Back in 1989, a dynamic duo was introduced to the movie-goer that would forever change the way we say "Whoa." I'm not talking about Joey Lawrence here. I'm talking about the WYLD STALLYNS!! (Air guitar motion here)Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) and Bill S. Preston, Esquire (Alex Winter) brought us one excellent adventure throughout time and one bogus journey through the afterlife. And now it has been announced (actually about a month ago, it seems) that Reeves and Winter have agreed to participate in a third installment ... like, totally.
Reeves confirmed it at the Toronto Film Festival, and Winter had an interview with MTV's Adam Rosenberg (via Twitter) to explain more about it.
Here's a snippit: "We kicked around the idea over the years and had always thought if we could make something that was as kind of genuine in spirit as the originals and without falling prey to kind of retro cynicism or something that was unnecessary, it would be worth doing," Winter said.
"The essence of what we've always wanted to do is to make a 'Bill & Ted' movie. We don't want to make a cynical 'here's Bill and Ted - you guys are our kids, now you guys go be Bill and Ted and the franchise can live for another 25 years!' It's not that. It's a straight up, what's the funniest and most surprising take on where Bill and Ted would be right now if we stopped back in on them? That's what we're doing."
It's been over 20 years, so where would Bill & Ted be today? Married to Princesses Joanna and Elizabeth with kids? Rock stars traveling the world? Science professors teaching the aspects of time travel? Only time will tell.
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And with all this talk about Winter and Reeves I shall now fittingly give my choice Halloween movie - 'Freaked,' starring none other than Winter and Reeves.
Released in 1993, 'Freaked' is a pretty unknown movie. After a major budget cut, the film lost out on advertising, forcing 20th Century Fox to pull it from a nationwide release. It ended up only being released in two theaters at the time. Two theaters!
Critics came to the rescue with mostly positive reviews, and after being released on VHS, it soon garnered a cult-like following.
Winter plays Ricky Coogin - a once-beloved, now-pompous, child-actor who is hard-up for work. Ricky agrees to be the spokesperson for a toxic fertilizer chemical called Zygrot 24 in South America after being offered $5 million for the job.
Ricky heads off to South America with his best pal Ernie (Michael Stoyanov) and comes across a group of protesters, including a young woman named Julie (Megan Ward). After tricking her into thinking they, too, are against Zygrot 24, the three of them head to a protest, but not before taking a detour to Freek Land.
Trouble begins here as Elijah C. Skuggs (Randy Quaid) captures the three of them to be in his freak show. He mutates them into creatures by rubbing Zygrot 24 on their bodies - Ricky becomes an ov
erly-disgusting half-man, half-monster, and Ernie and Julie are merged to share one body.Ricky, Ernie and Julie soon join the other freaks, most notable the Bearded Lady (Mr. T), Sockhead Bobcat Goldthwait), Worm (Derek McGrath) and Ortiz the Dog Boy (Reeves).
With a cast like that, what's not to like. It's so bad, it's good.
Other notable actors include Brook Shields as talk-show host Skye Daley, whom Ricky tells his story to, and William Sadler, who plays the chairman of the mega-corp that persuades Ricky to take the spokesperson job (Sadler was the Grim Reaper in 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey,' among other notable performances).
Towards the later half of the movie, really weird events ensue as expected, and eventually the freaks make Skuggs into a mutant (revealing that he resembles a certain-someone would spoil the ending). The freaks find an antidote mixed into a batch of macaroons that Skuggs made, and all go back to normal to live happily ever after - except for Worm - he doesn't like coconut.
With a well-written script, decent actors and superb makeup jobs, 'Freaked' makes for a great Halloween flick if you're looking for something bizarre and different... and if you love humor along the lines of "Airplane!" and the "Naked Gun" movies. Winter's over-exaggerated facial expressions hit the comedy factor too.
It may not be scary or suspenseful, but it sure is freaky and weird. Plus, you get to see Randy Quaid back when he wasn't in jail! Oh the days.
* 'Freaked' can currently be found streaming on Netflix. *
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