Delayed Reaction: Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

What I Guessed It Was About: It will feature Bill and Ted. Probably more time travel. I have to assume that the end game of the time travel will be to fix some important moment in history.

How I Came Into It: The first Bill and Ted movie is perfect teen comedy anarchy. It's the kind of movie that starts with a high concept and has ridiculous fun with it. Coming back for more is either a fool's errand or recognition of a malleable concept. I wasn't sure which.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Look, I'll always approve of a little Ingmar Bergman parody in a comedy movie. They find a new direction to go with this, becoming more of a Dante story, without forgetting the wacky elements that made the first movie fun. I find the part when they bring in the guitarist from Faith No More in interesting because of how that joke's evolved. It was funny because he was famous at the time and now it's funny because he isn't.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: This is simple. I liked the first movie better. The Awesome Adventure was a random idea. The Bogus Journey felt more like an attempt to reverse engineer the spirit of the thing. They do a good job of it, but that's why sequels are hard.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend