So Bill & Ted Face the Music is the third in the Bill & Ted franchise and the first in around 30 years. And massive credit to good guy Keanu Reeves for shrugging his shoulders and playing the characters again. It ain’t like he needs it and it’s fun to see him back with Alex Winter and the writing team behind the first two flicks. The movie was supposed to be a theatrical release and it did release on a few screens but mainly it’s streaming. I caught it on iTunes.
Face the Music picks up with our pair of idiots years after their limited success as a rock group flamed out. They still haven’t written the song that will unite the world and they are getting a little desperate. They are married to the princesses and each have a daughter who is smarted than them… but not by much. But the future is getting desperate for the song and time is starting to collapse so they send an agent to Bill & Ted to get them on track before all our futures end. Can Bill & Ted travel into the future to steal the song their future selves write? And can their daughters travel in time to find the most righteous band from the most excellent musicians of the past?
Nobody who doesn’t appreciate the stupid smarts of past Bill and Ted flicks will want to watch this movie. But for those who appreciate those dopey flicks (and maybe that requires being born at the right time to see them when you were a stupid teenager), this is a surprisingly good movie. I went into the flick expecting the worst. But I was surprised at how much I laughed… and I was surprised by how warm-hearted and good-willed it was. Sure, it’s dopey and doesn’t always hang together, but it has heart and it has charm.
It’s a little disconcerting seeing Reeves and Winter playing the same characters after all these years. Of course Reeves has aged well but he’s clearly too old for this and there’s a point early in the film where you kind of feel like we don’t really need to be exploring these characters facing the harsh light of reality. But the actors do their best and if they aren’t really hitting peek Bill & Ted-ness, it’s a little understandable.
Samara Weaving and Bridgett Lundy-Pain as Bill & Ted’s daughters are pretty good. They aren’t imitating their dads completely and bring a sunny spirit with interesting musical intelligence. Their story is a bit of a recap of the first film and they don’t get enough to do, but I enjoyed their presence and vibe.
And I really enjoyed the heart and the message of the ending (even if it does end super abruptly). Like the first two movies, there’s a gentle, good-natured humanity to the Bill & Ted characters that makes it into the spirit of the flick. These aren’t cynical or mean-spirited characters or movies. It almost seems out of place to have a movie so devoted to the idea that humanity can be united in spirit. Imagine that… a movie in 2020 where “Be excellent to each other” is a key message (and not just lip-service).
It ain’t a perfect flick – there’s a sense that it was overwritten with too many subplots that were edited down to 90 minutes – but that’s equally true of the first two flicks (especially Bogus Journey). But you are watching a Bill & Ted movie so maybe just relax and go with the dopey fun. There’s some clever and smart uses of time travel logic… assuming you don’t think too hard about it (and why would you? It’s Bill & Ted). I enjoyed the flick and place it second in the pantheon of Bill & Ted movies (behind Excellent Adventure). Check it out.
Score: 84