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| Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin,
Bernie Casey, Amy Stock-Poynton, Terry Camilleri, Dan Shore, Ted Steedman,
Rod Loomis, Al Leong, Robert V. Barron |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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History
Teacher (Bernie Casey): Who was Joan of Arc?
Ted (Keanu Reeves): Noah's wife?
Airhead
teenagers Bill andTed are flunking their high school history class and
a time machine is sent from the future to help them.
 I'm
not too well versed in the cinematic pedigree of the lame-brain teen
comedy, but my educated guess is that Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure
takes the prize for the one which isthe least taxing on the average
viewer. The best thing the movie has going for it is the feel-good nature
and sustained nonsense: even when historical figures like Socrates,
Sigmund Freud and Beethoven enter into the adventure, they're only there
to spout Bill and Ted's philosophy of life ("be excellent to each
other" and "party on, dude"). And it's nice to see Genghis
Kahn going hogwild with a baseball bat in a sports department store.
Still, it's a shame that the script doesn't find ways to use the historical
figures as anything other than empty vessels; but that probably would
have put the movie outside the range of its targeted audience.
As a predecessor of Beavis and Butthead and Wayne's World
it also falls short with jokes or a decent plot: every twist in the
story is clearly advertised about a mile away. The time travel concept
is nice and executed in an endearingly tacky fashion, and the way it
doesn't seem to affect our protagonists in any significant way only
adds to the celebration of good-natured stupidity at the film's core.
(This device was further improved upon in the funnier sequel Bill
and Ted's Bogus Journey, with a terrific Grim Reaper). In any case,
if you're hoping for something with the sharpness and satirical edge
of Beavis and Butthead or Wayne's World you'll be dissapointed:
it's an essential movie though if you want to understand why Keanu Reeves
will never be taken seriously as an actor. |
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Currently
only available in Germany and Holland in Region 2, with a UK release
at the end of June. A region 1 release is planned for later this year.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and
the image is as close to perfect as anything I've seen. Whether this
is the result of an excellent print or some fantastic work on the transfer
by Kinowelt (the German independent DVD company responsible for many
impressive unique Region 2 releases) is hard to say. But colous, black
levels, shadow detail and sharpness are all spot-on. Considering this
movie is twelve years old, that's an impressive achievement. Some of
the finer details do cause some slight aliasing and shimmering but none
of this is ever distracting.
The sound mix is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround and is clear
and distortion-free. Separation between the three front channels is
very good, with strong directionality across the front soundstage. Fidelity
is somewhat limited but it seems like a very good presentation of the
original track.
Unfortunately,
there is no "in-character" commentary track from Bill and
Ted, which would've put this movie into a whole new category. Instead,
the theatrical trailer and a small gallery of photographs is all we
get. A
compilation of the time travel sequence opens the imaginative animated
main menu and loops nicely with music in the background. Easy navigation
to the other screens, although they're static.
Gerard
Castelein
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Bill
And Ted's Excellent Adventure.
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to return to the front page.
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