Watching the Classics with Your Kids: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

It’s never too soon to make sure your children are brought up with an appreciation for the finer things in life. You can keep your Citizen Kanes and your hoity toity artsy films. I’m talking about the really important stuff.

Stuff like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

The sad thing is, there’s probably a fair number of people out there who have never seen this movie. It came out in 1989, which means it came out 6 or 7 years before any of the incoming freshmen at my university were born. And the thought of going through life without knowing the most excellent nature of this fine feature film is something too bogus and heinous for this movie fan to want to consider.

Any movie that can have this much fun with time travel, history, and idiot lead actors simply demands attention. Plus: Keanu Reeves.

Whoa.

If you’ve never seen the movie, here’s a quick overview: two boneheads travel through time to kidnap famous people so that they’ll help them in their end of the year history oral report. The movie is just as fun to watch now as it was when I first saw it. My kids had a great time from start to finish. Yes, there was a bit of innuendo in the movie, but it sails right past them, and there’s not much to speak of.

What are the parts they enjoyed the most? The mall scene was a favorite. The montage of stealing historical figures was a big hit. And any time there was anything approaching potty humor, of course.

There’s talk of a third movie finally being filmed, and that pleases me to no end. It might end up being lousy, but it certainly deserves a shot.

In any case, it was a fun way to spend an evening. I have no idea what it is about this movie that still provides me with so much entertainment. It’s counterintuitive, I know. Some of it has to be that I grew up with it. But I really think it’s a well done flick, right down to the time travel shenanigans at the climax. It’s not often you get a movie this “out there” that’s willing to just keep going out there and not let up.

In any case, be excellent to each other, peoples. And party on, dudes!