Bill and Ted discuss John Carpenter’s 1988 adaption of Ray Nelson’s 1963 cosmic horror short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning.” Largely inspired by Bill Wray’s comic book version of Nelson’s story in Alien Encounters #6 (from April 1986) Carpenter’s “They Live” provides a clever political satire wrapped in a campy Sci-Fi B-Movie wrapper where a down on his luck everyday blue-collar man (Rowdy Rody Piper) drifts into L.A. seeking work only to discover the truth of his problems are beyond his imagination. With the help of a fellow construction worker and friend, Frank (Keith David), they join a resistance movement to fight against the shadowy alien forces living unseen hidden away just outside natural human perception. Carpenter delves into the populist angst of those who believe in the promise of the America dream and yet find themselves taken advantage of by predatory media, politics and economic systems outside their control. If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: Videodrome (1983), The Hidden (1987), The Matrix (1999)

Bill and Ted discuss Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 adaption of William Makepeace Thackeray’s satirical 1844 novel “The Luck of Barry Lyndon,” about the challenges and hazards of attempting to climb the social ladder of late 18th century Europe. Set between the 1750’s through to the end of the 1780’s the plot — which includes the 7 years war  — follows the rise and fall of Redmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal) a young Irish man born into gentry within a once noble but ruined family. Lush and visually stunning Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” provides a demanding yet rewarding film experience which both defied expectations while presenting audiences with an immersive period drama with all the refinement of the paintings, music, fashion and architecture of the time.  

If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: The Duellists (1977), Amadeus (1984), The Madness of King George (1994)

Bill and Ted discuss Michael Mann’s 1992 adaption of James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel “The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757.” Set in colonial New England during the French and Indian War the frontiersman Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) the adopted son of the Mohican Chingachgook (Russell Means) and his natural son Uncas (Eric Schweig) become the protectors of British Col. Edmund Munro’s (Maurice Roëves) daughters Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and Alice (Jodhi May) along with Maj. Duncan Heyward (Steven Waddington) as they endeavor to keep one step ahead of French double agent and spy Magua (Wes Studi) a dispossessed Heron bent on vengeance against Munro and the British. Mann provides a detailed historical drama and tragic frontier romance with a hypnotic soundtrack mixing synthesizers and Celtic folk music.

If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: Dances with Wolves (1990), Black Robe (1991), Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)

Bill and Ted discuss Werner Herzog’s 2005 documentary “Grizzly Man” largely assembled from footage shot by troubled aspiring actor Timothy Treadwell for an unrealized TV Nature programme interspersed with interviews featuring people connected to the man and/or to the tragic death of Treadwell and his girlfriend at the time. Asking questions about the nature of nature and man’s relationship to it the film is deadly serious, uncomfortable and unnerving with surprising moments of pitch black dark humour. Herzog presents a puzzling and unexpected documentary experience which stays with the viewer long after the credits roll.

If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: Project Grizzly (1996), The Edge (1997), The Revenant (2015)

Bill and Ted discuss Matthew Robbins’, J.R.R. Tolkien inspired, 1981 dark fantasy film “Dragonslayer” set in the gritty fictional sixth-century British Iles kingdom of Urland, terrorized by Vermithrax Pejorative, a 400-year-old dragon. Wishing to be rid of the dragon a delegation of common folk led by the young lad Valerian (Caitlin Clarke) seek the help of the wizard Ulrich (Sir. Ralph Richardson). The task falls instead to his young apprentice Galen Bradwarden (Peter MacNicol) who must face both the dragon as well as Casiodorus Rex (Peter Eyre) the local king who has instituted a dreadful lottery designed satiate and appease the dragon. Originally underappreciated upon its release the film has garnered a strong following in appreciation for its compelling themes and many technical achievements which raised the bar for future depictions of dragons in fantasy media impacting everything from Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug“” (2013) to TV productions like “Game of Thrones/House of Dragons.”  

If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: Jaws (1975), Reign of Fire (2002), Troll Hunter (2010)

Bill and Ted discuss Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 brooding adaption of P.D. James’ 1992 dystopian novel “The Children of Men” where infertility has rendered humanity collectively childless for 18 years pushing the world into a melancholy of despair and hopelessness. Former activist, Theo Faron (Clive Owen), is drawn into a revolutionary plot co-ordinated by a group called ‘The Fishes’ headed by his estranged wife Julian (Julianne Moore) who has come into custody of a young refugee woman with a secret that could disrupt geopolitics and change the course of human history. Cuarón mixes modern photojournalist imagery with innovative long takes and extraordinarily detailed world building designed to produce an immersive viewing experience that delves into spiritual, political and social concerns. Riding the razor’s edge of hope and despair “Children of Men” confronts the value of life and death in the face of demographic winter and looming extinction.

If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: Gattaca (1997), Shoot ‘Em Up (2007), Gravity (2013)

Bill and Ted discuss Mike Judge’s 2006 film “Idiocracy,” the Rip Van Winkle style comedy about an exceptionally average man, Corporal Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), left to awaken to a future so stupid and idiotic that it boggles the mind five hundred years after a botched one year top-secret military hibernation experiment. The average Joe and his fellow experimental subject Rita (Maya Rudolph) are stunned to discover that he’s easily become the smartest man in America. This alarmingly cutting and prescient cautionary thought experiment satirically delves into the dangers of unchecked consumerism and coperatocracy, the degradation of medicine and law and order, and the dumbing down of politics, popular culture and reportage; Judge provides a politically incorrect, weird, crass, over the top, painfully funny and horrifying film which has now become something of a cult hit.

If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: Sleeper (1973), Encino Man (1992), Don’t Look Up (2021)

Bill and Ted discuss Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 film adaptation of Margaret Rumer Godden’s 1939 novel “Black Narcissus.” Set in the Himalayas a newly minted mother superior, Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), is sent to the palatial yet rundown former mountaintop harem house of Mo- Poo to establish a convent and open a combination school for girls and pharmacy for local minor medical needs. Both beautiful and brimming with dark obsessions the film delves into physiological and spiritual themes of arrogance and humility against a backdrop of mission-field-culture-shock and extreme isolation with all the temptations and the struggles accompanying a life in which vows of self-sacrifice and poverty have been made and luxury and sensuality is actively denied.

If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: The Red Shoes (1948), The King and I (1956), Silence (2016)

Bill and Ted discuss Martin Campbell’s 1995 James Bond film “GoldenEye” staring Pierce Brosnan as 007. Set after the fall of the Iron Curtain Bond finds himself racing against the Janus Syndicate, a cadre of self-interested villains, to retrieve the access codes for a satellite space weapon named “GoldenEye” that can fire a devastating electromagnetic pulse toward Earth. The very 1990’s “GoldenEye” rounds out Bill and Ted’s ‘golden’ pre-Daniel Craig, pre-modern era James Bond hat trick survey of the franchise. They had previously watched Guy Hamilton’s iconic 1964 film “Goldfinger” and his oddball and juvenile 1974 film “The Man with the Golden Gun.”

If you enjoyed this film, you may also like these Ted’s Picks: Red Dawn (1984), Until the End of the World (1991), The Sum of All Fears (2002)

A quick update about some upcoming changes at Bill and Ted Watch Movies. Hiatus and a big move, plus some technical stuff: if you’re wondering where the film clip is from in the announcement it’s from Alan Metter’s 1988 Richard Pryor comedy “Moving.”