Although I enjoyed watching it, I can't help but see Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure as a missed oppurtunity. It could have been a really great satire on history and slacker culture, and is instead just a servicable comedy.
Since virtually everyone knows the premise of the movie, I am not going to waste a lot of time and plot descriptions. Suffice it to say Bill (Some guy) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) must travel through time so they can get an A on their history report. If they don't they will never become world leaders and transform society in to one of peace, love, and partying. They meet a lot of historical figures along the way, including Napolean, Billy the Kid, Socrates, Joan of Arc, Beethoven (My favorite), Gengis Khan, and Sigmund Freud.
Where the movie really misses its chance is that there is no social satire when the movie screams out for one. How would Freud re-act to finidng out his theries are discredited? What would Socrates think of nihilism? The only only one the movie really gets right is Beethoven which amusingly but probably accuratley finds that he loves the emotion accessability of rock music (BTW, when the composer is first introduced there is a mistake- he is playing a composition by Mozart).
The movie also fails to offer much of a satire on slacker culture- the misses a lot of oppurtunies to comment on the typical American's ignorance of history. I can see this material really shining under a director like Kevin Smith, but Stephen Herek clearly doesn't have the vision to do much more. The great comedic talent George Carlin is also wasted in his small role as Rufus.
Yes, this is movie is occasionly funny and it's not going to get boring at ninety minuets. But this is a good comedy when to watch when you don't want to think, instead being of a great comedy you watch when you want to.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)