a $10 million budget, but couldn’t figure out how to fund it. It ended up being picked up by Dino de Laurentis through the De Laurentis Entertainment Group (DEG).

• The movie had been planned for a 1988 release, and filming and production had been completed on schedule. However, the original distributor, DEG, had fallen into significant debut in late 1987, and by 1988 had filed for bankruptcy. At this point, the movie was in post-production, and Herek attempted to show around throughout to other distributors.

• Some of the former DEG execs ended up at Nelson Entertainment, and along with Orion Pictures, were able to secure new distribution rights for the movie by 1988 for about $1 million.

• ‘Excellent Adventure’ grossed $40.4 million domestically on a budget of about $10 million.

https://youtu.be/q3fx6TugN7g