Smartphones have made the idea of two D+ students traveling through time collecting historical figures in order to pass their history class (and graduate high school) quaint at best. And according to Idiocracy, if humanity indeed depends on education-phobic dimwits, society is doomed to both brevity and anti-intellectual skepticism. Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) may only know Joan of Arc as "Noah's wife", but they're not proud of it. When a being from the future warns that the very universe hangs on their fledgling rock band's success, they jump from relaxed to resourceful, problem-solving all the attendant issues you'd expect when cramming the likes of Socrates, Billy the Kid, and Abraham Lincoln into a time-flipping phone booth. The film's language and attitudes are as dated as the adventure is excellent. Still, it's a shame that we've lost/abandoned such smarts, optimism, and invention in our big-screen speculative fiction.