Yes, occasionally I do pick movies based on a personal indulgence instead of inherent cinematic value. This is one of those times. We actually watched the first movie not too long ago, but that was before I started my film writing spree. I recall seeing ads for the movies in the comics I had when I was kid but never watched them. Years later, I discovered that while they’re aren’t exactly paragons of cinematic excellence, they do have a decent reputation among geeks and I knew I had to watch them eventually.

I did enjoy the first one but found it just a bit too silly and the two protagonists never really seemed to be in any peril. I was also annoyed by how shallowly it used the myriad of historical figures it features. By contrast, Bogus Journey ups the stakes by having Bill and Ted get killed like 15 minutes into the film. They then proceed to spend most of the rest of the film trying to get back to life and making sure the evil robot duplicates don’t kill them again when they do. You really have to commend the writers for coming up with a pretty fantastic sequel idea when most people would have just resorted to more time-travelling.

As usual, humor is very subjective and not all of the gags are hits for me, but there were more than enough successful jokes to keep me entertained throughout. It takes serious chutzpah to parody the character of Death from The Seventh Seal, right down to the monastic cell they play the games in. My wife disliked this movie but I dare her to deny laughing out loud at the sight of Death playing Twister. Another giggle-worthy nerdy movie reference is when Bill talks about The Exorcist 1 and 3 but skips 2, because it is widely considered one of the worst movies ever made.

I’m especially impressed by the creative depictions here of the pair’s personal hells and of Heaven and it is people do there. I know that Keanu Reeves get a lot of flack for his bad acting and many people have suggested that Ted is really how he behaves in real-life. But the scene in which he possesses his father really demonstrates how it is an affectation and why it takes a certain comedic genius to pull off the role. The alchemy between him and Alex Winters is pretty much perfect as well. Each of them is markedly less interesting to watch whenever they’re without the other in a scene.

Bogus Journey was never as successful as its predecessor, maybe because it felt dated even in the year that it was released. The 1990s was ultimately a decade of cynicism, making the optimistic attitude and surfer talk here feel out of place. Viewing this some twenty-plus years later takes some of the sting out of it and even if the surfer talk is still as silly as always and it is still a dumb movie, you have to admit that it is one of the smartest dumb movies ever.