As I was watching the first Bill&Ted I was thinking that it represents the end of an era, the 80's, where studios would risk on a fun movie that didn't take itself at all seriously. The sequel, unfortunately, is "bogus". They push it all too far, they remove from the fun of the first and they push the movie all over the place: evil despots, robots, Death, The Devil and God. If in the first movie the pleasure was to watch the hapless Bill & Ted, in this film William Sadler steals the spot.Bottom line: while still a little funny, it was a lot more boring than the first film. Studios didn't do it for fun this time, they just wanted to cash on the success of the Excellent Adventures. In view of 2015 rumors about a third part to be released, I wonder if the... franchise, I guess we must call it, will regain its irreverent fun side or be yet another reboot of a sequel that is a prequel of a previous reboot, as is the custom nowadays.

Bogus Journey opens in the year 2619, where Bill & Ted's music and philosophy has shaped society and everyone wears awful clothes made from sheets of foam. Clearly upset at being forced to dress in such a ridiculous fashion, evil fiend De Nomolos (Joss Ackland) creates robot doubles of the Bill and Ted and sends them back in time to kill the originals, which they do by chucking them off the Vasquez Rocks.Death, however, is only the beginning of the righteous dudes' bogus journey, which sees them travelling to hell and heaven, before returning to life to do battle with their metal doppelgängers and De Nomolos.With the news that there might be a third Bill & Ted movie just around the corner, I thought that now would be a good time to revisit Bogus Journey, which I remember not being very impressed with when it originally came out…Almost a quarter of a century later and my opinion hasn't changed: while not totally heinous, this sequel is is far from the excellent adventure that was the first movie. In an effort to go one better than before, Bogus Journey packs in as much craziness as possible, including robots, aliens, the Grim Reaper, visions of Heaven and Hell, and the Easter Bunny, but in doing so the film it loses what made the first film so great: heart. And Diane Franklin.The best thing about the whole film is Death, played by William Sadler, who provides the film with all of its funniest moments, including a neat homage to Ingmar Bergman's iconic art-house classic The Seventh Seal. But a creepy bald guy in a robe with a scythe playing Battleships and Twister simply ain't enough to carry an entire movie.5 out of 10, which I considered pushing up to 6 for Pam Grier and Kiss's cover of God Gave Rock And Roll To You, but… no Diane Franklin. Bogus!

The world of our distant future is a utopian one, thanks to the lyrics of two 20th Century rock and rollers, Bill and Ted.However, a villainous Joss Ackland threatens to throw history off-track by sending evil robot Bill and Teds back to kill their good counterparts.Finding themselves dead, the boys must outwit the Grim Reaper and traverse Heaven and Hell to return to the land of the living, rescue their girlfriends and win at the all-important Battle of the Bands.....Less of a film and more of a group of sketches melded together to make something quite bizarre, Bogus Journey works because of the two leads easy going style, and Sadler's wonderful camp portrayal of the Grim Reaper.For a film that is so out there, in a narrative respect, the imagery and the camera-work is truly genius.From the moment we first meet Death, it does have a lingering feeling of Bergman to it, and the make up is beautiful too at this point of the film.The depictions of Heaven and Hell are brilliant too, and the film is at it's funniest when we meet Einstein and a game of charades.It loses it's way come the end, and becomes a little too self aware, but it's still a fun throwaway movie, that can be enjoyed from time to time.But it's still the best film ever made featuring someone who is inexplicably satisfied by having a Melvin.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a sweet, naïve (in a good way), funny and original. It's feelgood comedy. Bogus Journey takes the premise of the unlikely heroes to a whole WHOLE new level. Reeves and Preston are playing both themselves and their evil robot selves. It's more adult, not so family friendly as Excellent Adventure was, and whilst some of the SFX hold up, it hasn't stood the test of time quite as well. Preston and Reeves are funny though and again look like they're having a great deal of fun with the film, and play around a lot with the characters. Again, the princesses aren't particularly convincing, but Ted's father played by Hal Landon Jr and Death (William Sadler) are both great especially Captain Logan's impression of Ted. There's some great one-liners and memorable bits but generally I don't like this one as well and it's not as clever and the repeated lines mean that the script isn't so witty either. It's really a vehicle for Reeves as he's by far the highlight; him and Death! The music is good but on many levels, it's offensive in the guise of easy laughs.Watch the credits for the newspaper articles.