Shout! Studios has released Bill & Ted’s Triumphant Trilogy (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray), including Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and Bill & Ted Face the Music. With lengthy, detailed commentary on each disc, there are several hours of content to enjoy.
Buy Bill & Ted’s Triumphant Trilogy 4K Ultra HD + Blu-rayBill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, directed by Stephen Herek, begins in San Dimas, California in the year 2688, with Rufus (George Carlin) telling us that the future is near perfect because of the “great ones,” Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves). Back in 1988, Bill and Ted have just started their band, The Wyld Stallyns. In school, they are told that anything less than an A+ on the next day’s oral report will result in a failing grade. Ted’s father tells him if he doesn’t pass his history class, then he will be shipped off to military school.
Rufus has come from the future in his time-traveling phone booth to help Bill and Ted navigate the circuits of history to visit major historical figures and bring them back to 1988 to help them ace their oral exam. First up is France and Napoleon Bonaparte is at war. Rufus cannot stay with Bill and Ted throughout their adventure because, for some reason, “You’re on your own.” Napoleon is accidentally sucked into the time machine, and Bill has the idea that they should collect as many historical figures as they can. After Napoleon, they pick up Billy the Kid, Socrates, Freud, and others. One set piece after another follows in which Winter and Reeves are so incredibly charming that they carry every scene.
Pete Hewitt’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey opens in San Dimas, CA in the year 2691 and De Nomolos (Joss Ackland) believes this is his chance to stop the forward progression of Bill and Ted as heroes of the future. He believes that Bill and Ted are just dumb, bad rock-and-roll-playing jerks. Rufus is back, and this time he is a professor at Bill and Ted University, bringing the likes of Thomas Edison from the past to his current lectures. The lecture is going well when De Nomolos and his minions break into the class with “robot” versions of Bill and Ted who have just one mission: destroy the real Bill and Ted back in 1991 before their music can spread to the world.
Back in modern times, Bill and Ted cannot play guitar or sing, but their girlfriends from medieval England have become quite competent on drums and keyboards. This is bad because the Wyld Stallyns are attempting to get into the Battle of the Bands where the winner gets a $25,000.00 prize and a record contract. For some unknown reason, Ted is still being threatened with military school even though he is now 21 and a certified high school graduate. When evil Bill and Ted show up, good Bill and Ted assume they are just themselves from the future. Evil Bill and Ted take good Bill and Ted to the desert where they are thrown off a cliff to their deaths. Death (William Sadler) comes for them and offers them the opportunity to a contest: if they win, they get to live, but if they die, they will stay in the afterlife forever.
After a couple attempts at contacting the living, Bill and Ted find themselves in Hell. Eventually, Death returns with the same offer: play games for freedom. They play games like Battleship and Twister, and earn their right to return to the living. In need of assistance in finding a scientist who can help them make robots to destroy evil Bill and Ted, they are led to twin aliens known as Station. For no interesting reason at all, the two Stations run at each other and fuse into one big Station. The competition is tough: one of the bands is Primus. Death is a most excellent addition to the band, and, for the second film in a row, George Carlin is under utilized.
In the final entry in the trilogy, Bill & Ted Face the Music, directed by Dean Parisot, we learn from a voiceover narrated by Bill and Ted’s grown daughters that the universe is unraveling because of Bill and Ted’s adventures through time. Also, Bill and Ted are expected to create a song that will bring the entire world together, but are struggling to create anything more than discordant noises. Ted is thinking about giving it all up and selling his guitar. We are taken to 2720 AD, the future, to be told again what we learned in the introduction. Also, Bill and Ted have lost their wives. Also, their daughters aren’t talking to them.
And there is more to worry about. The future sends a lunatic killer robot named Denis Caleb McCoy after Bill and Ted to, not just stop them, but kill them. The girls go on their own time-traveling trip trying to find cool riffs from famous musicians. In other words, the writers of all three films, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, throw everything and the kitchen sink at Bill & Ted Face the Music, hoping something good will stick. For the most part it works, due mostly to a comedic cast who are well equipped for playing roles in a farce. The storyline where Bill and Ted’s daughters travel through time and space to form a version of Wyld Stallyns that includes the likes of Louis Armstrong and Jimmy Hendrix is very reminiscent of the first movie, but is made to feel fresh through intelligent writing. This is the only film of the three with a post credits scene, and it is worth the wait.
This is a strong trilogy from beginning to end. Some of the glow fades after Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but the writing and acting squeezes out every drop of comedy from a most excellent premise. Shout! Studios have included a treasure trove of bonus features to satiate every fan.
Bonus Features:
Disc One (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Blu-ray):
- Commentary with Star Alex Winter and Producer Scott Kroopf
- Commentary with Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
- Time Flies When You Are Having Fun! – A Look Back at a Most “Excellent Adventure” (1:01:14)
- The Original Bill & Ted – In Conversation with Chris & Ed (20:15)
- The Hysterical Personages of Bill & Ted (15:28)
- Theatrical Trailer
Disc Two (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure 4K UHD):
- Commentary with Star Alex Winter and Producer Scott Kroopf
- Commentary with Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
- Time Flies When You Are Having Fun! – A Look Back at a Most “Excellent Adventure” (1:01:14)
- Theatrical Trailer
Disc Three (Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey Blu-ray):
- Commentary with Star Alex Winter and Producer Scott Kroopf
- Commentary with Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
- Bill & Ted Go to Hell (52:04)
- The Most Triumphant Making Of (30:53)
- Score! – Interview with Guitarist Steve Vai (12:46)
- Air Guitar Tutorial with Bjorn Turoque & The Rockness Monster (13:15)
- Vintage EPK (6:40)
- The Linguistic Stylings of Bill & Ted (3:41)
- Theatrical Trailer
Disc Four (Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey 4K UHD):
- New 4K Scan of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey from the Original 35mm Camera Negative
- Presented in Dolby Vision
- Commentary with Star Alex Winter and Producer Scott Kroopf
- Commentary with Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
- Bill & Ted Go to Hell (52:04)
Disc Five (Bill & Ted Face the Music Blu-ray):
- The Official Bill & Ted Face the Music Panel at Comic-Con@Home (43:14)
- Be Excellent to Each Other – Behind the Scenes with Cast and Crew (1:23)
- A Most Triumphant Duo (1:18)
- Social Piece (Excellence) (:50)
- Death’s Crib (1:13)
Disc Six (Bill & Ted Face the Music 4K UHD):
- New 4K Remaster of Bill & Ted Face the Music from the Digital Intermediate
- Presented in Dolby Vision
