Bogus Journey opens in the year 2619, where Bill & Ted's music and philosophy has shaped society and everyone wears awful clothes made from sheets of foam. Clearly upset at being forced to dress in such a ridiculous fashion, evil fiend De Nomolos (Joss Ackland) creates robot doubles of the Bill and Ted and sends them back in time to kill the originals, which they do by chucking them off the Vasquez Rocks.
Death, however, is only the beginning of the righteous dudes' bogus journey, which sees them travelling to hell and heaven, before returning to life to do battle with their metal doppelgängers and De Nomolos.
With the news that there might be a third Bill & Ted movie just around the corner, I thought that now would be a good time to revisit Bogus Journey, which I remember not being very impressed with when it originally came out
Almost a quarter of a century later and my opinion hasn't changed: while not totally heinous, this sequel is is far from the excellent adventure that was the first movie. In an effort to go one better than before, Bogus Journey packs in as much craziness as possible, including robots, aliens, the Grim Reaper, visions of Heaven and Hell, and the Easter Bunny, but in doing so the film it loses what made the first film so great: heart. And Diane Franklin.
The best thing about the whole film is Death, played by William Sadler, who provides the film with all of its funniest moments, including a neat homage to Ingmar Bergman's iconic art-house classic The Seventh Seal. But a creepy bald guy in a robe with a scythe playing Battleships and Twister simply ain't enough to carry an entire movie.
5 out of 10, which I considered pushing up to 6 for Pam Grier and Kiss's cover of God Gave Rock And Roll To You, but no Diane Franklin. Bogus!
Death, however, is only the beginning of the righteous dudes' bogus journey, which sees them travelling to hell and heaven, before returning to life to do battle with their metal doppelgängers and De Nomolos.
With the news that there might be a third Bill & Ted movie just around the corner, I thought that now would be a good time to revisit Bogus Journey, which I remember not being very impressed with when it originally came out
Almost a quarter of a century later and my opinion hasn't changed: while not totally heinous, this sequel is is far from the excellent adventure that was the first movie. In an effort to go one better than before, Bogus Journey packs in as much craziness as possible, including robots, aliens, the Grim Reaper, visions of Heaven and Hell, and the Easter Bunny, but in doing so the film it loses what made the first film so great: heart. And Diane Franklin.
The best thing about the whole film is Death, played by William Sadler, who provides the film with all of its funniest moments, including a neat homage to Ingmar Bergman's iconic art-house classic The Seventh Seal. But a creepy bald guy in a robe with a scythe playing Battleships and Twister simply ain't enough to carry an entire movie.
5 out of 10, which I considered pushing up to 6 for Pam Grier and Kiss's cover of God Gave Rock And Roll To You, but no Diane Franklin. Bogus!