Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Legendary Nashville comedian Evan Berke graces our podcast to delve into his cherished cinematic trilogy, "Bill and Ted." The discourse commences with a profound appreciation for the simplicity and charm of these films, particularly their unique blend of time travel and buddy comedy. We explore the intricacies of character development and the underlying themes of friendship and aspiration that resonate throughout the series. Berke's insights illuminate how these seemingly frivolous narratives encapsulate deeper truths about personal growth and the pursuit of dreams. Furthermore, we take a moment to recommend his stand-up special, "Twice Removed," an endeavor that showcases his comedic prowess and offers a delightful complement to the conversation at hand.
Takeaways:
- Evan Berke passionately discusses the cultural significance and personal impact of the 'Bill and Ted' trilogy on his life and career as a comedian.
- The podcast highlights the unique blend of comedy and time travel in 'Bill and Ted', setting it apart from traditional buddy comedies of the 1980s era.
- The speakers reflect on the depth and complexity of the characters in 'Bill and Ted', revealing how they are more than just stoner caricatures.
- Evan emphasizes the importance of George Carlin's contribution to the films, noting how his presence elevated the material and added a layer of wisdom.
- The discussion includes insights into the film's production, including its unexpected success and the chemistry between the lead actors, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter.
- The podcast concludes with a reflection on the enduring legacy of 'Bill and Ted', acknowledging its influence on subsequent films in the buddy comedy genre.
Transcript
Foreign. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Movie wars podcast. I'm Kyle.
Seth:I'm Seth.
Kyle:And introduce yourself.
Evan:I'm Evan Burke. Talking about, literally one of my favorite pieces of IP probably in existence.
Seth:I've been waiting for this for so long. I absolutely love these movies. I. Well, I'd only seen the first one up until this week, and then I saw it when I was like, 17.
My buddy John David, who has introduced me to Brazil and quite a few other very impactful movies in my life, quoted it randomly one day, and I was like, what is that? He's like, you've never. Oh, no, we're watching this.
And he sat me down and we watched Bill and Ted's excellent adventure, and my life was changed after that. It is so good.
Kyle:Yeah. It's got so many strange elements of being a time travel movie, but a buddy comedy. But it's not a.
You know, because the 80s was king for buddy cop film. So the buddy element was very much held in, like, Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon detective films.
And all of a sudden we just got this, like this really. And I connected to it because you. You probably did this too. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Because I moved here, I was in a band.
I moved here for music. And I think anybody was in a band or had aspirations to be in a band relates so hard to not actually being able to play yet.
But filming yourself playing and pretending to play, like, the fantasal elements of wanting to be a rock star always predate your ability to actually play music. And when you see that, it's I. That struck a chord.
And when you mentioned that you wanted to cover these, it instantly hit me because I am a Die hard Keanu fan. I have so much of his work. But I. I forget that really what got me into Keanu was this movie. And when.
When he texted me that, I actually read that and I got these butterflies. Oh, my God. Bill and Ted. Oh, my God, Yes. We're gonna do that trilogy. So thanks for suggesting it. Yeah. And like, so.
But as a band guy and a musician, did you connect with that as well?
Seth:That definitely at the time, I had a little. A little band in high school, little hard rock slash metal band. We were having fun playing shows in Atlanta.
Really what I think hit me, though, the first time I watched it, and especially this last watch through. First off, when did Wayne's World come out?
Kyle:Wayne's World came out, I think in 92 the first time.
Seth:Okay. So it came out after this. That was.
I was curious Because I like this more than Wayne's World and, and it makes sense to me now because Wayne's World definitely felt like it was trying to make this, but didn't have, didn't have the simplicity that this had.
The thing I absolutely love about this movie is the fact that you can boil the story simply down to Bill and Ted are failing history and are trying to get their presentation done. Yeah, that's it. That is the entire movie.
The fact that it's also a time travel movie, the fact that it's also this stoner comedy, I, it's just icing on the cake because of how simple the premise was.
Evan:But also take it a step further and it's like, well, they need to pass history because if they don't, then the world ends. Like then their destiny of creating this song that unites the world can't be realized.
Seth:Exactly.
Evan:It's, it's very bizarre. I thought it was a movie that like kind of was, you know, just the plot itself was a, was a bit complex for.
Seth:It gets complex. That's what I loved is, is the.
Evan:First one is very like just kind of simple.
Seth:Yeah. But that's the thing is like rewatching it, I forgot how much depth there was to the characters themselves.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Because you start off and you just think that they're stupid stoner fuck ups and they can't do anything. But then you get into it and you realize Bill's dad is a fucking slime ball and divorced his mom so he could marry a 18 year old. Yeah, how gross.
And then you go over to Ted's house and you find out his dad is former military and the police chief and is sitting there trying to basically say you're not taking anything serious, you're a fuck up, I'm going to send you to military school.
And he's like got this internal struggle of like what does it mean to be a man but also do the things that I want to do and do the things that I'm passionate about.
Kyle:Right.
Seth:But it's like none of this is ever like overtly stated. Everything is just so perfectly dropped in when it needs to be.
Kyle:And Rufus is the surrogate father. Yeah, yeah. It's a really, a movie about father figures as well.
Rufus comes in and he's, you know, he brings the, the wisdom and experience of time that his father, their fathers don't give them.
Seth:He brings the babes back, bro.
Kyle:And side note, my favorite comedian, my hero, George Carlin as Rufus is just, I mean my absolute favorite comedian of all time. I just love seeing him here.
Seth:He's so perfect.
Evan:I mean. Yeah. I mean, anytime you. You watch this movie and George Carlin pops up again, you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a.
I mean, the first one is amazing because they didn't need to make a second one. It could have just ended on the first one.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:Could have been awesome.
Seth:Save the day. Everything's great.
Evan:But then the way that they did expand it and really add the complexities and the layers and with the second one and then they even take it even further in the third one.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:It's just. It's super cool how the first one stands alone, but then really just sets the foundation for the. For the rest of them.
Seth:Absolutely. And we'll definitely get into the sequels in. In the next episodes. But to touch on that, it's.
It's one of the few series I've seen or the sequel held up just as well as the first one did, in my opinion. Like, they. They could have just thrown together and it was the exact same plot. Oh, they got to. They got to pass another test.
So they're going to do another time travel thing. But the fact that each one very much stands uniquely in its storytelling structure. I absolutely love it.
Evan:Bogus Journey as a whole different cadence. And just like those scenes were there in Hell yeah. In the second one, you're kind of just like both movies. Like you said, Perf.
You stated it perfectly. But they both elicit such different feelings.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:While also still just being so. Just, like, enjoyable.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:For very different reasons, but the characters are just so.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:Consistent.
Kyle:Absolutely love it. You may be time traveling right now. You might be coming back from the.
Seth:Wild west or be in the quantum realm.
Kyle:You might be coming from. From Apocalypto, whenever that was. We want you to send your friends Movie Wars. I don't care if they're cowboys.
I don't care if it's Socrates or Socrates or Socrates, whoever your friends are.
Seth:I love the fact that he says it correctly the first time and then Keanu corrects him. He's like, oh, yeah. So crates.
Kyle:Yeah, I love it, dude.
Seth:I know.
Kyle:So, so crates. Totally. Such a. Actually, that's a good conversation we can have later. It's just funny. The way these historical figures are voiced is amazing.
It's so good. But send your friends Movie Wars. Send them. Evan. By the way, his special he referred to earlier twice removed, a fantastic special.
You can find it on Spotify. YouTube. Right. As well.
Evan:YouTube.
Kyle:YouTube. You can find It. Wherever you listen to shit.
Seth:I have number 31 of 50 signed by this motherfucker. So come here and listen to it.
Evan:Yeah, we got it on cd, vinyl. If you ever want to stop me. The street.
Kyle:That way, when you. When it hits Netflix, when the Kill Tony thing hits it, you can say I actually listen to that guy already.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Boom. Be cool. The questions, the questions. Leave it to the French to make a hat that doesn't block out the sun. Right? Napoleon's hat. What the. I.
And I know it's not just this movie. That's actually when you look at his, like, paintings and stuff, but what's.
Seth:I didn't think about that. But that's so true.
Kyle:It. It's does nothing. It's like with the.
Seth:This.
Kyle:It's this way, but there's no.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Why.
Evan:I mean, Napoleon really is the star of the first one.
Seth:Yes, absolutely.
Kyle:Yes.
Seth:Ziggy Piggy.
Evan:I mean, him at the water park in the big. Even. I was watching it with my. My girlfriend Mary Alice, and she was like. She was like, that is a real swimsuit from that time period that he's in.
Like, yes. The fact that he has that is just so funny. So I.
I think the Napoleon being in San Dimas before all of the other people, it was just so funny having to hang out with Deacon.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Oh, my God.
Seth:My two favorite credits on this whole thing are the. The Ziggy Piggy guys who are named. I think it's Annoying waiter and Dumb waiter.
Kyle:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Dumb, Stupid, and ugly.
Seth:Yeah, that's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so.
Kyle:It's just Stupid waiter because they're in all three movies. Those are the writers. Yeah, that's Ed Solomon and Chris Mathis.
Seth:Actually, I have a random makes so much.
Kyle:I have a writer. I have a random on that. And every credits for every cameo in all three movies, they're. They're labeled as stupid and ugly.
Seth:Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Oh, my God.
Kyle:Because in the second one, they're in the seance with Missy. Yeah. Yeah.
Seth:So that makes sense.
Kyle:Stupid seance guy 1. And stupid and dumb.
Evan:Yeah, Ugly.
Kyle:Those are the two creators and the. The guys that created. They created Bill and Ted in a. In a. And they were doing improv class.
So five years before they made the movie, they were Bill and Ted as these two improv characters.
Seth:Oh, that's great.
Kyle:Yeah. So it's. We can get into that more later. But really interesting. But. Yeah, yeah. And. And if you watch. So by the way, shout out to Shout Factory.
Who Made an incredible trilogy, 4K steelbook for this and I was just, I, I didn't have it. I gave myself two weeks to get through. You know how I am with commentaries. There were two commentaries on each.
Like I barely had enough time to get through all the material. I'm a nerd.
Seth:Granted this is the first time we'll be shooting three episodes in one day. Yeah, we had, we had a lot to get through before today.
Kyle:Yeah, I gotta get my stamina. But they have some amazing special features. Speaking of the Napoleon actor, his name is Terry, I want to say this correctly, Camillary.
And he's the most beloved. They still refer to him like in the other commentaries on the other movies they missed him.
Like they love working with, they said he was the best and his interviews are hilarious. Like he was a great actor. So major kudos to him. But yeah, he his hat though.
Seth:I love the fact that basically like even if it's raining, it's not going to keep water off your face, but it will drip it to the side of you the least.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:It honestly creates one of those situations like those like popups pop up tents when it rains and then you're walking under it and out of nowhere the whole thing flips under. It feels like it's just collecting water.
Seth:Ready to fall over.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Oh man.
Kyle:This is a more interesting question. If you guys got the opportunity, where are you going to go time travel to? Who are you going to meet in history? Great couple of funny comedians here.
Who the hell you know?
Seth: el like if you go back before:But I'm sitting there watching how much they're all just chain smoking cigarettes and I'm like. And then also drinking heavily on top of that. I'm like, everyone must have smelled like so bad in the 60s. Like God damn. So I don't know. I don't know.
I would want to go back too far.
Evan:I love this answer cuz I, I.
Seth:I would probably get there and just immediately start puking.
Kyle:I was going to say because you know, I'm a Die hard Doors fan, Jim Morrison fan.
Hell, can you imagine being in Jim Morrison's green room that probably smelled like he was notorious for vomiting on people and like I don't know that like the smells and these people are Just fucking deplorable. Like, I don't want to meet these people.
Seth:Now, I will say if. If there. If there was one musical event I could go back to, I would go see Pink Floyd.
Kyle:Okay. Yeah.
Seth:Probably at Pompeii.
Kyle:Hell, yeah.
Seth:That would. That would have been insane. Yeah, that's. That's. That's one.
Probably the biggest thing I'm very jealous of my uncle Love is the fact that he got to see Pink Floyd. Floyd three times.
Kyle:You're kidding me.
Seth:No. Like, he saw them in person three times before. Yeah, dude, he told me that. I was like, that is.
Kyle:I want to hear stories.
Seth:I would love to as well. Yeah.
Kyle:What about you, Evan?
Evan:Oh, this is tough because, you know, you really made me think. At first I'm thinking, God, I want to. I want to meet Jesus. But then you're right. Going too far back feels wild.
So if we're sticking with the theme of, like, going back in time, maybe being able to be at, like, a musical.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Event that maybe we can't be at today, I think I would want to be in Long Beach, California, early 90s, at a sublime. No doubt.
Kyle:Okay.
Evan:Just like, Rager.
Seth:Yeah. Yeah, I feel that. Yeah.
Evan:Like, I was. I'm a huge Sublime fan.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:I mean, that was high school when we were. When me and my buddies were, like, coming up on Bill and Ted. We were like, well, if we want to be like Bill and Ted, what do we got to do?
Smoke some weed, listen to Sublime, you.
Kyle:Know what I'm saying?
Evan:And just those. All those reggae dubs and stuff, and.
Kyle:Gosh, I love that.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:But I think that's what I would want to do. I don't know. Pink. I do love Pink Floyd. I. I did see David Gilmore on his solo tour a couple years before COVID which was amazing.
He still does, like, high production Pink Floyd stuff.
Seth:Oh, yeah. I would love to see hey Man, Roger Waters.
Evan:I saw the Australian Pink Floyd back in high school, but I think I'm going to go.
Kyle:Well, I wrote down. Sometimes I just write down the stupid first thing that comes to my mind. I wrote down Vlad the Impaler.
I don't know why, but when I watch interpretations like Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, he lumped together the Vlad the Implor story. He's just one of the weirdest. Like, there's just not a lot of historical. Like, even. Like, even Napoleon was just Napoleon.
He wasn't Napoleon the Stabber or Napoleon the eye gouger. Like, Vlad was Vlad the Impaler, man. Like, I want to go back and play. Dude, why are you impaling everybody, bro? What happened?
Like, what's your trauma? Like, what did you. What happened to you, bro? Like. Like you read about. I don't know. It's such a stupid answer. I don't. I don't want to meet Vlad.
I just literally typed it and I set it into the microphone.
Seth:I love it.
Kyle:But no, I. Jim. I mean, God, I mean, I'm such a die hard Doors. Doors fan. But I've read every Jim Morrison biography. I don't want to meet the guy.
Seth:Yeah, yeah.
Kyle:He's just. Maybe Nietzsche. Yeah. Need it. Or Nietzsche. If you go to Stanford, maybe even.
Evan:Bob Marley would be a good one too.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:He'd be cool. And the smell of weed. We washes out everything.
Evan:Yeah. Let's smell some weed with Bob Marley.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:That's what I'm going back to do.
Seth:I want to stand on. On the. The other hill where that other shooter was for jfk.
Kyle:There you go.
Seth:I want to get a picture of that guy. Just be like, I got it.
Kyle:There you go.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Yeah. In this debate, my God, they released the documents of people. It's like.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:You know.
Seth:Well, they didn't even release all the documents. They released everything people already knew.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:And they still have stuff that's like redacted and.
Kyle:Yeah. Now you got me thinking, like, there's so many people you don't want to meet in history.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:You just don't.
Evan:Yeah. Never want to come across you at all.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:When you find out like, oh, Bill Cosby was a piece of. You're just like, what the. He was America's dad.
Kyle:I know.
Seth:And now he's just out there raping people. Cool. Cool. Great. Don't ever meet your heroes, folks.
Kyle:It's amazing they kept Jello all these years after that. Jello is still just on the shelves.
Seth:He's got the Jello in the pudding.
Evan:I think we need to. I think Jello also needs to, you know, take a back seat.
Kyle:Yeah. Rebrand.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Jail. No.
Evan:Yeah.
Kyle:God, that was bad. Sorry. Random. I fail myself on a continual basis.
Seth:It's life.
Kyle:Randos. So this originally was gonna. The van that's in two. This was originally centered around a time traveling van.
But they thought it was just way too much like back to the future. And so they chose not to. Not to do that. They did show it again in the later two, but the phone booth was.
There was a trend, I guess, on college universities at the time. Oh, yes, there it is. I don't know.
I don't understand this trend, but I guess because this is before cell phones, there were phone booths on university campuses, and there was a trend of people cramming into them and taking pictures of themselves. So. Yeah. And so phone booths were a thing. And so that's where they got the idea to turn into a phone booth.
Seth:That's cool.
Evan:Cool.
Kyle:Yeah. It would have been interesting with the van. I like that the phone booth adds a lot.
Seth:It does.
Kyle:It adds.
Evan:You can call. That's super cool.
Kyle:Yeah, the van would have been a little lame.
Seth:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just.
Evan:It's too Scooby Doo.
Seth:Yeah, definitely. And Magic School Bus, which. I don't know if that was a thing at the time, but, like. Yeah, just.
Yeah, it wouldn't have fit the vibe because it's not like they're going on tour. Like, it'd be. It'd be different if they were going to different musical eras and were taking gear with them.
And, like, the van was what was getting them there.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:But no, the phone booth, it's such an iconic image now. Like, and it's. It's one of those things.
It's like, I love that they created their own system of rules as far as, like, you use the phone numbers to get to different times, but then on top of that, you have Bill and Ted coming up with rules of time travel.
Kyle:Yes.
Seth:During the movie that just work. Like, they just like, oh, well, if you remember to do this, then that'll be there. All right. And it's just.
Kyle:It happens like a couple of dudes, like. Like a couple of dudes, like, that's. That's, like, us with our friends. Like. Like, oh, dude, what if we. Oh, you know, that's me and my friends.
Like, what if you use a hammer? Oh, shit.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Hammer. I don't know if I have a hammer.
Evan:I love it.
Kyle:It's, again, so relatable.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Especially as a musician. But.
Seth:What are you doing? I'm remembering to do something later, and the fucking trash can just falls like.
Kyle:It'S dude logic, but you buy in.
Seth:Yeah. You know, it's so good, this name.
Kyle:It's so funny. Dino De Laurenti has comes up in my research for so many movies because he. He ends up, like, either going bankrupt or buying bankrupt property.
So many stories that we've covered on this podcast revolve around his failures.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:But he's also one of the kind of, like, Pre Weinstein, one of the biggest moguls of movie producing. Warner Brothers had rejected this, so they were looking for somebody to pick it up.
And Dino De Laurenti, his company, picked it up, but he did not understand it. And he admitted, like, we'll do it. And the only reason he did it is because his daughter Rafaela convinced him to do it. And he didn't understand.
And he asked her, he's like, what did the dude. He's Italian, right? He's like, what's the word? Dude? He's like, what is. What is the word? Like, why do they keep saying dude?
And she said her explanation to her dad that she said it means that you're masculine and awesome at what you do. That is how she described the word dude to her. Her dad, who had no idea. He's blindly investing in this property.
Seth:I love it. You know, we need more of that. We need more producers. Be them independent producers, be them big budget producers. Taking a chance.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Like, the whole reason that that Sean Connery's entire career imploded at the end there was because he didn't understand where movies were going.
And then he just blindly picked a franchise to try to get involved with because he didn't understand things and just was like, ah, whatever, we'll see what happens. But he missed out on being in Star Wars. He missed out on being Lord of the Rings. He missed out on being in Harry Potter.
Like, he missed out on being in. In the biggest franchises in the world because he didn't understand them. Producers at this point are playing it safe.
They're all sitting there just like, we need to. We need to do the thing that's going to make the money. Why don't you swing for the fences sometime?
Seth Rogen was just talking about this with his new show that's been going out and.
And he's just like, the weird thing about Hollywood is it could literally take one guy who just swings for the fences and changes the entire trajectory of the entire industry, and people aren't doing that anymore. You have Christopher, Nolan and Tarantino, and even then, Tarantino just threw out his last script because he didn't think it was.
It was different enough. So, like, I don't know, we need more of this. We need more projects that people don't understand that are going to make money. Do it. Hollywood.
Evan:Well, it's just.
Seth:It's.
Evan:Yeah. And it's just more about knowing that people will. You can give somebody something they've never seen and they'll like it.
You don't always have to go to. Oh, we have to.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:I mean, there's too much focus group Stuff going on.
Seth:Not enough creativity, not enough.
Evan:Just like we think this is really good.
Seth:Yeah, yeah.
Kyle:You must have been reading my mind. Next randos. Sean Connery also turned this down.
Seth:Oh my God.
Kyle:Yes.
Seth:He going to be Rufus.
Kyle:That's literally my next rando. Yeah, they, they. It was a 42 day shooting schedule and they got, they got well into it and they got well under the shooting schedule.
I think they were over the halfway mark and still didn't have a Rufus. They, they hadn't filmed those scenes yet. And Sean Connery turned it down. Charlie Sheen turned it down.
But Charlie Sheen, he didn't turn it down because he didn't want to do it. He was just busy. But he actually liked the idea.
Seth:Wait, Charlie or Martin Sheen?
Kyle:Charlie Sheen.
Evan:That would have been terrible.
Seth:That would have been awful.
Evan:Yeah, they did have too young for that role.
Kyle:Well, there was a time where Rufus was going to be a younger person. They didn't originally. The original conception of Rufus wasn't the fatherly figure and it did morph into that.
Seth:He was another bro.
Kyle:Yeah, it was going to be more of a, of a bro from the past. Yeah, but like you said, totally agree. That would have been awful.
Yeah, but yeah, they, and they, they pitched it to Carlin because the director had worked with them on the film Outrageous Fortune and they often talked about like Alex and Kiana were very star struck by Carlin because this was Pete Carlin.
Seth:Oh yeah.
Evan:Like yes. Oh like yeah, yeah.
Seth:Like 89.
Kyle:Absolutely. Because he was still really cool then. Because I loved his mid-90s stuff too. But that's when he entered philosophical Carlin. Angry as hell Carlin.
Which was still funny but mostly philosophical. Iron Rand style rants.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:But here this is. Carlin was considered Pete cool and apparently like Alex and Keanu and. And Carlin got along like crazy. Like they loved him.
And he was a very tell though.
Seth:The chemistry comes across so well.
Evan:Well, and Carlin seemed like a good, nice guy.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:That like to hang out. These guys are new in the industry. They're kind of just excited to be here.
You can only imagine a guy like, you know, George Carlin feeling like the veteran on the set.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:Who was a more accomplished. Were there any other more accomplished entertainers truly involved in that first project now?
Kyle:Yeah. I mean you think about what he.
Evan:Had built and earned for himself.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:I mean he was kind of like the, the as we say in wwe, the wise man, you know?
Kyle:Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. Yeah. We just.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Some of the B actors like you know, Ted's dad is like a veteran, but these are very, very background guys.
Seth:Oh, yeah, he's very much a character actor. Like he, he's. There's no way he's gonna be a leading man.
Evan:And Carlin, I mean, Carlin's a rock star.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:At this point, literally you're, you're literally a rock star. Like there's. And even, even, I mean, even, you know, you know, a list. Actors and actresses aren't rock stars the way that like.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:A comedian that ventures into that and stepping on stage and, you know, rocking crowds is so different. You know, again, it's a different type of rock star.
But he was bringing a whole level of confidence, energy and just really like legitimacy in comedy.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:To the project. So if you're trying to do a comedy, why not have the, like the literal reigning king of comedy.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Involved in the project.
Seth:Exactly.
Evan:And it was so fun and silly that I almost feel like. Do you have any information on how Carlin's fans reacted and responded to him being in this kind of silly movie?
Kyle:Not the fans, but he. The, the feedback I did see in here was that on the commentary they talk a lot about how he was very humble on set.
Like he, even though he was a rock star, he still didn't feel like acting was his thing. Like he still very much was a stand up first.
So they said he was extremely easy to work with, Amicable, humble, took direction and was just really, really didn't speak out of turn much. Just kind of did what they told him. And when they weren't filming, he was super fun to be around and he, they all became friends on set.
Seth:That's what I love to hear.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Had Point Break happened yet or Was that the 90s?
Kyle:Not yet. 92, baby.
Seth:Oh, so it and Bogus Journey came out the same year.
Kyle:Yep. He had just, just done that and he had also.
Seth:Was his first big role.
Kyle:My Private Idaho kind kind of was the dramatic. The first dramatic really done right in this. But that was mostly a River Phoenix film. Okay, let me, let me double check my times on that.
But yeah, My Private Idaho. What End Point Break had happened. Right. Going into Bogus. Yeah.
Seth:Okay.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:So yeah, this really was Keanu's like, like career defining role before the matrix happened.
Kyle:Yep. Idaho was 91. Like I said, that was really. And 91 was point break to see a 91 point break in My Private Idaho. Okay, so he's ramping. Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, it's kind of crazy to think. I think the only film he had done with before this one was the hockey movie with Patrick Swayze.
Seth:Oh, right.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:How did this do in the box office?
Kyle:It was a $6 million budget and it made 40 million. Yeah.
Evan:That's pretty good.
Kyle:It crushed. Yeah, it crushed. I mean, that's good for what?
Evan:That's good for a movie that kind of ends up becoming a huge cult classic. You know, a lot of cult classics don't do well in the box office.
Seth:And even. I mean, 4 million is still a pretty freaking big budget for that time.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:For that level of movie.
Kyle:They didn't think it was going to get released. Like, they were actually shocked when it came out. Like, Keanu and Alex Winters both talked about, like, they left.
They left the last day of filming thinking, that's probably never going to come out. They did not.
Seth:They just. Number of times I've walked off a set and thought, that is astonishing.
Kyle:Yeah. It's like, that's never going to see.
Seth:The light of day, but it's so.
Evan:Can you imagine going through that whole scene at the end where you do the book report?
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:It's so over the top. I mean, you literally go through this whole movie and you walk away being.
Seth:Like, no one's going to put. This was.
Evan:This was the biggest waste of time we ever could. Like, can you believe that we're. I was actually thinking about that while watching the third one.
I'm like, at some point, these older actors and actresses have to look at what they're wearing.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Look at what it becomes and be like, I'm classically trained.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:This is pretty silly.
Seth:Yeah. That's the thing, though. Like, I know a lot of classically trained actors who. Who. Yeah. They've done. They've done the Shakespeare.
They've done the roles at the Gravitas. Sometimes they just want to. Around.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:They just want to get on set and make people laugh and just have a good time. That not everything needs be this, like, Shakespearean Lord of the Rings. Like, this is going to be a groundbreaking film.
Sometimes you just want to get out there and do a Bill and Ted or a Dumb and Dumber or something. Just absolutely ridiculous.
Evan:But then you also get those people that just completely sell out.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:And they're like, I'm going to do a franchise and it's going to be. You know what I mean? Just the. Those classic. You know, not to say some of these bigger roles with a lot of cgi, like, yeah, sure.
You know, we need the best actors and actresses if we're going to make billions of Dollars. But it. At some point they're like, you know, they even say it in Hollywood. They're like, you got to do one for them and one for you.
One for them, then one for you. So that those that you do for them often end up turning into franchises.
Seth:Oh, absolutely. With six movies, I think that's what I respected so much about Christian Bale doing Gore the God Butcher in.
In Thor, Love and Thunder was the fact that he didn't realize the MCU was a thing. He knew Marvel movies existed, obviously, but he. He was like, I didn't realize they were all connected, interconnected. He's just like, I just was.
I just wanted to play a villain. And he's like, this, this sounded cool.
Evan:And then now he gets to like just pop up in a movie every now and then if his character's there. It's like becoming a part of a universe. It feels like the new goal of those classically trained. I mean, even I feel like Tom Hiddle.
Seth:Hiddleston.
Evan:Hiddleston. I feel like he's relatively classically trained the way that he presents. And I'm like, absolutely. You gotta love just being in a universe.
Seth:Yeah, yeah.
Evan:I mean, that's got to be good for.
Seth:Yeah. The bank, him and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Evan:Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right?
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Last rando. And actually a good segue that the ending scene that you referred to that originally was going to be done in a classroom setting and not this big.
It was going to be like a straight up book report, more so. And they actually filmed it and their photos of it. It's really weird.
They're like all scrunched together at the front of a classroom with a chalkboard.
Evan:That would be pretty wild. But the way that they did it was more good, was more rock and roll. I mean, you got it. You got to have that rock and roll.
Seth:Can you imagine shooting that in the classroom, looking at the dailies that night and then going to the guy with the money and sitting down with him being like, so here's what we got. We need to reshoot this, but 10 times bigger. Can you throw us another 400k?
Evan:What made them decide to do go bigger with that?
Kyle:It's a great question. They said it was very stale. Yeah, that was so jam packed that there was no real. Like they couldn't play off each other.
You couldn't get a great shot where you saw all the action happening. And they really were just kind of. It was just too. It was too stuffy. Like they couldn't do anything. Like all the wild stuff they do at the end.
They couldn't do anything.
Evan:They went back into history and got way too many people.
Kyle:Yeah. Way too much.
Evan:Way too much. They're like, listen, we've already filmed them going back to get all these people. We can't just have them present five.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:You know what? Have taken care of that. If they would have gotten Vlad the Impaler.
Seth:Yeah, yeah.
Evan:Take down some walls, dude.
Kyle:Just cut it down.
Seth:They've gotten Jim Morrison, too.
Kyle:Too many people in here. All right, we'll just impale them. Yeah. Shall we hop in the phone booth?
Evan:Yeah, Top in.
Kyle:Let's hop in the phone booth. Shall we go back to the French. What was that? Which war was that, by the way? Was that the.
Seth: I think that was the War of: Kyle: Let's go back to the War of: Seth:Yeah. Maybe it wasn't. No, that one's here. That one was here.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:I don't know.
Kyle:Let's not get too much in the geography.
Seth:That's when we bought Louisiana.
Evan:Are we talking about just like the French Revolution?
Kyle:Yeah, maybe it was.
Seth:But there's so many. There's so many French Revolution.
Evan:It was the one with Napoleon.
Kyle:The Napoleonic wars.
Seth:Three.
Evan:Yeah. Yeah.
Kyle:Let's war.
Seth:Let's do it.
Kyle:Our positive category. Yes. We love it. We dug it. Affirmative. Is be excellent to each other. Of course.
Seth:Absolutely.
Kyle:And this is going to be. Since we're doing the whole franchise, we're going to use a scorecard across all three of them. And negative. No, I didn't dig it.
Flunking most heinously.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Yes. I love that phrase. Top Bill cast. That would be Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and George Carlin.
Seth:Fucking absolutely. Be excellent to each other. It's you. They created so many, like, moments with. With these three. But especially Keanu and Alex.
Just like their chemistry on screen together was so perfect. You. You bought everything that they said.
And I'm sure improving was kind of a thing, but I guarantee you the majority of what was said had already been written down. Like, that was the script that they were just beautifully conveying. Obviously, we've been talking about it.
George Carlin was just incredible in his very brief role in the series, but, yeah, absolutely be excellent to each other. Were all amazing.
Kyle:Love it.
Evan:Yeah, I'm going be excellent to each other for sure. And amazing. The chemistry, as you said.
Alex Winter, you know, there was always the talk, you know, he never really broke out the same way that Keanu did. But I. He's so good in this role. Yeah, they are so good as these two iconic characters.
And really, when you look at him in the third, he's actually steals the show. He does for some reason. Keanu, he's great. And Keanu, just. Keanu showing up to be there.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:I feel like he definitely. Keanu brought a bit more in the first two.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:And Alex really brought it in the third.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:I think Keanu going off and doing the Matrix and doing John Wick and. And doing those other things pulled him just as an audience member, pulled him out of the role enough.
But having not seen Alex Winters in anything else, you see him come back, and he's still just Bill.
Kyle:He's amassed. He has amassed so much fame and so many iconic roles by the time he reprises it that it's kind of like. Like, I was.
All I could say was like, that's Keanu minus the beard. Yeah, I was just used to the beard by now.
Evan:Well, it's one of those things where you're just, like, glad he showed up.
Kyle:Yeah, yeah.
Evan:Oh, you're like, oh, this iconic actor is going back to the silly thing that.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:It's almost like when Ben Affleck goes back into the view. Askew World plays with Kevin. Kevin Smith and the Jay and Silent Bob people.
Seth:I love that.
Evan:It's like, remember where you remember your earliest roles and where you came from. You're now an Oscar winner, but you are a part of this universe. And so.
Seth:And he clearly brought it. Like, he didn't phone it in.
Evan:Neither of you. But Alex, really, in this third one had some great. In the third one had some really great moments. Yeah. Where you're like.
Is like, I'm so happy to see you.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:Bill and Ted. The thing that made these movies so effective is you felt like you were the third member of Wild Stallions.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:You felt like you were the drummer.
Seth:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Evan:And these were your. Your boys.
Kyle:What's interesting. And each. So they went for this special trilogy that I bought.
They sat down, and they did all these commentaries and special features, like, in one sitting. I think for all the movies, you can totally tell that Keanu and Alex are close friends.
Evan:Remained close friends over the years, for sure.
Kyle:They've stayed in contact. They've been friends. And so I. I don't. I don't think it was. You know, plus, everything you hear about Keanu, he's just, like, the best person.
Evan:The best person ever.
Kyle:So. Yeah, if he wouldn't have done it, it probably Wouldn't have been out of malice. It would have been out of scheduling.
But, like, you can just tell, like, they've been in touch and they've been friends all these years. They hang out. They both play bass. Like, they play base in a band now, right?
Evan:Yeah, he's, like, touring.
Kyle:Yeah. Dog Star. Yeah, that's the band. Yeah, he's been in that band for, like, since the early 90s.
Evan:He's been really, like, doing a lot.
Kyle:More with Dog Star, rocking it out. Really? That's amazing.
Evan:Yeah, they're, like, a lot more active now.
Seth:It is crazy that they've stayed friends because you've seen so many of these types of situations where they do the movie and then it gets big, and then you have more movies that they're contractually obligated to do, and you find out that, like, the actors hate each other.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:And, you know, you have that situation where jealousy could have taken over for Alex. You saw Keanu go on to do two, at least two more franchises. John Wick and the Matrix. I'm sure there's a third one I'm forgetting about.
Hardball should have been a franchise.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Rip Point Break should have been a franchise and not a remake.
Kyle:Yes. I know you're telling. You're preaching to the choir.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:But no, I do think, you know, it. Killer. Cast George Carlin in there and then, you know, him being incorporated in the third. Yeah. The third one really just put a nice bow on it.
It really. It really made us all realize why we love these characters and. And more again, the world they created.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:You know?
Kyle: ke, I'm taking myself back to:Like, what the hell?
Seth:Yeah, dude, man.
Kyle:Like, who is Keanu Reeves? Alex Winter, the only real big role he had. It wasn't even a big role. He was one of the vampires in Lost Boys, another one of my favorite movies.
But he wasn't even an important vampire.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:When he didn't say he. I think he said two words in that movie.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:He's just the blonde vampire.
Evan:And, like, his fangs were still coming in.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:And so in, like. And then it's like, but George Carlin, it's like, what are we. What are we putting together here? So on paper at the time, I can't imagine.
Just, like, what are we doing? Like, even 6 million feels like a lot for this right now, but it comes together marvelously.
And it's interesting having not watched it, having been obsessed with it as a kid. I actually had the toy phone booth. Oh, I had action figures. I had the Bill and Ted action figures that had. It had a Rufus. A phone booth was.
It was amazing. And. But hopping back into it, I was wondering how it would feel. And it felt just as good as. Not better. Like, the nostalgia was really great.
It felt really great going down. So this. They. It was flawless. I give this a big be excellent. To each other. 1 to 0. We are traveling through time. Here we go.
Supporting cast, which is really tough to go through because there's a lot of folks in here. We'll start with Terry Camilleri, who played Napoleon.
Dan Shore, who is Billy the Kid, who really features on the commentary and stuff or on the special features a lot. He was. He talked a lot about this Socrates. Tony Steedman, Rod Loomis as Freud, who was a classical actor.
The biggest one here, though, is AJ Leong, who played Genghis Khan, who is actually a beloved martial arts actor, so.
Seth:Oh, that's cool.
Kyle:He's done a ton of. We just covered the Kill Bill series. I think he's in a few of those movies. Yeah, a lot of martial arts.
Seth:I just had someone message me today and they were just like, thank you for doing these episodes so I don't have to watch these stupid fucking movies.
Kyle:Oh, my God, that's hilarious.
Seth:That's. That's straight out to you, Matt Blevins. You should go find this guy and yell at him like you yelled at me.
Kyle:And then I'll give a shout out to Hal Landon Jr. As captain Logan because I just like him in these movies.
Evan:Yeah.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:I think he's great.
Kyle:Yeah, he is.
Seth:Everyone fucking see again. We've. We've covered enough good and bad movies that it's. It's so easy to see when no one's invested. Everyone's just there for the paycheck, clearly.
Whether or not they were able to read the whole script or whatever. When.
When you sat these actors down and said you were going to play, quote unquote, historically accurate versions of these characters dropped into a modern world.
Evan:Modern San Dimas.
Seth:Yeah, yeah, go for it. They all were clearly like, oh, I'm in. This sounds awesome. And you can tell with especially Napoleon.
But even the guy who played Beethoven, Billy the Kid, Joan of Arc, like, every single one of these actors was like, it, let's go. We are all in. So it's be excellent for me. They were all amazing.
Evan:Yeah. For the first one it's be excellent to each other. I mean, just going back to it.
I think that's what makes the first one so pleasant to go back and revisit is you're like, oh, yeah. So crates is so funny in this.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:Like, oh, yeah. Billy the Kid. Oh, yeah. When they're at the mall and they're all just going off doing their own thing.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:I mean, you're like. You forget that. You're like, I love these people. The same way Bill and Ted grow to love them throughout the. The journey.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:And grow to be caretakers for them. You begin to have that same. Like, we're on a field trip and these are my student, like. And it's. They're just so endearing across the board. So. Yeah.
I mean, going back, I was. I was almost reminded where I'm like, yeah. Like, I love these characters as much as I love Bill and Ted.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:So be excellent to each other for sure. I mean. And I don't know who the other options might have been at the time, but just the level of commitment was. Yeah.
Seth:It came together so well.
Kyle:Yeah. I want to go on something you said earlier.
Like, one thing that's interesting is, like, we can get really indulgent about how we analyze performances and acting.
But one thing that I am learning through studying all these movies is that, like, there is this weird component of, like, especially in a movie like this, that's an indie film. It's a rig risk. No one knows what it is. Like, just having a good time making the movie.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:And you can just even tell on the commentary. Every one of these. These actors playing these historical figures had a blast.
Seth:Hell, yeah.
Kyle:And they love. And it's not. And it wasn't star power because Keanu wasn't a star and Alex Winter wasn't a star yet.
George Carlin was the only star, and he's just hanging out and he probably.
Seth:Wasn'T cast by that point.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Because they didn't know he was going to be in it.
Kyle:A lot of these scenes were made by then. Yes. And so. But these. They're obviously having a good time and they.
What's interesting to me is that every one of these actors, I think the ones that are still alive, I think some have passed, but the ones that are still alive that did these interviews, like, they look back on this so fondly and they were sad they didn't get to do a second one. Like, they all, like, felt like they felt like there was a lot of fun. They have a lot of great Memories.
The biggest thing was that they talk about was when they wrote these characters, they wanted them to act like Bill and Ted. Not completely, but they all wanted him to speak and act like they're, like, in Bill and Ted's world. Because I think.
And I think they do it masterfully, because you kind of forget for a second. Well, Napoleon was kind of a, you know, a vicious conqueror. You know, Genghis Khan. Holy. You know, Freud. You know, mom's. You know, your mom.
You're obsessed with your mom and your penis. It's like Abraham Lincoln's head's gonna get blown off. Socrates is gonna drink hemlock. It's like. So there's some horrible coming.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Towards some of these people. But you. You're totally taken out of all that, and you're like, these are our dudes. Like, it's as. You buy into it, and they.
They play it masterfully and so be excellent to each other.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Yeah, definitely. It definitely just felt like people making, like, a bunch of friends, making a film together.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Throwing around ideas like, if. All right, if Genghis Khan went to the mall, what would he be doing? Smashing mannequin.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:You know, it almost felt like in the moment they were at the mall being like, oh, we need. Like, this is what you'd be doing. This is what you'd be doing. And I'm sure these things were written out and well thought out.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:But again, when they got there, it just felt like they all were like, this is going to be a lot of fun.
Seth:Absolutely.
Evan:You can just definitely pick up on that.
Kyle:That reminds me of. I didn't write this down as a rando, but AJ Leong, that song or that scene in the mall. He does all those stunts, like the trampoline flip and.
Oh, yeah, and landing on the skateboard. He did that. And that thing he used was.
They were originally just using kind of a stick, like, for him to do all the stuff where he's doing all the moves and beating up things. Yeah. Oh, no, no. This is later. This is actually during the last scene when he does the. The blade.
Seth:Oh, yeah.
Kyle:That's his own personal thing they had originally. They're doing a stick and nunchucks, and he's like, this is lame. He was like, I got something better at home. It's.
It's because he's this martial arts legend. It's called a kwondo.
Seth:Yep.
Kyle:And he went, flee, like, can I fly back to LA and get my Kwondo? And so he went back and all that. He's doing. That's a real blade. That's a real everything. And he's doing it because he's, you know, he's this legend.
But, yeah, I love it. So he. He, like, all the stuff about his performance here blew me away. Like, he's doing all the cool stuff. God, I love it.
nd created in improv class in: Seth:And so, yeah, I think this is an appropriate time to discuss the one thing that did not age so well in these movies and that is the use of the word fag. I understand contextually, it was never meant with malice.
Kyle:Right.
Seth:It was definitely meant in modern times. It would be like a no homo or, oh, that's gay, bro. But, like, obviously you're just poking fun. You're not. No one was trying to put anyone down.
Obviously the word itself just hasn't aged well, but it has. You know, Tony Hinchcliffe is bringing it back, so we'll see what happens.
Kyle:Yeah, people are definitely trying to revive it well.
Evan:And I think, whoa. Each movie, at least the first two, it's only said once. Is that right?
Seth:No, it's said a couple of times.
Kyle:I think twice in each.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Is it? Okay. Yeah, that's.
Seth:But again, it's never. It's never went with malice. They're never like. They're never saying it as an insult. It's always a joke where they're like.
They hug for too long and then they're like, oh, that's gay. Ah, fag. Like.
Evan:Yeah, it's the same way you would call someone like. Like call your friend a loser.
Seth:Yeah, exactly.
Evan:But again, at that time, this word was being thrown around in all different kinds of ways.
Seth:Context, you look at it within the context of the time. So that being the one thing that didn't age well. This script is fucking brilliant.
Evan:Yeah, it is.
Seth:So again, we were talking about this at the beginning, but like, the plotline, the storyline is so simple and they hit every beat so beautifully to add the depth that they needed to. To each of the characters. Be them, the historical figures, or Bill and Head, or Bill's dad and Missy. Like, they, they.
They really worked so well to make sure that it all came across and. And they perfectly captured the stoner language.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Of the time. The. The fact that they all want to use the bigger words, but they don't totally fit in. In what they're trying to Say. Or there's too much. But it's.
It's absolutely perfect. So. Yeah, for me, it's definitely. Be excellent to each other.
Kyle:Wonderful. Beautiful.
Evan:Yeah. Be excellent to each other.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:All the way.
Kyle:Love it.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Yeah. I agree. And.
And a little side note, the Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, like we said earlier, also the ugly waiter and the stupid waiter who serve ice cream Napoleon. You can tell they love these characters.
And my big takeaway from just all the materials and watching these three movies back to back is that these are. They're written as guys that on the outset you just think are dumb.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:But you zoom in. They're not dumb.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:And they're not going to fail this history. And I just. Another reason I related to it. I was horrible in school.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:I don't feel like a dumb person. I'm just dumb at school.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:But like, the. Their language and like, you. You instantly buy into this language that they have the dudes and the triumphant and heinous.
Like they're using these big words.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:I think they're written so well and you just kind of buy into it.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:It's just a world that you want to be in. And I love that Ed and Chris created it. And I love that they were. That they were Bill and Ted. An improv class. You know, it's just this story.
And now they have the new man, the new one. And it's just like this story has lived so long and it started an improv class.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:So I love stuff like that.
Evan:It's about just like, you know, again, I. I love the whole Jan. Silent Bob, just kind of like.
Kyle:Yes.
Evan:The whole heterosexual life, mate.
Seth:Yeah. And it just.
Evan:These movies.
Seth:Can't wait to talk about that in the third one.
Evan:These movies just feel like these guys love each other. These characters are probably an extension of them. You know, these characters are probably an extension of themselves. And they're like. Let's just.
Let's just write about two guys that are totally triumphant all the time and love each other and believe in each other, but are often. And often. But often have to remind each other how much they love each other and how triumphant they are. It. It's.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:So good.
Kyle:Yeah. I love it. All right. It is 3 to 0. Directing. Stephen Herrick and I think Stephen had directed. Was it Stephen who directed or the producer? A Critters.
I'm trying to remember if he did Critters.
Seth:I don't know.
Kyle:There was. He didn't have a lot of credits. No. It must have been the producer. The producer had done Critters, but. Yeah. Stephen Herrick, who really wasn't.
He was a TV guy.
Seth:Okay. I was gonna say. Has he done much since? Like.
Kyle:Not really. No. He was a TV guy. And did he do the second one? Oh, no, he did. He did Mr. Holland's opus.
Seth:Oh.
Kyle:Oh, he did do Critters. No, I just. Sorry, I looked at the wrong part. Stephen Herrick did critters.
Seth:Okay.
Kyle: and the Three Musketeers. The: Seth:The Charlie Sheen one. Oh, yeah.
Kyle:So actually, I was wrong about that. Yeah. He's done a few things.
Seth:Interesting. I mean, he killed it on this. I.
I think it's so important, especially if you're not going to write the script as a director, that you just get the project. And clearly, even though the producer didn't get it, he got it. He, as a director, understood the assignment and.
And just went head first and everything.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:So it's. Yeah. Definitely be excellent for me.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:I'm going be excellent too.
Especially when you think about, you know, you've got these new guys, you got a lot of money on the script, you got two lead guys that no one really knows.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:And it's your job as the director to bring the best out in them.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:Basically teach them to be leaders on set alongside with, you know, George Carlin. So you don't get that without really strong directing.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:And you don't get Keanu and Alex being really a joy to work with as new guys. And without a director, that's really reminding them, hey, I know y'all think this isn't gonna, you know, if. If you're.
If your main actors are walking away being like, I don't think this is ever gonna.
Kyle:Yeah, yeah.
Evan:See the light of day. You need the director to be like, that's how every actor feels.
Kyle:Yeah, yeah.
Evan:Still show up.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:We're making something silly. People are going to like it.
And so I think, you know, whether we're talking about the actual directing of the film or just how people on the screw may have been managed to. To get the best performances, I think from what I can tell, be excellent to each other.
Kyle:Yeah, I love that. I love everything you said. I can't really add much more other than, you know, there is.
This doesn't happen all the time in film, but there are movies that are made where the writers are more involved. Yeah. A lot of times they write it, send it in, and they do script polishing on set. That happens.
Or they'll outsource it like on Crimson Tide when they send it over to Tarantino and he fix it up. But there are times and. And it usually more indie films where the writers are actively involved in making the movie too. And.
And because it was such a passion project for that I admire the director for. For Stephen, for seeing that this was a passion project for these two guys. Letting their voice be heard, letting them help coach on that area.
And sometimes that's a disaster where you have too many people. But here I think it worked out wonderfully. I think he stood out of the way and obviously he went on to make a couple great. Collins opens.
Opus is a celebrated film. Yeah. So I give it a total. Be excellent to each other.
Seth:Hell yeah.
Kyle:And I also love. I just. I just love that he just. I don't know. There's some weird. There's a weird.
One thing that you can just give credit to the director for is there's a weird coolness vibe flow that just flows. It's very subtle.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:No one here is trying too hard to be cool. But there's a weird. I don't know if you guys know what I'm saying.
But like there's a stream of just coolness that just kind of goes through the whole movie.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:And it's just so sub. Subtext. It's great and it's not on the nose. And it's wonderful. I love it. So. Yes. We are five to zero what's in front of us? Cinematography.
Seth:Four to zero.
Kyle:Four to zero. God, my math. Lately, he always keeps my Math in check. 4, 0, what's in front of us? Cinematography, production design, sound, costumes. Huge year.
Editing. Epic. Yeah. They're so epic.
Evan:Yeah.
Seth:For being so early in the computer animation time period. So good.
Kyle:Yeah. Really good. Right.
Seth:Never. Obviously it. It feels kind of dated, but it doesn't feel poorly aged.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Like there's. You watch the. The first mummy movie. It's still fun. But God damn, none of that animation aged in any way. Well, it all looks like dog.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:The animation in this, anytime they needed to, especially in. In the time realm where they're floating around, looked great.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:The costumes were perfect. Some of the most iconic, just like street wear costumes I've ever seen. On top of Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Joan of Arc.
Like all these historical figures. Everything was so good. The set design, whoever. Whoever was in charge of making everything feel lived in did such a good job.
The editing was absolutely flawless. The cinematography was simple but effective. Never once did I feel like it was trying To.
To do too much or did I ever feel like it wasn't doing enough? Like, it all just hit so well. So, yeah. B, excellent for me.
Kyle:The freaking swimsuit, dude. The Napoleon swimsuit. Oh, my God. Amazing.
Seth:Oh, my God. I love it. Yeah.
Evan:I mean, I'm going be excellent to each other because I'm trying. I am trying to look at this from, like, you know, I do have a hard time going back and watching some movies from the 80s and early 90s.
They just don't age well from the way that it was shot, the production, special effects, things like that. So I am trying to decipher, is it like, do I love this movie and so I'm willing to, like, let some things pass.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:Or is it, like, to what Seth was saying? And I do think it's what Seth was saying. Like, I was rewatching this and I'm like, these are great shots.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:When they are in the, like, time realm, it's the perfect level of, like, cartoony type of like, we know what we're doing. We're not actually trying to make this look like what it is.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:We're just giving you, like, a version. And then if you look at how, you know in the third one, it's almost like.
And the way they did it in the third one when they're time traveling, it honestly feels like that could have been made in the early.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Like a bad way, but not in a bad way. In a very. Like, this is still very accessible.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Because sometimes you watch stuff from the, you know, 70s and 80s and you're just kind of like. And even in early 90s where you're just like, wow.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:Maybe then I believed it because, wow. Movie magic. But now I'm like, this is. That was bad.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:But this wasn't that. I mean, even. Even when the, you know, phone booth comes down and you got the little.
Kyle:Yes.
Evan:I mean, the electricity still going.
Kyle:Yes.
Evan:It's. It's all, again, still very. Just like a part of the world when you can.
When you're not trying to actually recreate what the future might be like and just create things that are a part of this world and universe, you have so much more freedom and leeway to kind of just do whatever you want.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Right.
Evan:When you're like, these are the laws that govern this universe. The laws that govern our universe in real life are not the same laws.
So we're looking a little, you know, it can look whatever however we want it to look.
Kyle:Yeah. I love that, dude. Everything you said was great. I. I totally mimic that idea of going back because, you know, I'm the old guy.
Like, I always make old guy observations on this podcast because, I mean, I just. I just. I only love the shit I grew up with. So I'm constantly on this podcast trying to be aware of my nostalgia.
Be like, how much, how like we were doing this with Blevins on Kill Bill. It's like how much of this is nostalgia and how much of this is real. And so I was wondering. I'm like, I'm really thoroughly loving this visually.
So we've already talked about all the other elements, but I was like. So I was thinking to myself, well, what's another movie in the 80s I could. I could think about with these special effects.
se just look really great for: Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:84. Easily and say, I mean, again, it's 84.89. A lot happened.
But, like, I think most people look back nostalgia wise and think Terminator was this just gorgeous. The effects, as great as they are and they're still fun, were clunky as hell.
Seth:They were clunky and they were purposefully kept very low scale.
Kyle:Yes, they were. Because they were miniatures and things like that, dude. Like, you wouldn't think it subcon.
Like you wouldn't think it at a conscious level that maybe Bill and Ted's effects are better than a Cameron film, but they crush Terminator. And I'm a die hard Terminator fan. I was thinking, God, this crushes anything.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:And maybe anything that came out for the next few years from a special effects perspective, just absolutely great. And the only other thing I say is this like, like the exclamation point on this is. I'm googling. Where can I get a Wild Stallions T shirt?
Like what I want. I still. If you can help me. Bill's specific. The white one with the shoulder. I want that. Where can I get one? So that's. To me.
I don't leave a lot of movies thinking, I got to get that.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:So they need to be selling Bill and Ted Wild Stallions.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:They're missing out if they don't have a store.
Kyle:Yes.
Evan:Sight in a store.
Kyle:Help me find it crew.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:So, yeah. Be excellent to each other. We are just cruising along here, dudes.
Evan:Yeah.
Kyle:So these are the bro categories that are going to be on all of these episodes. The first one is just duo it.
Seth:Okay.
Kyle:And this is. You talked about Jay and Silent Bob. You Know, this kicked off a very interesting era of buddy comedies, buddy movies.
You know, the Jay and Silent Bob's, Harold and Kumar, Wayne's World. There's all these. And it really is an interesting little subset of films in and of itself. But you know, how does this, how does this stack rank?
Because I'll tell you, Kevin Smith thinks that there's nothing better. He said, I agree.
Evan:Did Bill and Ted.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:He said he actually did a Comic Con during COVID after the new one came out. And he was like, he had tears in his eyes because he was just like, there is no Jay and Silent Bob. If there is no Bill in town.
Seth:There'S no Jay and Silent Bob. There's obviously no Wayne's World, there's no Pineapple Express.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Without this movie like that, I, I, I haven't seen Zoolander, but I know it's kind of also like a, a buddy rival comedy situation. So it's like you don't have this somehow created a genre.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Even though the genre of, of buddy action, buddy cop films existed, this, this created its own entire subculture.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Of films. And, and yeah. Like I 100 agree with you and spent. None of the other ones exist without this.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:If this one had not been successful, you wouldn't have anything else. So it's absolutely be excellent for me.
Kyle:Love it.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:This was a stoner movie without the weed. Yeah, it was pg.
Seth:Yeah. A PG stoner.
Kyle:Which is pretty cool.
Evan:It's amazing.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:It goes back to this idea that you don't need drugs, you don't need sex, you don't need all these things. Sometimes you just need like you said, a simple plot.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Bill and Ted need to pass history.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:You're gonna go back in time, kidnap the most important historical figures and bring them to modern day San Diego.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:You don't need guns, crime, you know, so it's be excellent to each other across the board.
Kyle:Yeah. Beautifully said, man. Yeah. I love, and I love Jay and Silent Bob, but it definitely is the other version of this. The much crap. Yes.
I mean, again, I love Chasing Amy is one of my favorite movies. I love that movie. You're talking about Ben Affleck going back to that universe. That's such a great Ben Affleck movie.
But yeah, I, I agree and I think, I just think it just is so simple too. There's nothing, it is the history class. It is just this simple concept.
And, and I, I actually think this is where Keanu's personality actually benefits him on screen because he Gets. He's one of my favorite actors of all time. I know his range. It's not like I'm. I'm not stupid. It's just like Arnold is my favorite actor of all time.
Not because he's Shakespearean, because he's Arnold. I know he's not Daniel Day Lewis. Who gives a. I'm that way with Keanu, too. But here, his personality really shines through in the way that.
And these guys, like, you watch them talk off screen on the commentaries and stuff and the. And the special special features, it kind of feels like you're seeing Bill and TED Talk.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:They're not. It's like they really were kind of themselves here too, in some way. So I think that's really cool. And. And I love the simplicity of the story.
And I think it really. You can't. You can't argue against the fact that this set off a new vibe, like a new thing.
Seth:Absolutely love it.
Kyle:It be excellent to each other. Six to zero. We are just. Just phone boothing here.
Seth:Phone boothing it in.
Kyle:Phone boothing it here. This category is called Back to the Future.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:This is also a time travel movie.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:And if without a few changes, this might have been called a copy of Back to the Future, but they tweaked it. What do we think about this as a time travel movie?
Seth:Like I was saying earlier, a lot of other time travel movies, I feel like, get too deep in the science and trying to explain the science of time travel. This one, like I said, they're literally just making up their own rules as they go.
Kyle:Yes.
Seth:And they work literally.
Again, my favorite moment of that is literally just standing in the police station and Keanu closes his eyes and Alex is like, bro, what are you doing, dude? He's like remembering to do something before and then it just happens. Like, it's just. You don't. You don't get that from any other time travel thing.
And I love time travel movies. Sure. Back to the Future is all right. It's not my favorite time travel situation. I do. I think the first one is quite good. The third one is fun.
That's the one that I mostly watched growing up. Just weird things. My parents, for whatever reason, that's the one that they were like, yeah, this is fine.
I guess there was no attempting to your mother in that one. So that one they were cool with. But I don't know. It. It never resonated with me in the same way this did.
This would probably be for me, top three time travel movies ever made.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Right up there with Primer and Looper. So.
Kyle:Yeah.
Seth:Yeah, it's.
Kyle:Looper's good.
Seth:Oh, my God. It's. So I have the screenplay over there. It's. It's definitely. Be excellent for me because this shouldn't be a time travel movie that works, but.
It does.
Kyle:Yeah. Love it.
Evan:I haven't seen a lot of time travel movies, so I don't totally know. I did see what was Nolan's tenet.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:And I didn't get it.
Seth:We covered that one.
Evan:I mean, I tried. I took my mom. I was like, this is going to be a good movie. And she was mad at the end. She was like, that was so weird.
To be honest, I haven't really seen Back to the Future in a very long time.
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:Haven't seen Looper. I think the trilogy ends up being a time travel trilogy.
So we'll say be excellent to each other for the trilogy, because in the third one, you start to see how things are. You're messing up and things are being placed and where they shouldn't be because of time travel.
So the laws of time travel and them seeing each other in the future and. But if we're just talking about the first one.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:To me, it's not a time travel movie.
Kyle:Okay.
Evan:It's just like us kind of.
Kyle:That.
Evan:To me, there's no. There's no talking about the laws of time travel. Potentially. The. The. The universal principles around it. Yeah.
If anything, like you said, it's just we're making up rules as we go. And I like.
I like when we're talking about stuff like this, if we really want to call it a time travel movie, I'm looking for something more like the movie Arrival with Amy Adams. The Alien movie. If you've seen that. We're like, there's time travel, but it's discussed in a very, like, philosophical.
Like, what if it actually was real?
Seth:Yeah.
Evan:And you could do it type of way.
Kyle:Yeah.
Evan:For. For it to qualify as a time travel movie for me, I think it needs to hit that mark.
But this is a fun time travel movie where it's easy to tap into and it's not Tenant.
Kyle:Yeah. You know, I love that. Yeah.
Evan:Because Tenant gets too into the weeds about tennis.
Seth:Of.
Evan:Of time travel.
Seth:And.
Evan:Whereas this is just like. No, you just dial a number and you go back in time and. Well, what if this.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Antenna's broken. You got any gum? Okay.
Seth:Right.
Evan:Yeah. You know, so I don't know. I think I actually need to give it a failing most. Heinously you're gonna get.
Kyle:Oh, you're gonna.
Evan:For a big time travel movie. Just because to me, it's not that.
Kyle:Okay.
Evan:You know, to me, that's not what it's really going for.
Seth:Sure.
Kyle:Okay.
Evan:What do you think?
Kyle:I totally. I dig it, dude. I dig everything you said. I. I definitely could see that perspective. For sure. I do. I do actually give it the.
Be excellent to each other here because I was. This was actually one of the areas I was most concerned because we have talked about tenant and we talked about tenant ad nauseam on this thing.
We like dissected the. Out of it and.
Seth:And that was a great episode.
Kyle:And then we have Interstellar, which is this other version of that for no one. Like, there's just been a lot like kind of the stuff you described. There's been a lot done in this area since this movie came out.
And I was like, I don't. I didn't really remember how they kind of tackled it. And it. Like you said, they didn't really tackle it at all. Just do it.
But I found it refreshing for some reason, again.
And I think that's the thing I keep going back to in all these categories is for whatever reason, I'm usually a hyper skeptical person and try to pick shit apart, but here I'm just like, I'm in.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Time travel, sure. Fix the. Fix the broken antenna with gum. Sure. It's just like, bring them all back. Why not? You know, I'm just bought in.
So for that, you know, for that reason, I do. I do give it a. Be excellent to each other. Kind of wild.
Seth:Yeah.
Kyle:Wild Stallions 7 to 0. Wow. I didn't know what to expect here.
Seth:But, man, Clean Sweep.
Kyle:What a fun movie to go back into.
Seth:Yeah. Yeah.
Evan:This was. This was very, very, most totally triumphant.
Kyle:Hell yeah. Well, we're. So we're gonna do Bogus the bogus adventure next. Make sure you watch Journey. God, Bogus Journey. Man. I.
Dude, doing three movies in one day is tripping me up. We've never done three episodes ever in one day. But make sure before you watch the next one that you go check out a special.
So you have a little context here. It's Evan Burke's twice removed. You can watch it on YouTube or Spotify or wherever you listen to stuff. I'm Kyle.
Seth:I'm Seth.
Evan:I'm Evan Burke.
Kyle:Be excellent to each other.
