A most excellent weekend

I don't know for sure if it will be "excellent," but it will definitely be "Excellent!" (cue guitar sound).

Continuing a "tradition" my wife and I have only done twice before, if memory serves -- with the Godfather movies and the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies -- we have just begun a weekend of movies in the same trilogy, one per night. And from the poster I've included and the unmistakeable allusion in my title and opening sentence, I think you know what that is.

We've watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure on Friday night, and will follow that tonight with Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey before wrapping up the weekend with the brand new Bill and Ted Face the Music on Sunday night -- which is also Father's Day here in Australia.

A few differences from previous instances of these trilogy weekends, though I should say, those weekends were not the same as each other, either. In the case of the Godfather weekend, we had both already seen the first movie but not the second and third. For the Dragon weekend, we had seen none of the original Swedish versions of the films (and it was a few months before David Fincher's Hollywood version came out). In this case, we had both seen the first movie, I'd seen the second but my wife couldn't remember if she'd seen it, and of course, the third is new to us both.

Also, there will be no themed food this time, though the travel through time and throughout the world certainly would have created the opportunity had we considered it. (In the previous two instances we ate Italian food and Swedish food.)

One other difference: My wife won't actually be watching Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey with me.

She's rarely up for movies on three consecutive nights these days, and me saying the sequel was not all that was enough for her to opt out. She's happy to have me fill her in on what she missed before we both watch the new movie tomorrow night.

I hadn't seen the original Bill & Ted's since within about two years of its release, when I watched it for probably the second and final time. However, I think it was also one of those movies I probably caught parts of throughout the first half of the 1990s. Would likely have been on in the background while I was in college.

Still, having caught enough of it back then, and continuing to quote it for some years afterward, I assumed that it would mostly seem familiar to me. That was decidedly not the case when the movie started, as the entire opening credits play over what looks like a futuristic rotating diamond. Having forgotten what percentage of the film is set in the future, and that it begins with opening words by George Carlin as Rufus, I felt totally at sea during this opening -- like, did I even see this at all?

Of course, as soon as Carlin started talking, it was "Oh yeah, right." And things felt much more familiar from there. (At least to me; my wife continued to remember very little of it.)

We enjoyed watching it, laughing out loud a number of times each. One of the most consistently funny parts was the bit about Bill's new stepmother, Missy, who is only three years older than he is. "Missy ... I mean, Mom." It never got old, nor did Ted's comments like "Remember when she was a senior and we were freshmen?" and "Remember when I asked her to prom?"

Also really enjoyed the performance of Terry Callimeri as Napoleon. I remembered him being funny, but he really steals the show. In fact, all the historical figures are great, and we especially got a kick out of the bromance between So-crates and Billy the Kid.

One not so great takeaway was a moment of homophobia, but was glad to see it was only a moment, and very much in keeping with the prevailing norms of the time. Bill and Ted hug each other at one point -- I think it's when Ted is proven not to be dead because he "fell out of his armor when he hit the ground" -- and they realize what they've done and say "Fag!" to each other. Fortunately, the film moves on quickly and nothing like that happens again.

The last thing I wanted to mention was that we commented on how silly it was that the film climaxed with Bill and Ted's history presentation in front of what appeared to be the entire student body of the school. While the show they put on undoubtedly warrants that kind of audience -- and where did they get all their props and sets, by the way? -- the idea of an assembly attended by all the students to watch a history class assignment is just laughable. Given that there seemed to be at least 500 people in the audience, does that mean the whole school sat there for the entire day through 250 different presentations, assuming the two students per presentation standard set by Bill and Ted? I think not.

Enjoyable night of viewing though.

I'm not looking forward to tonight as much, but I know some people do have a fondness for Bogus Journey, and I remember at the very least that William Sadler as Death was a scene stealer.