Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Trilogy (Excellent Adventure, Bogus Journey, Face The Music) [4K Ultra HD]

Director(s): Stephen Herek, Peter Hewitt, Dean Parisot

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter

Release Date: August 6, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 9/10

Synopses:

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure finds our non-heinous heroes (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves) in danger of flunking History until the righteous Rufus (George Carlin) arrives in a time-traveling phone booth and they call on the past’s biggest names for help!

In Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, the titular time travelers aren’t making history — they are history! When an evil-doer from the future sends their eviler robot twins to assassinate and replace them, the guys wind up face to face with the Grim Reaper (William Sadler)!

In Bill & Ted Face The Music, the now middle-aged duo, yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, meet a visitor from the future who warns that only their song can save life as we know it! Along the way, they will be helped by their daughters, gnarly historical figures, and music legends.

‘Bill and Ted’ invite you along for a most excellent collection of all three films together on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray!

First, in ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ Bill and Ted discover that they’re destined to help save the world, but in order to reach their destiny they will first have to find a way of not flunking history which just might be possible thanks to a time-traveling phone booth and the guidance of the righteous Rufus. Then in ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ the pair end up taking a most unpleasant ride into hell after being killed by evil versions of themselves, but getting out will be the real challenge and will require beating Death at a variety of games just to start. Then, in ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ our heroes are still struggling to make that song of legend destined to save the world and when they discover that they have mere hours to do so end up heading out on another wild time-traveling adventure seeking answers from their future-selves, while their daughters try to help however possible.

The ‘Bill and Ted’ films are perfect examples of easygoing and incredibly enjoyable movies. Each entry in the series seems to effortlessly deliver hilarious, goofy and feel good fun from start to finish. The first two movies ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ and ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ have always held a special place in my life and I’d be at a loss to even guess how many times I’ve revisited each over the years, not to mention during my childhood alone, and the latest entry in the series, 2020’s ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ offered a nice helping of hilarity and nostalgia with a few upgrades in the way of modern story and effects. While it may not be quite as memorable as its predecessors it certainly has no trouble offering up an awfully entertaining ride that’s worth taking for any fans of the series.

Featuring standout performances from both Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter who are both great in these iconic roles and have some marvelous chemistry that is undeniably one of the biggest strengths in the series and one of the key factors that make the movies work so splendidly. There are of course various elements in the first two installments that show their age to a degree but for the most part they hold up remarkably well and still have no trouble serving up all of the fun and humor that they fans remember, while the third film does a commendable job of returning to the world and getting much of it right while delighting dedicated fans with numerous throwbacks and nods to the previous pair of films.

All three films in the ‘Bill & Ted’ saga arrive home together on 4K Ultra HD in Shout Select’s 6-disc ‘Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Trilogy’ 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray release which serves up all three films in the series on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray. The new box set offers up most non-heinous Ultra High Definition video presentations of all three films with Dolby Vision which are paired with some quite solid multichannel DTS-HD MA soundtracks that together immerse viewers in the hilarious time-traveling fun like never before.

The new collection also features a most righteous collection of bonus content including hours of extra goodies. In addition the release features Blu-ray versions of all three films, with separate cases for each film in the series and all three packed inside a nice, sturdy and glossy side-slip collector’s box. All in all it’s a pretty spectacular collection that should have fellow fans of the ‘Bill & Ted’ trilogy extremely excited. For any fans that would love to own the saga on 4K UHD and are already considering a purchase, the ‘Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Trilogy’ collection is definitely recommended.

VIDEO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Trilogy’ features a full 2160p Ultra High Definition presentation with Dolby Vision and HDR-10 on all three films (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Bill & Ted Face the Music) presented in their original Aspect Ratios; 2.35:1 for Excellent Adventure, 1.85:1 for Bogus Journey and 2.39:1 for Face the Music. The video presentations are each sourced from new 4K transfers (aside from Excellent Adventure which borrows the transfer from Shout’s standalone 4K release which included a 4K Restoration By Studio Canal), with notes below regarding each:

‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ features a 4K Restoration By Studio Canal, while ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ features a new 4K Scan From The Original 35mm Camera Negative, and ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ features a new 4K Remaster From The Digital Intermediate.

The video presentations look pretty spectacular for the most part and offer clean, sharp and source faithful presentations on each that hold up admirably throughout with little to no issues or faults to be uncovered along the way.

‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ looks slightly less stellar than the other two films but still looks quite fantastic even so and offers a sharp and richly detailed presentation throughout that’s rich with grain and exudes a true filmic look. On occasion it can look almost mildly washed out and seems to offer a bit less pop courtesy of the Dolby Vision HDR, yet still keeps everything looking crisp and precise coloring wise. Altogether it still makes for an improvement over the various Blu-ray releases and is almost certainly the best that the film has ever looked at home to say the least.

‘Bogus Journey’ and ‘Face the Music’ both absolutely shine on the other hand and look outstanding, not to mention mark significant improvements over their previous Blu-ray releases (Bogus Journey is surely the most standout upgrade and looks like an entirely new film at times), providing far sharper and more vibrantly colored presentations throughout that benefit immensely from the Dolby Vision HDR which makes the duos clothes thoroughly pop with more lifelike and precise colors that also look noticeably brighter and fuller.

Overall, all three of these Ultra High Definition presentations do their job well and should excite fans; even if the first film doesn’t look quite as spectacular as its two sequels it still delivers capably and all three offer rewarding upgrades to the various DVD and Blu-ray releases over the years.

AUDIO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack for all three films. Each of these multichannel soundtracks delivers crisp, clean and fairly immersive audio presentations that hold up nicely from start to finish. They repeatedly utilize all five available channels in order to send music, time-travelling and action related effects along with plenty more zipping throughout the various speakers regularly whenever fitting, while always making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously remain clean and fully audible. Overall, these are solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that may not match modern day blockbusters in aggression but still deliver in every way required of them and never falter or disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Trilogy’ features a solid helping of bonus content carried over from previous releases of the films including new extras from Shout’s previous 2-movie Blu-ray set and WB’s Blu-ray release of ‘Face the Music’. I’ve broken down the extras by disc below for simplification and easier navigation.

Disc 1 (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – 4K UHD) includes ‘2 Audio Commentary’ tracks; ‘Audio Commentary with Star Alex Winter and Producer Scott Kroopf’, and ‘Audio Commentary with Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon’, in addition to the retrospective documentary ‘Time Flies When You Are Having Fun: A Look Back at a Most Excellent Adventure’ (running approximately 61 minutes in length) and the film’s ‘Theatrical Trailer’ (approximately 2 minutes).

Disc 2 (Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey – 4K UHD) features ‘2 Audio Commentary’ tracks; ‘Audio Commentary with Star Alex Winter and Producer Scott Kroopf’ and ‘Audio Commentary with Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon’, along with the Retrospective Documentary ‘Bill and Ted Go To Hell: Revisiting A Bogus Journey’ (running approximately 52 minutes) and the film’s ‘Theatrical Trailer’ (2 minutes).

Disc 3 (Bill & Ted Face The Music – 4K UHD) does not include any extras.

Disc 4 (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – Blu-ray) includes the same extras featured on Disc 1, in addition to ‘The Original Bill and Ted: In Conversation with Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon’ (approximately 20 minutes) and ‘The Hysterical Personages of Bill and Ted’ (15 minutes).

Disc 5 (Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey – Blu-ray) offers each of the extras included on Disc 2, along with ‘The Most Triumphant Making Of’ (running approximately 31 minutes), ‘Score! – Interview with Guitarist Steve Vai’ (13 minutes), ‘Air Guitar Tutorial with Bjorn Turoque & The Rockness Monster’ (13 minutes), plus the ‘Vintage EPK’ for the film (7 minutes) and ‘The Linguistic Stylings of Bill and Ted’ (4 minutes).

Disc 6 (Bill & Ted Face the Music – Blu-ray) features ‘The Official Bill & Ted Face the Music Panel at Comic-Con @Home’ (running approximately 43 minutes in length), ‘Be Excellent to Each Other’ (running approximately 1 minute), ‘A Most Triumphant Duo’ (1 minute), ‘Social Piece (Excellence)’ (1 minute) and ‘Death’s Crib’ (1 minute).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Remastered Blu-Ray discs included in the release and resized. They do not represent the quality of the 4K Ultra HD discs themselves and will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 9/10

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‘Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Trilogy’ is Now Available to Own in a 6-Disc 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Box Set from Shout Select!

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You can purchase ‘Bill & Ted’s Most Triumphant Trilogy’ in 4K UHD on Amazon HERE or purchase it directly from Shout HERE!

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