We dive into the ’90s Bill and Ted sequel, addressing some serious points about the duo’s psyche and home life as well as the heart we find in rock ‘n roll. And we run down the week in geek, including Dark Knight tix already (no, really) on sale, the miserable Bane ‘Knight trailer, our take on digital media availability, and the new medical tricorder X-prize (think Siri meets WebMD).
Glad to see the Grim Reaper love. William Sadler is a terrific actor. From evil military villain in Die Hard 2, to loveable Grim Reaper, to bumpkin prisoner in Shawshank Redemption, he is just one of those little-known actors who can fill almost any role you give him. He was excellent on both Deep Space Nine (Section 31’s Sloan) and as the sheriff on Roswell. I’m always happy to see him pop up in something I’m watching.
It’s funny that you talk about Bill and Ted being “outsider geeks.” You know how in many groups of friends there’s always that one guy who is not exactly part of the group but oh-so-desparately wants to be? That’s the Grim Reaper through most of this movie. By the end of the movie, he is one of the gang, but for most of the movie it just plays as him trying so hard to be accepted by the cool kids. It’s a fun take.
Not all that far into the show yet, but this past weekend, I listened to one of the commentaries on the Apollo 13 BluRay with Jim & Marylin Lovell. Just awesome.
Bogus Journey has some of my favorite time-travel mechanics in it. I love how, when they’re in the cage, the entire temporal chess match plays out, and we don’t see any of it. “Well, when we escape, we’ll…” “But WE have the key!”
I think Sean said something about the obviously bad photoshop on the Newspaper headlines and Magazine covers shown during the ending credit of Bogus Journey. I wish I had more of an eye for that sort of thing because I didn’t notice anything - I was just concentrating on what the stories were.
I remember buying a single episode of TNG from Suncoast Motion Picture Company back before TNG had concluded. $25.00 for a single episode (I picked “The Offspring”), I’m sure Suncoast marked it up a bit, but still it was painfully expensive.
Even though they’re pretty expensive, you can get the entire TNG series for ~$175. They’re not great transfers, but they’re watchable. I’m eager to see the blueray stuff. I’ve been kind of “Meh” when it comes to HD, but if they get it right, I’m on board.
Okay, so (forgive me Sean) I did not get the Duck Joke at all, so I decided to look it up and see if I could make sense of it:
Three young women in there thirties are on a road trip and are tearing down the freeway. unfortunatley, they lose control, the car flips over the guard rail on to the opposite lanes and gets smashed by an eighteen wheeler.
Up at the pearly gates, all three of them are greeted by St. Peter. He tells them. “All of you led very good lives down on earth, so all of you will be asmitted into paradise. The only rule: DON"T STEP ON THE DUCKS.”
confused, they all ask “um…what?”
St. Peter says “if you step on one duck, it quacks. if a duck quacks, other ducks will start quacking, and…well…you’ll see.”
With that, the gates opened and the three waltzed inside. And, sure enough, All of heaven is covered with ducks. there is almost no room to walk with the millions of ducks.
a day of careful stepping later, the first woman steps on a duck. seconds later, every single duck in heaven is quacking. it’s so loud the women aren’t suprised if earth could hear it. hours later, when the quacking ceased, an angel appears with a ver ugly man and chains him to the lady and tells her this is her eternal punishment for the duck-stepping.
Not wanting the same fate, the other two women become very cautious for the next week, but sure enough, the second lady steps on a duck.
she gets the same punishment as the first lady.
The third lady becomes so careful that, a year-and-a-half later, she is still duck-free. then, an angel appears next to her with a very handsome man and chains him to her.
Thinking that this must be a reward for her good-doing she asks the man gleefully “What did I do to deserve this?”
And the man replies with a grimace, “I don’t know about you, but I stepped on a duck.”
Hopefully that’ll help anyone who didn’t quite get it.
Yea I have noticed that Star Trek series is jacked up in price compared to other series.
Mad props to Audra for a Mercer Mayer (Little Critters) reference.
I am deep into reading these to my toddler daughter … over and over and over again … 
OB
For my money, Maurice Sendak is where it’s at, but Mercer Mayer did some great stuff before he started churning 'em out en mass (which, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with it). My fave MM books are One Monster After Another, The Wizard Comes to Town, and Professor Wormbog in the Search for the Zipperump-A-Zoo.
I certainly didn’t realize it when I wrote the GWC blog article last December on what movies I was most looking forward to in 2011, but 2011 was indeed the year of the sequel as Chuck pointed outin this podcast. There were a total of 27 “sequels” released to the box offices in 2011.
I found a USA Today article published in February of 2011 that includes a great table with the total number of sequels from 2000 to 2011.
Not all “sequels” in 2011 are equal, though. When reading another article published on slashfilm.com in February 2011 I quickly ran down the list of what counted as a sequel in 2011. Not all the titles are true “sequels” of an orginal or even as big of box office hits as each other:
Cars 2
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules
The Hangover Part II
Happy Feet 2
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
Johnny English Reborn
Kung Fu Panda 2
Piranha 3DD
Sherlock Holmes: The Book of Shadows
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Madea’s Big Happy Family
Paranormal Activity 3
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Scream 4
Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One)
Fast Five
Final Destination 5
Puss in Boots
X-Men: First Class
Winnie the Pooh
The Muppets
Rise of the Planet Of The Apes
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two
Both articles reference Box Office Mojo which could have been the first article published on this story in January of 2011.
I haven’t found any information on sequels to be released in 2012 yet. I may have to count them myself.
~Shooter Out
Audra mentioned that she thought it was cool that Bill and Ted were watching ST:TOS together. Is it just me or was that the very same rock formation in the ST:TOS scene that Bill and Ted were later killed by the “Evil Us’s?”
If you were wondering how is Alex Winter doing these days…
Alex Winter interview with “That Sci-fi Show” at May-Hem 2011
Interview with Alex Winter AKA Bill from Bill & Ted at Spooky Empire May-Hem
Vote for your favorite GWC Podcast 306 quote(s). This poll will close on February 7th, 2012 at 05:49 AM.
I’ve never seen Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey but now I totally want to.
I taught my brother to read with Little Critter books. Delightful.
No need to choose! Sendak is great. But you’re especially right about earlier Mayer work. My favorite story as a wee little Starbuccaneer was Mayer’s retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, a Norweigan folk tale.
The book’s out of print now, but that is an example of the truly gorgeous illustration that went with it. A few birthdays ago my mom tracked down a copy for me and I have it in my apartment–still read it on occasion.
Those of you with xx younguns, try to find a copy. It’s princessy enough for the girls in that mode, but the protagonist is so frakking badass and lives by a strong ethical code. Love.
SG-1 has the BEST DVD commentaries.
First time I saw Bogus Adventure, I fell in love with all the Death scenes. William Sadler is one of those actors that disappear into the character. He is amazing. I remember when I saw his name in the DS9 credits, I yelped. Sloane is a wonderful character and nemesis to Bashir.
The episode is ‘Arena’, the one with the Gorn. Yes. Bill and Ted visit the Vasquez Rocks, the same site where the TOS episode was filmed.
Audra is totally correct. Alex Winter looks like Michelangelo’s David
Thank you both for your ideas on these books
I’ll mention to our family quartermaster (aka my wife) . I’m sure she’ll track down these books. Our daughter is a sponge for any book with pictures and a story for me to read to her
Cheers
OB
Yup years ago visited there on drive from Vegas to Santa Monica for brother-in-laws wedding. We took a photo of me holding a large rock over my head … good times … good times