Three decades ago, a couple of unlikely San Dimas, California high school kids needed a little help passing history. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure charmed its way into the hearts of movie audiences globally. What wasn’t to love about these two musically passionate yet academically daft teenage boys? A sequel followed, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and then those guys who jammed with Death and befriended a who’s-who of history all-stars seemed to close their Wyld Stallyns book. Bill & Ted Face the Music opens that story back up to a movie going world that has drastically changed with the passage of time.
Will audiences still crave the continuing adventures of a couple of classic California “dudes” whose go-to words to describe excitement are “Whoa” and “Awesome?” Yes, in fact I believe that anticipation for this third Bill & Ted flick is through the roof.
See, something extraordinary happened with these two films and the affable fellows at the center of it all since last we heard from Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves). Those first two flicks, which did solid business at the box office upon their releases, have exponentially had generations become enamored of the dynamic duo and their time traveling based hilarity. Despite their trademark aloofness—or perhaps because of it—Bill and Ted have been supremely excellent in the eyes of the public.
Often times, decades between films is a death knell for sequels, just talk to Ben Stiller about Zoolander 2. Perhaps they learned from the mistakes of that long in the making sequel, or perhaps a wee bit from Anchorman 2. Or maybe filmmakers simply stayed true to what worked the first two times and didn’t abandon these two characters’ uniqueness in favor of growth when in fact sous like Bill and Ted are probably likely to not change all too much. That is exactly what we find as Bill & Ted Face the Music commences. Sure, the decades have passed, but these guys are still jamming the tunes, still enamored with their gorgeous babe princess wives. One thing has changed and as it is used in this third film in the series, it elevates… well, everything.
Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Bombshell) portray our beloved protagonists’ daughters. There are “chips off the block” and then there is Billie (Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Weaving). These two are spitting images of their fathers in their fashion choices as well as their speaking cadence and passion for music. These two actresses didn’t merely imitate Reeves and Winter, these are fully formed characters and thanks to the thespians behind them and the script by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, it is an enormous breath of fresh air was injected into the entire franchise. Both Lundy-Paine and Weaving, as they should, see their cinematic fathers as launching points for their characters. From there, they craft two twenty-something souls who live with their parents, sit around and dissect great music with pristine precision and have almost their own language with each other that others may find confusing. Sound familiar?
Not only do Billie and Thea inject the franchise with fresh blood, as they say, but their contributions to the plot and the narrative is frankly, priceless.
As Bill & Ted Face the Music commences, the guys (still) haven’t crafted “the song” that they were fated to have written that will change the world. This is causing slow, but building, rifts in time. For example, George Washington randomly showing up in 2020. Wyld Stallyns have been through a lot in the last few decades, but nothing could prepare them for the epic demands that those from the future place upon them. Bill and Ted are summoned to the future by Kristen Schaal’s Kelly, i.e. George Carlin’s daughter. Holland Taylor’s The Great Leader informs them that by the end of this particular day, our two music maestros must pen that world-unifying song or time will literally fold back on itself. Talk about pressure!
What’s a couple of easy-going dudes to do? Why not hop back in that phone booth and head to the future and nab that most triumphant song from future Bill and Ted? Wonder how that goes?
What it does do is allow for quite a lot of humor at the expense of our duo in terms of what form we find future Bill and Ted—one, teased in the first Bill & Ted Face the Music trailer, finds them super-ripped and in jail!
It is a seemingly obvious plot for a third film in the series, but hindsight is 20/20. There had to be so many incarnations of what Bill and Ted would be up to decades after we last heard from them. To choose this avenue took a leap of faith. It was one rooted in the hope that audiences would still identify with two characters that were firmly a product of a different era. What they stood for hasn’t changed when the world around them could not be more different. It works, surprisingly well.
Also, whether the entire endeavor works rides on the daughters not being seen by audiences as carbon copy knock-offs of two beloved characters. As we’ve already stated, they’re not. There must have also been a concern outside that Hollywood bubble that would America even want to experience a middle-aged Bill and Ted? I have a feeling that when all is said and done and the drive-in and box office receipts are counted for theaters that are open, toss in all of the Video On Demand purchases, and the summer of 2020 will finally have its first breakout hit.
There are some fun additions to the circus that is these two time-traveling dudes, most notably Jillian Bell (Brittany Runs a Marathon) as a couples therapist, Jayma Mays as Princess Joanna and Erinn Hayes as Princess Princess Elizabeth, and Kid Cudi as himself!
Now, this film isn’t going to change the world, like Bill and Ted are tasked with in the flick. But during a particularly rough time for our nation and the world, sometimes it’s just nice to visit with a few old friends and turn the brain to “Whoa.”
Grade: B