Non-HEINOUS NEWS!

Most triumphant!

Whaddya say, babes n' dudes?

Are you ready for more of the time-traveling doofus duo?

Way back on September 3 2010, I mentioned that they've been kicking around ideas for a third installment into their wacky escapades. Well, it now seems as if it really is going to arrive from within the Circuits of History. The four of them (that being Alex Winter [Bill], Keanu Reeves [Ted], Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon [the writers]) have finalized not only the premise with which they wish to go, but the script for the next chapter of Bill & Ted. Not Bad!

If you're a little worried about the prospect of squeezing another movie out of these two... I say don't be. After all, it's not like they just picked it up on a whim, said "What the hell, why not?" and cranked something out. Far from it. All along they've been wondering what Bill & Ted would be like in "middle age." And the way I see it - if the creators want to explore it with full gusto, then I certainly do, too. Thus, they've (as mentioned) had a bunch of concepts they've toyed with...and came up the one they all agreed upon. Chris & Ed took a crack at the story on paper and it went through many years of tweaking. Well, now, as said, they have it hammered out. And they assure us it's excellent. I mean, hey, if the authors/actors of the creation are happy with their venture and full-on want to produce it for us... who are we to kibosh it?

I do, however, have a few cents I'd like to throw in!

First off... it's likely best that it include Lil' Bill & Lil' Ted (their kids - sorry if I spoiled the tail end of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey for you) somehow. I imagine they'd either want to follow in their father's footsteps or land themselves in some sort of "need saving" trouble.

Second, I still would like it to have time travel. I mean, come on, it had been central to the first two films. There's no reason to throw it out now. (And it's what attracted me to the original film in the first place!) I'm not sure how it would factor in exactly...especially since I've got an idea as to where/what the next installment should tackle. I just think it should remain a key element in the third movie.

Thirdly, where to take the dudes? Well... I say outer space. Yes, really. Sound a bit far fetched? No, not when we look at the facts. They've been all around the globe. They've been around Time. They've been through the Afterlife and visited both Heaven & Hell. Where ELSE can they venture? If that's not enough to convince, consider this: Their music is supposed to align the planets. They have two Martians (or one big, depedning!) in their band. See it now? Wyld Stallyns needs to be traveling through the vast oddities of the universe!

Lastly, the title. Alex Winter has made it know that there is one. Oh dear lordy my how I wish I knew it!  But I have one of my own. Not that I'll be at all disappointed if it's not the one they pick. And it's actually not too far a stretch that they might have!

You see, I just re-watched both films.  (I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen Excellent Adventure, but it definitely exceeds 30) For my buddy Gil it had been a long time. Gil never saw the sequel though, so he and I watched that one as well. Needless to say, Gil found it excellent. Well, you see, in that movie, Bill says, "I have a feeling we are about to embark on a most unprecedented expedition." And boom. Title. Bill & Ted's Unprecedented Expedition. I love it. Or else Bill & Ted's Outstanding Odyssey. But I'd prefer it to be directly derived from the previous movie.

And the final thing to say is something concrete from Winter. Reportedly the story will still have Rock n' Roll as part of its structure. He says it had always been about Rock n' Roll. And given that a full quarter of a century of it has happened since Bill & Ted thought they needed Eddie Van Halen in order to be a super band, the creators are exploring how Rock n' Roll has developed or changed over the years. How does it affect Wyld Stallyns...or how can Wyld Stallyns affect IT?

Maybe a little shout out to Rufus and an explanation of what became of his character, too?  [Rest in Peace, Mr. Carlin!  We love & miss you!]

My best friend Laughter texted me saying he "needs" to see it with me.  Excellent!  And I think it's only fitting that Gil come with us if he's able.  Not bad!

Of course, the guys are "shopping it around" right now and it needs a 'Green Light.'  But at least we're one step closer!  STATION!

To all of this, I say:
PARTY ON, DUDES!

Bill & Ted: STILL totally EXCELLENT

Not sure if it has been here on this site, but it’s no secret that I am a fan of Bill & Ted. (Well, if it had been, it isn’t one now.) Yes, they’re utterly silly, but hey, that’s why I like them.

I remember seeing the ads on TV for it, thinking how (dare I say) stupid it looked. But my friend Zaph (rest his soul) and I needed something to do on a Friday night. And we figured: It’s about time travel (a subject of which I am [and he had been] a sucker for) and something, at least one thing, will be funny. Well, we loved it. It had been so much more than I expected it to be, and the toying with time clocked in rather nicely, too. The (sad?) truth of it is... we saw it every consecutive Friday for seven weeks. We probably would have seen it more, but (definitely sadly, perhaps horribly) our preferred movie theater started to chop it up. Yes, really! We knew, we had seen it many times. But whole parts of scenes were missing. I don’t know the reason for it, but nevertheless, it had happened.

I even "had to" have (and did obtain!) a red denim jacket like Ted "Theodore" Logan.  [And did so without the internet.  {The internet didn't exist!}]

Another anecdote... Zaph and I had been in a fast food place and two nuns arrived. They spoke the praises of a movie, none other than Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. They were ecstatic that we liked it, too. They’d been entranced by the wonderful message of “Be excellent to each other,” finding it a hip way of expressing the purest form of their beliefs.

I’ll also tell you that Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is the movie I have seen the most. I won’t disclose how many times, partly because it has been so many times I lost track. (Double digits involved.)

Naturally, I’d been really happy about the sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey coming out. And yes, I liked it, too. No, I didn’t love it as much, but I found it totally worthy. A bit of cool trivia from the sequel - the villain in it is named De Nomolos, a very slick and (ahem!) excellent name for a bad guy. Here’s the trivia part. It’s derived from simply flipping the names of one of the writers (of both films): Ed Solomon.

I even sort of liked the cartoon series. It could have been much better, but what we got had been a lot of fun for someone who just can’t get enough of those lovable doofs. However, as we learned from the ill-fated live action show (which lasted for what, two weeks?) it’s not always the case that we will love them. Not having Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves really made a difference. (In cartoon form it didn’t matter so much.)  [For the record, my friends and I wanted a TV series long before either had been announced.  The cartoon show,as it appeared, had been title Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures.  I don't recall the live-action title and don't even feel like looking it up.  Not to sound pompous, but I liked our title for a series better:  Triumphant Tales of Bill & Ted]

WELL, they’ve been kicking around the idea of a third movie for about 15 years now. I’m happy to report that it is still alive. Yes, there’s a distinct possibility that they’re going for the charm of three. The best news is that Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, as well as the all-important Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves are all on board - so long as they agree on the script/story. The general consensus is that it will deal with Little Bill and Little Ted (their kids, as established in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.) Too bad George Carlin can’t be involved. Rest his soul, too. If you think about it, it might seem overkill and a rehash to keep his character Rufus as part of the storyline anyway.

Time (ha!) will tell, but I’m hoping it does show up.

Standing Up for "Stands Still"

I’m almost hesitant to put up this post. For it seems that I am in the minority on this one. Many did not like this movie and critics slammed it. But I will say so: I enjoyed the new version of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

My thoughts on remakes have been posted before. In general, I am against them. But there are times when it makes sense. Well, this re-do is one I consider worthy, if not necessary.

The acting has been slammed. I won’t tell you it shined. All I will say that it does the job. And I think Keanu’s trademark coldness and blasé worked rather well as a disinterested alien.

It’s cited as heavy-handed and preachy. It’s said to drag, to stand still itself.

Hold off on your tomatoes when I address those last two issues:
Do you remember the original movie at all? It’s very much the same.

It had been quite a long time since I'd seen the 1951 version. So Bart and I watched it a month or so before the release of the new movie. Yes, we enjoyed it. But let’s be honest, isn’t it also a bit slow in places? By slow I don’t mean uninteresting. Just not as wham-bam as other alien encounter flicks tend to be. Maybe those put off by the pacing of the 2008 movie fueled their own initial dislike of remaking it, or their unwillingness to see the merits of the movie. And to those who bitch about how beat-you-over-the-head-with-the-message the new movie had been, again, I say: Re-watch the first one. A man comes down from the sky with a degree of magical powers and says, “Hey! Be nice to each other, or else!” He is then hunted down, killed, brought back to life, gives a final warning and ascends back into the heavens. If you can’t see how heavy-handed and steeped in lore that is, then keep thinking until it hits you.

What makes the new version good, for me, are the shifts made in the story. Here, the alien Klaatu is not made out to be a Christ figure. Yet, they do not throw out the Biblical connection. They merely trade it for another. Instead he is akin to Noah, gathering species of the Earth to rescue them from our horrendous treatment of the environment. Maybe people are sick of hearing about this issue, I don’t know. But tiresome or not, it does not lessen the message or danger one bit. If anything, being as blasé about it as some claim Reeves to be is precisely what's wrong with us. Likewise, the film does not entirely dispose of the original film’s warning either. Violent reaction and general stupidity is still rampant. (Yes, they again shoot the alien visitor without asking questions first.) And you know what? The way I see it - since the “original” Klaatu’s message STILL needs to be delivered 57 years after having heard it, then we DO have a problem.

One of the aspects of the new film I liked is how uncomfortable it made me feel. Alien invasion movies are a dime a dozen. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve come to be jaded by the prospect. It’s no longer “scary” on screen. Well, I can honestly say watching this movie I felt threatened. The sense of terror shone through for me like never before in a space attack movie. I felt uneasy, trapped and worried. I like to think that those who saw the original movie felt the same way at their viewing. So I enjoyed this new flick’s ability to bring on that same sense of wonder and fear which is sorely lacking in these kinds of movies. A creeping horror instead of a yawning thrill.

Gort. We all love Gort. And dare I say it, I liked the new Gort much better. First of all, talk about threatening - he’s huge! I’m not sure how large he is, but I want to say he’s at least fifteen feet tall. However big, this menacing metal man is magnified majestically. And thanks to CGI, when his eye-slit closes the effect is much more satisfying - and disturbing. Instead of being able to see a ridge where the slat slides down , the seam dissolves entirely, producing a faceless terror. And as I mentioned in this post, I read there had been an attempt to re-design the famous robot sentinel, only to discover deviation just did not work. Gort is Gort and must be. He’s just the same with the minor tweaks (as stated) but sleeker, not like a guy in a clunky silver suit.

The new film had also been critiqued for the fact that Klaatu is not necessarily a peaceful fellow, here to issue his warning. He’s really here to destroy us. Some claim this to be too far off course from the original. But again, I site the fact that we are STILL a war-mongering people. Maybe we deserve it. (Take that with a great big grain of salt.) Also, the method with which the annihilation occurs has been laughed at and despised. I’d been quite surprised by it… if not creeped out. And it, too, harkened to the Biblical touch of the first film. I liked the synthesis of Nature and Technology. It added to the “humans are primitive and subject to forces” aspect while playing up the otherwise lost creepiness of old infestation movies.

But one aspect, above all, is what I truly enjoyed about the movie. The shifting of a particular event. I’m not going to spoil it for you. But I will say that I deem it brilliant. Yes, brilliant. It packs quite a punch. A real impact. In fact, the re-placement and its consequences alone make this movie a remake to be reckoned with…and I am quite pleased with the results.

Finally, a remake that has a purpose. That’s pretty rare.
Maybe you are laughing at me. But if you are doing so without having seen both films, then have a look at each and then tell me that this rewrite isn’t worth it. If you have seen both and still don’t like the 2008 version, do have another think about the actual re-written elements I mentioned and how poignant they truly are. And if you still don't agree with me, that's fine, too. As my mother says, "That's why there's chocolate and vanilla."

Lastly, consider that the original is not so at all! It is also a re-do, of sorts. It's based on Farewell to the Master, by Harry Bates. Even the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still is quite different. You can read about the original story here.

Bravo to writer David Scarpa! And bravo to all who worked on this movie.