Fun little anecdote to start off this review: I first saw Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey in the late 90s. I had never seen the first movie, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, until watching it a few weeks ago, but I saw Bogus Journey when I was very young. At the time, Pizza Hut did this weird thing where they gave you free movies with your meal, and I remember Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey was one of the movies that my family got for free. I liked the movie a lot back then, but obviously didn’t retain much of what was happening. So, I had that weird experience when watching the movie this past week where I felt nostalgic as I was watching it, and definitely remembered little bits and pieces, but the movie still felt fresh and new to me.

Anyway, what is Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey? Well, as the first movie established, Bill and Ted are responsible for uniting the entire world with one song, and the future looks back on them as heroes. So, naturally, someone in the future wants to stop this from happening, and so evil robot versions of Bill and Ted are sent back in time to kill them. The robots succeed, too, and so Bill and Ted find themselves in the afterlife. They start off as just ghosts/spirits, but quickly find themselves journeying through both Heaven and Hell in order to find a way back to life.

For some reason, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey isn’t very highly regarded. I will definitely concede that it’s not as good as Excellent Adventure, but I think it’s still a really fun movie in its own right. I think what Bogus Journey does best is give a fun and different enough adventure for the two protagonists to go on. It would have felt repetitive to just have the duo go on a time travel adventure to go on again, so having them travel through the afterlife was a lot of fun. And for what it’s worth, I think the movie really utilized this concept well. It’s hilarious watching the two interact with people in Heaven and Hell, and having the Grim Reaper as a character here was easily the best addition to the movie.

If anything, I think the humor just isn’t as strong in Bogus Journey. It definitely has a lot of fun moments, but I’ll admit that I wasn’t laughing as hard or as often as I was with Excellent Adventure. Still, my feeling is that just because Bogus Journey isn’t as good as Excellent Adventure, doesn’t mean that it’s not still good. Part of my fondness for the movie might be because of my nostalgic attachment towards it, but I also really enjoyed the movie as an adult after watching it next to Excellent Adventure. I say that if you’ve seen Excellent Adventure and liked it, you should definitely give Bogus Journey a shot too.

4/5