I hadn't seen this movie in ages. Probably not since middle school. Bill (Alex Winters) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are high schoolers convinced that their band, Wyld Stallyons, will be the Next Great Thing. As soon as they can get Van Halen on guitar. Oh, and possibly learn how to play themselves. But things do not look rosy as they are about to fail their history final and if they do, Ted's father (Hal Landon, Jr.) is sending him to a military school in Alaska. Not to worry, though, because the boys are getting a little help from the future in the form of Rufus (George Carlin) and his time-traveling phone booth. See, if Wyld Stallyons gets broken up, the future he comes from will not exist. So the guys zip across space-time, kidnapping historical figures like Socrates, Billy the Kid, Napoleon, and Joan of Arc (Jane Wiedlin). But will time run out before they can give their report?
I never noticed when I watched it as a kid that all the "historical" figures were restricted by language. Socrates only speaks Greek, Napoleon only speaks French, Freud speaks English and German and so forth. It's a small detail but a cute one and bravo to the film-makers for including it. Granted, this movie is just a harmless piece of 80's frippery and you should definitely not expect mind-blowing things from it but it is still fun to watch. There were a couple of lines that startled a laugh out of me but I'll admit that I'm not the target audience, nor have I ever been. This was purely nostalgic for me.
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