Bill and Ted Face the Music - Movie Review

This year, 2020, has been hell. There are endless things going wrong, from riots in America to out of control locus in Africa to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the whole world. Right now, life is bogus. But when there is darkness there will always be light and there are a few bright moments scattered throughout this year. Right now though, even with all the terrible things happening, we have to remember and practice the wise wisdom from many years ago, back in 1989: "Be excellent to each other," from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Thankfully these words have returned in the newest film in the Bill and Ted universe, Bill and Ted Face the Music.

The story follows Bill Preston (Alex Winters) and Ted Logan (Keanu Reeves) in a point in their lives where they're a lot older since when they were given the mission to make a song to bring about peace throughout all of Earth and the universe. They're older and start to wonder if they'll ever be able to do it. But they are soon informed that they have less than an hour and a half to create and play this song or else all of reality will collapse. So they decide to go to the future to find their future selves and get the song from their future selves, all while keeping their marriage with their princesses together. In the meanwhile their daughters, Theadora "Thea" Preston (Samara Weaving) and Wilhelmina "Billie" Logan (Brigette Lundy-Paine) decided to travel through time collecting famous musicians to help their fathers out with their song.

I've only recently watched the previous two Bill and Ted movies and I really enjoy them. They're kind of stupid and I view them as "Doctor Who for stoners," but they're also very funny and Bill and Ted as characters are incredibly likeable. A lot of dumb duos often have character qualities to them that make them unlikable, like the duo in Bio-Dome who just want to sleep around with women and are always ruining things. Bill and Ted are idiotic and can be carelessly lazy, but they're very friendly, are always ambitious and trying to reach their goals, and have wonderful chemistry with each other. It's no wonder, after almost 30 years since the last movie, that we're getting another film about these two.

And even after such a long period of time, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winters still have incredible chemistry to each other. The trailers implied they still did, but trailers can be misleading. After watching the movie it feels like the actors and the characters they play have never been separated and are still the best of friends. Not only because they both say a lot of their lines in unison, but also because... they just got those sparks still, that feeling of friendship that only best friends can have. And even though Keanu Reeves is known by most people as an action star he still has those comedic chops he had back in 1989. Alex Winter as well, though not as famous as Keanu, was very impressive in his role as Bill. These two are the heart of the movie and they will be the reason people will love the film.

There are a few returning cast members, including Hal Landon Jr. as Ted's father and William Sadler as the Grim Reaper, but sadly most of the original cast don't return. But the returning characters played by new actors are still good like Bill and Ted's wives, Joanna (Jayma Mays) and Elizabeth (Erinn Hayes). But the new stars of the movie are Bill and Ted's daughters. They were just like their fathers when they were younger except they know a lot more music than Bill and Ted did at their age. Now I was a little worried that they were going to hog the spotlight and do what Rey did in Star Wars and just one-up everything Bill and Ted did before them. Thankfully though that's not really the case. It's more of a team effort among the whole family and the daughters have their own little adventure with history. It's great.

Now one big flaw I do have with the movie is the special effects. Some of them are very noticeable, like the future for Bill and Ted is instantly noticeable as a green screen effect. There are a few other special effects that like flying through time that are also noticeable and some people will be put off. I'm somewhat like that, but I also found it to be very... fitting for the Bill and Ted movies. The previous films also didn't have the best special effects, but had enough heart in them for me to not care about that and that's the same way with this movie. The practical effects though, just the other films, were great! Makeup was very good and the costumes for all the historical figures were really good! This also applies for the physical sets as well, from Mozart's London to old China.

Speaking of historical figures like Mozart, another positive of the movie is that unlike Excellent Adventure you don't have to know in-depth about the historical figures in this movie. I won't spoil who Thea and Billie pick up, but since they're all associated with music it's a lot more understandable to the audience the significance of these characters. Even I, who never took history too seriously in high school, could instantly tell the importance of these important historical figures and I think audiences who aren't as acquainted with history will too. At times I did wish they did a bit more in the film, but they still did enough to keep me interested in them.

But with this these elements comes a story that is kind of mixed for me. It feels like it fits in the Bill and Ted universe because there's traveling through time and space in ridiculous ways and getting into hi-jinks. Bill and Ted meeting their future selves multiple times was always funny and the daughter's interactions with musical geniuses of the past was great. However there are some story elements that don't work. The subplot with the princesses leaving Bill and Ted is kind of dropped easily near the end with a few words. That could have been better executed. The movie also kind of had a sudden ending and I was hoping for a celebration for Bill and Ted in which after years and years of trying they finally fulfill the prophecy of bringing about true peace through their music. There should have been an epilogue after a few days or weeks or months where Bill and Ted are just basking their glory and feeling good that they finally did completed their mission.

I do have one last problem with the movie and it's not a specific problem. It's... I was expecting a little more excitement in the film. Yes, the characters and actors are older now and more mature, but even with that I expecting a little more energy and pizazz to the performances. Keanu Reeves, despite being great in the film, was at times out of place, probably because he hasn't done such a non-serious role in forever since he's done action for so long. I was also expecting a bit more of the classic Bill and Ted like more air guitar sound effects and surfer lingo that made Bill and Ted so iconic. Maybe there wasn't enough time or budget or something was going wrong with the production, but I was just wishing for a little more flare with the film. You could say they cannot recreate the feelings of the past and I think I somewhat agree with that.

Saying that though the comedy that originals had is still here. A lot of it comes from Keanu Reeves and Alex Winters (honestly more Alex than Keanu). Some of it does miss, but the stuff that did hit hit hard and I was laughing loudly at those successes. For instance, there's one at the start of the movie during the wedding scene seen in the trailers and after laughing so hard I knew I was going to be in for a good time. Also during that wedding we see Keanu Reeves start by playing a theremin and then switching to bagpipes and it's amazing and hilarious just seeing Keanu Reeves play the bagpipes well. As I said however there were a number of moments that the actors thought would be funny but weren't which is kind of sad. Honestly though I was just really happy to have comedy without a dark, depressing, real-life moment that reminded the audience that real life sucks or tie in with the real world. We never see that in comedy films now a days and it was so nice and heart-warming to see in this film.

Bill and Ted Face the Music was great fun and worth supporting. Yes, the effects can be noticeable, the story has some problems to it, and not all the jokes land, but it's so... sweet, lighthearted, and funny that you might be able to ignore these problems and just have a good time. There was effort and fun put into the production and the performances. It's probably best you watch the previous two movies before you watch this one though. This film might be the least fun out of all three Bill and Ted films, but it's still really fun and entertaining. The film feels like is has a reason to exist beyond just money unlike a lot of films with late sequels like Indiana Jones 4 (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Son of the Mask, or Alien Resurrection. If there's nothing else that this film has done it's to remind us to be excellent to each other and give us some big smiles.

Tentative Score: 7/10

Definitive Score: 7/10

Wait a minute... Samara Weaving (Thea) is the daughter of Hugo Weaving, who plays the villain Agent Smith in The Matrix, who fights Keanu Reeves as Neo... Awesome! *air guitar*