We learn a little about what's happened in Bill and Ted's lives since the closing minutes of Excellent Adventure - Wyld Stallyns still suck, Missy divorced Bill's dad and is now married to Ted's - but none of that is why we're here. Aside from the opening and closing scenes, there's no Rufus, and while "less George Carlin" is hardly cause to celebrate, it's admirable that the film never rests on that laurel, instead giving us Grier and Sadler. After the first five minutes, there's no phone booth. Preston, Esquire, and Ted (Theodore) Logan, and Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves are more than up to the task of carrying the film on their own two performances - most excellently buttressed by the petulant and awkward Sadler.Īside from one quick trip bringing the evil robots back to 1991's San Dimas, there is no time travel in Bogus Journey. Bogus Journey shuttles to the side the shenanigans of Napoleon and Socrates in favor of Bill S. The evil robots are what happens when stoners are also dicks: they hawk loogies and torment cats, they use the word "fags" as a pejorative and pressure the "most chaste" princesses to put out. The boys are dumb but sweet, and behind the glassy-eyed surfer boy exterior, there's a nobility to Bill and Ted - certainly an integrity. It's the first and last time Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey meets expectations.Īfter that, here's what we get: evil robot Bill and Ted, good robot Bill and Ted, Martian scientists, an absolutely perfect performance by William Sadler as the Grim Reaper, a jaunt through heaven and hell, possession hijinks, Pam Grier unzipping herself to reveal a Pam Grier suit-wearing Rufus and some legitimately high stakes as the evil robots destroy all of the goodwill Bill and Ted have garnered and plot to murder the princesses to whom Bill and Ted were once engaged - before the evil robots screwed that up, too.Įvil robot Bill and Ted exist to show us how lucky we've got it with regular humans Bill and Ted. The movie opens in the future, and right away we think we know what we're getting: Back to the Future Part II, right? Bill and Ted are living out their perfect future when something goes terribly wrong, and they must travel back in time with Rufus to set the timeline back on track and save the day with the help of some famed historical figures of note, right? Bogus Journey even nods to that expectation in its opening minutes, featuring George Carlin teaching a class of hilariously dressed future students of Bill & Ted University with the help of Thomas Edison, Bach, Jim Martin of Faith No More and some 23rd century rock star, all exiting from the phone booth we know so well. That honor belongs to Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, a film that neatly avoided sequel pitfalls by going quite cheerfully berserk. At the time, many reviewers referred to the film as "the first great comedy sequel," but it wasn't. ![]() Last year, 22 Jump Street defeated this problem by facing it head on: satirizing formulaic sequels and knowingly jumping into pitfalls instead of stumbling into them unawares. ![]() Watching characters hit the same narrative beats a second time is tedious and defeats any progress they ostensibly made by the closing credits of their first appearance. Most sequels would never be made if their predecessors hadn't delivered a successful formula to follow, but it's that very adherence to formula that sinks nearly every comedy sequel ever made. Formula: it's what makes and breaks a comedy sequel.
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