Most Excellent!!! Bill and Ted NOW on Blu-ray!!!

I love time-travel movies and there’s a real neck and neck race for me between Back to the Future and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, so I was beyond stoked when the Twentieth Century Fox Blu-ray for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure showed up on my doorstep for review! I was still in high-school when this film came out and it’s soundtrack and dialogue were staples of my late teen years. Though the sequel was not as triumphant as the original, this adventure started them all, and with a third film in development, there’s no time like the present to start catching up on history, movie history that is. This is a movie that saw a young and innocent Keanu Reeves and the foul-mouthed comedian George Carlin in a squeaky clean role that made time-travelling contemporary and cool!!! Click ahead for my review of the Blu-ray (now on home video)

If you’ve never heard of Bill and Ted or any of their excellent adventures thru time, here’s a summary of the first film; Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) have spent so much time forming their rock band that they’re flunking history. Ted’s dad threatens to send him to military school if he doesn’t pass. Luckily, Rufus (George Carlin), a guardian angel from the future, has a time-traveling phone booth to take them into the past to learn about the world. Their journey through time turns out to be a blast…but will they learn enough to pass their class and keep their rock band together?

VIDEO: I’ve had every incarnation of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure on home video, from VHS to laser-disc and of course my expectations never thought that anything beyond DVD would be out-matched. Blu-ray proved me wrong once again. The film looked fantastic. High Def has made this movie look as good as possible to an original print transfer. Though there are instances where the quality has minor grain, that was the beauty of the 80’s and I’m sure if it is there now, it was there in 1988. Overall though the colors, the lighting, the textures and the visual effects are rich and crisp. Just for the heck of it, I threw on my DVD after watching the Blu-ray and felt like I was reverting back to a VHS copy, it was that noticeable in places. In the words of Bill S Preston Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan, this Blu-ray was “Most Excellent”

AUDIO: With DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 our boys from San Dimas never sounded better! I got scolded from the wife to turn the volume down because the baby was sleeping, but I was so engrossed in the sound, not just of the dialogue which sounded clear, but the sound effects, score and the soundtrack. Let me just say I wore out 3 cassettes and 2 CD’s of the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure soundtrack over the past 20 years. Selections from it I made part of segments I edited for my high school’s 1989-1990 video yearbook and it was the soundtrack to my cross country 2 week train ride from Florida to California in the Fall of 1988. So to hear “In Time” , “Dangerous” and “Do You Want to Play” as audibly perfect as they could be, you bet I was rocking out! The sound effects of the phone booth, atmospheric ambience from the old west, merry old England and the future where Bill and Ted were totally worshipped were more evident than ever. Every air-guitar lick from Bill and Ted resonated with as much fun and clarity as it did when I recalled seeing it in 1988. I may be partial to this film, but I still kept a skeptical ear open, but alas nothing to comment on in the negative this time around!

(L to R) George Carlin, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves

SPECIAL FEATURES: To my surprise, unlike the past couple of versions of the film on DVD, there was not just one, but a handful of special features!!!

Air Guitar Tutorial with Bjorn Turoque & the Rockness Monster was a humorous little 13 minute tribute to air-guitar, it wasn’t a great feature, but beggars can’t be choosers, I was just happy to see an effort was made to bless this film with some finally for it’s Blu-ray release.

The Original Bill & Ted: In Conversation with Chris & Ed well little did I know that the movie was based on friendship in real life of the film’s screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. I’m not quite sure I needed to see 20 minutes of their story, nor did I find it really added to my anticipation for decent special features. I was a bit disappointed in this one.

Radio Spots: This was an odd one, a collection of some of the radio promotional ads/commercials for the film, heard over stills from the movie. I’m not sure I’d ever seen this bonus feature on any disc I’ve ever owned, and I’m not entirely sure why it needed to be added. Add it to a re-mixed Bill and Ted Soundtrack CD I would understand, but why to a visual medium!?

Theatrical Trailer: Finally a redeeming feature, always fun to see a retro throwback, to not just how the film was promoted, but just the style of how movie trailers used to be. This was very enjoyable to see, and though I’m sure a search on YouTube could pull it up in a second, it was a welcome watch and I think always is a great set-up before watching the movie, which in this instance was the case.

One Sweet and Sour Chinese Adventure to Go This was a real treat, for those who may recall the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures cartoon series, this was the premiere episode that I used to watch religiously on Saturday Mornings, and yes somewhere have most of the episodes still on VHS in my garage. I’m hoping the Animated Series will get a release around the time the 3rd film comes out in a couple years, which may mean THIS is not my last Bill and Ted home-video I will own (sigh). The episode was fun and thought the animation was reminiscent of the late 80’s early 90’s style, the fact that the original film cast were back to voice their characters made it quite enjoyable to watch again!

(L to R) George Carlin, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves

FINAL THOUGHTS: While my anticipations for some really bodacious special features were not particularly achieved, the film itself looks and sounds amazing and if you haven’t added this to your home video collection yet, then now is as good a time as any to do it. I’m not sure if in a few years when the trilogy is released as a package set the quality will improve much, but perhaps the bonus features will. But don’t wait that long to own one of the greatest comedic films in history…or about history actually. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is now available to order at Amazon.com.

Check out this totally awesome info-graphic on the time-line and characters from the film…click to enlarge!

Bill and Ted’s Most Excellent Info-Graphic Dudes!

“Party On Dudes!!!”