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Parents' Guide to

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

By Joly Herman, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Slackers meet Satan in not-quite-so-excellent adventure.

Movie PG 1991 93 minutes
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 12+

Based on 5 parent reviews

Mike P.
Mike P. Parent of 10-year-old
February 5, 2022
age 12+

Raunchier than the first one

This movie had more cursing, more sexual content, and more violence than the first movie, so I'm but sure how or why Common Sense Media rated this one for 10 years and the first one for 11. This is one to hold off on until around 12.
M382
M382 Parent of 13 and 16-year-old
April 13, 2020
age 13+

Still funny

In what universe is this ok for age 10/ 11? Getting a “full-on robot chubby” and trying to physically force women to “put out”? The hell scenes: also iffy for that age group, IMO. That said, my family of 4 including 16- and 13-year-old boys laughed out loud throughout. This sequel made so much less sense than the original. Just go with it. Most of the humor spoke to us. Death played by William Sadler makes the movie. A lighthearted, don’t-think-too-much flick.
See all 5 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are two teenagers who like to hang out and shred on guitar. That is, until an evil dude from the future threatens to kill their Utopian dream by sending back in time two evil androids who look like Bill and Ted but are so ... not them. When the evil Bill and Ted push the real Bill and Ted to their deaths, the two ghosts have to travel through Hell in order to regain their mortality and win the rock music contest that their destinies rely on.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (5 ):
Kids say (9 ):

As the sequel to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, this movie doesn't hold up to the first movie's fresh quality. Though there are some laugh-out-loud moments, Bill and Ted seem to be stumbling through the gates of Hell to get to the grand finale. Moreover, we don't get enough of George Carlin in this movie, whose character Rufus created a nice foil to the slacker pace in the first movie.

Perhaps, too, the airhead stereotype has been reprised so often that the 21st-century viewers can't appreciate how illuminating Reeve's' characterization of Ted was in the late '80s and early '90s. We now see echoes of this slacker character all the time, but his portrayal was one of the first to define a generation. Keeping that in mind, parents who grew up in the '80s might enjoy introducing their tweens to a little lighthearted fun care of the boys from San Dimas.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the "slacker" stereotype. What does that mean to you? Do you consider Bill and Ted to be slackers?

  • The "dudes" shred on guitar, and the "babes" are treated like prizes. Are those stereotypes? If so, what message does that send to viewers?

  • Death -- AKA The Grim Reaper -- ends up being a pretty decent dude in this movie. How does playing down death and dying work as comedy? Where can it go wrong?

  • In two scenes, the guys use a homophobic slur. In many movies from the '80s and into the '90s, there are scenes in which gross stereotypes based on race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are used for the sake of humor, as well as humor rooted in fat-shaming and ageism. Besides being lazy attempts at humor, how do these jokes perpetuate hurtful stereotypes? Why do you think these kinds of jokes were accepted in our culture for so long?

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