BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC review by Mark Walters – Keanu Reeves & Alex Winter are still excellent

BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC review by Mark Walters – Keanu Reeves & Alex Winter are still excellent

Click on image to see it full-size.

.

Ever since BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY hit theaters in 1991, folks have wondered if we’d ever get a third installment of the BILL & TED franchise. It’s a question Keanu Reeves would regularly get at press junkets for other film, and probably got tired of answering. Now, finally, we’re getting a 3rd movie in BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC, which hits theaters this weekend. Alex Winter returns as William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Keanu Reeves is back as Theodore “Ted” Logan, the two lead members of the band Wyld Stallyns, who have apparently lost their popularity a bit. It seems they never wrote that one song that will unite the world. And now they have kids, played in the movie by Brigette Lundy-Payne and Samara Weaving. We also see the return of William Sadler as Death, and the supporting cast includes Holland Taylor, Anthony Carrigan, Kid Cudi, Jillian Bell, Beck Bennett and Kristen Schaal. It’s directed by Dean Parisot (who gave us the most excellent GALAXY QUEST), and the screenplay is written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, who gave us BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and the sequel. I can honestly say, I was really excited for this, but I also couldn’t help wondering if today’s young generation (who didn’t grow up on Bill & Ted) would care.

The movie opens with a quick recap of the last time (or times) we saw Bill and Ted, using archival footage from EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and BOGUS JOURNEY, and narration by their daughters who will be playing a big role in this film. It’s explained that after the events of BOGUS JOURNEY, the boys sort of floundered as rock stars, never really amounting to much, and eventually losing whatever popularity they used to have. They’re married to the princesses from the original movies, still living in San Demas, and now each have a daughter, who are basically like younger female versions of them. Bill and Ted and their wives go to couples counseling, together, and realize they’re still sort of stuck in their youthful mindset when it comes to love and life, and eventually Ted realizes the excellent adventure might be officially over. Then a pod from the future shows up in their driveway with the daughter of their old buddy Rufus (George Carlin’s character from the first film) named Kelly (Kristen Schaal), who informs them things in the future aren’t great, and they need to time travel with her to understand. Bill and Ted’s daughters witness this interaction, and wonder if they can somehow assist their dads. After arriving in the future, Bill and Ted are informed that they still have to write the song that will unite the world, since the prophecy (from the previous movies) says Preston and Logan do just that… only here’s the catch, it has to be done that day, or the space/time continuum will cease to exist. So Bill and Ted, desperate to succeed and beat the clock, yet lacking confidence in their own abilities, decide to time travel into their own future and steal the song they’ll eventually write from themselves. Back in the past… er, present, their daughters concoct their own plan to travel through time and attempt to form a band to help their dads perform the world-saving song – a sort of retread of the original film’s plot. Adding to the desperation, the future leaders have decided to send a robot after Bill and Ted to kill them when time starts running out. There’s also a subplot with the princess wives traveling through time to find a better life, but that’s only loosely mentioned throughout the film.

BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC is a fun ride and fairly entertaining, but I was surprised how little I laughed, especially remembering how much I enjoyed the previous films’ humor. It’s cool seeing Reeves and Winter back in the roles, and Winter especially seems to have fallen perfectly back into his portrayal of Bill… Reeves on the other hand doesn’t quite seem comfortable playing Ted, almost like he forgot how to play it. And the clothing on Reeves is very odd here. Again, Winter’s attire looks like something Bill would wear at an older age, but Reeves is wearing this strange salmon-colored button down long sleeve shirt, and some basic gray pants. There’s not even a hint of former rock star in Ted’s appearance, other than perhaps his long hair. It reminded me of how in BLADE RUNNER 2049, Harrison Ford’s clothing looked incredibly generic and uninspired, especially for a movie set in the future. I’m not sure if that attire was Keanu’s choice for his character, or the costume designer just dropping the ball, but I did find it a little distracting. Despite some of the odd qualities of Reeves’ performance, the chemistry between him and Winter is still enjoyable and endearing enough to make watching them back together a treat. But it’s also a little awkward, as so much of what made those first two BILL & TED movies work was the young and dumb accidental hero qualities of these guys… and now? Well, they’re clearly much older, and trying to play even hints of the young and dumb attributes can’t help but feel a bit forced.

While the film is certainly banking off Reeves and Winter reuniting as Bill and Ted, it also clearly is using the story to set up their daughters to potentially carry on from here. I’m guessing the producers are envisioning a potential sequel/spinoff with Billi and Thea, which would certainly be more appealing to younger audiences than classic Bill and Ted fans, but thankfully Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Payne are fairly likable in the movie, even if the latter is so good at imitating young Keanu that it makes older Keanu’s more somber Ted seem diluted by comparison. I feel like the script could have done a better job establishing the daughters a bit more, but what is there works well enough I suppose. Ted’s police chief dad is back (Hal Landon Jr.), and plays a good size role here, but the addition of Beck Bennett as Ted’s younger brother feels a bit tacked on and underdeveloped. William Sadler is back as Death, looking considerably older as well, even with the stark white makeup and black robes, but he helps add some quirky humor to the story at a time where it kind of needed a jolt. Jillian Bell has some funny moments as the couples counselor for our duo, and Kid Cudi has fun playing himself and knowing an unusual amount of scientific information about time travel. Perhaps the best of the new cast is Anthony Carrigan, playing the terminating robot who seems to have insecurities and a guilty conscience… he surprisingly becomes one of the most amusing parts of the film.

This installment is directed by Dean Parisot, who delivered the very impressive GALAXY QUEST, but this film is far from the quality of that one and nowhere near as memorable. Parisot knows how to keep the story moving and make the characters fun, but even he can’t make much of what’s going on here terribly impressive beyond just delivering what most might expect. There are portions of the film that feel a little cheap too, uninspired settings and ordinary-looking set pieces just enhanced by CGI backgrounds. At times this almost looks and feels like a made-for-TV movie, or perhaps direct-to-video fare. I can’t really explain it, but considering how popular these franchise characters are, I guess I expected a more impressive presentation than what’s on display – this might also be the result of watching it at home and not in a movie theater. I mean hey, the CGI backgrounds don’t look necessarily bad, but it’s obvious large portions of the film are shot on a soundstage with green screens everywhere, giving the visuals an almost video game-esque quality. And then there’s the run time, which is slightly above 90 minutes. At a time when many movies run long and overstay their welcome, this one feels like it’s actually missing some story, and moves almost a little too fast for its own good. I wonder if there was a “bigger” movie in there at some point that got severely chopped down in editing.

BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC is like movie comfort food, bringing back familiar characters we once loved and catching us up with them in a more timely way. It’s nothing revolutionary or mind-blowing, and it’s surprisingly not as funny as its predecessors, but it’s still a fun time and charming in all the right ways. I enjoyed the final product, but I also don’t think I’ll be revisiting it anytime soon. I suppose that’s the danger in doing sequels after so many years have passed. The expectations are very hard to live up to, and the end result usually ends up just being passable. Still, seeing the boys back together again is, in a word, excellent. Make sure to stick around until the end of the credits, as the post-credit scene is actually pretty great.

BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC in on VOD and opens in theaters August 28, 2020

Be Sociable, Share!

About the Author

Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff.