Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Director: Dean Parisot
Quick Impressions:
I loved Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure as a kid. I still love it, actually, though I don’t watch it as often now as when I was young. For a few years, we lived just down the street (and kind of up a hill) from a Circle K where I used to ask permission to walk with a friend to buy chips or candy. This convenient location kept the movie eternally topical, always alive in my mind.
The idea of travelling through time in a phone booth collecting historical figures seemed so magically appealing to me. As a kid, I was fascinated with colorful historical figures, and I always wanted to go back in time. I had so many strange schemes for inventing a time machine of my own. And I loved the goofy humor and winning charisma of Bill and Ted themselves. When I was in elementary school, they seemed so cool to me. They reminded me of comically exaggerated versions of my extremely cool older cousin who also lived in California and always seemed to be up to something delightful.
When I first got a DVD player (in my laptop), I bought just five movies (all at once) to tide me over for the year, Clue, Clueless, Bringing Up Baby, The Bishop’s Wife, and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. (It was 2000. I was busy in college and never had time to watch much. I just wanted a few “comfort food” type films to make me smile.)
Through I’m a fan of William Sadler’s Death, I haven’t seen Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey nearly as often, maybe two or three full times, and then in multiple random five minute increments. (Once while we were having a house built, we lived for a long stretch in the hotel where my dad worked. The pay per view movie service would allow guests to sample a movie for five minutes before paying, so my little sister and I made quite a hobby of watching random, five-minute bursts of various films.)
Bogus Journey is nowhere near as good as the original. That first one has such whimsy. It’s just so random and upbeat and delightful. And the jokes land. Some moments are really, really funny, and the lines get stuck in your head forever.
So I’ve been excited to see Bill & Ted Face the Music for months and months and months. Then in all the surreal madness that is 2020, I totally forgot all about the movie until I saw last week that it was releasing on Friday (in theaters and at home simultaneously). Obviously, we will not being risking the theater anytime soon, but we were extremely excited to buy it and watch it.
The best part of the movie (if you ask me) are its online ads that boast that critics are calling Bill &Ted Face the Music the best comedy of the summer. The first time I saw one of those, I burst out laughing and almost fell over. I said to my husband, “Um isn’t it the only comedy of the summer?” Seriously, I don’t remember a new movie (worth watching) releasing since May. (Maybe I’m wrong, but I still love the bold, make-lemonade-of-lemons gutsiness of the marketing campaign!)
The Good:
The best thing about this movie is that it brings the trilogy to an actual conclusion that was sorely missing before and genuinely makes sense.
I’ve loved Bill & Ted for years, but the first movie makes this bizarre claim about them that really has nothing to do with what happens in the film. And then the next one doesn’t really give us overwhelming confidence that their music actually will unite the world. The overarching series premise seems more like a weird joke, just a goofy McGuffin to get the action going.
But this film brings the premise of Bill & Ted to a logical and satisfying conclusion that was sorely missing before. The weird thing is, until watching this, I never even noticed or cared that there was no real ending before. I just figured everything about the movie was so random and wacky and illogical. The extreme and unlikely (and unrealized) claim of the premise just seemed like part of the humor. But it is nice to have an ending, an ending that works and makes sense.
The next best thing about the movie is how much fun the whole cast seems to be having making it. Everyone seems so delighted to be there. Even though the material isn’t always top notch, nobody really seems to be phoning it in. And you don’t get the vibe that anyone is like, “Well, it’s come to this. My career has bottomed out, and now I have to do this stupid movie.” Everybody seems just thrilled and one-hundred percent committed. (And I mean, nobody has to do this movie, surely! Why would anybody be reluctant? The recent Keanussance is still in full swing. Reeves could hardly get any more popular. Who wouldn’t want to work with him?) But to me, it’s great, particularly to see former faces of the franchise returning to their roles with such gusto. William Sadler appears to be having the time of his life as Death. Ted’s dad also has a great part, and I was thrilled, thrilled to see the original Missy back for the ride, marrying yet another member of the family! (Honestly, outside of Death, the highlight of Bogus Journey was the discovery that Missy had left Bill’s dad to marry Ted’s.)
Now, is this a great movie? No. In fact, sometimes you watch and think, “Well, this is very weak, very weak. It’s disappointing. It doesn’t seem to be grounded at all. It’s just floating around, jumping quickly from thing to thing.” But every time I would feel vaguely depressed and give in to thoughts like that, two minutes later something hysterically funny would happen. And I’d think, “Well, that was a great moment.” And then the cycle would repeat, and I’d think, “Oh, but there’s another great moment.” Basically, this becomes a collection of moments. It’s weaker than the first film, but in the end, it has so many great moments that it’s totally worth watching, and I’m pretty sure I’ll watch it again. I even think it has high potential to become much funnier over time and repeat viewings, in a cult classic kind of way.
All the new additions to the cast are great. They supply much of the humor, often making special little moments out of nothing. Kristen Schaal, Jillian Bell, and Anthony Carrigan are all funny. Kid Cudi gets a seeming cameo that turns into a much larger part. And I especially like Jeremiah Craft. I wish he had an enlarged role. I would have enjoyed spending more time with his character. I also think Holland Taylor has a very difficult part. I mean, she’s playing a straight man, and everybody misses George Carlin. As Bill and Ted’s cross-named daughters, Thea and Billie, Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine are a great addition to the cast. I’ve been a fan of Weaving since Ready or Not (and did you know she’s Hugo Weaving’s niece?), but Lundy-Paine gives the more impressive performance of the two here. She’s clearly channeling Keanu Reeves. My whole family was impressed and kept praising her Ted-like performance.
Best Scene:
My favorite joke of the movie is Ted’s awkwardness with himself. I found this got funnier and funnier to me the more I thought about it. There’s a delicious strangeness to it, and Keanu Reeves really sells it. So my favorite moment is when Ted talks to himself and says a sweet good-bye. It’s not just funny. It’s touching and thought-provoking, too. And silly.
Best Scene Musically:
I love the wedding near the beginning of the movie. This was magical to me. I was so happy to see Amy Stoch and Hal Landon, Jr. (And I suddenly thought in astonishment, “Wait! Was Beck Bennett in the first movie?” But he wasn’t.) Honestly, this is my runner-up favorite scene, the whole scene. If (some variation of) this wedding had not been included in the movie I would have been bitterly disappointed.
But during the reception, we get what is meant to be a totally bizarre song from Bill and Ted. It is, actually, a very bizarre song, but after listening to it a while, my dad said, “You know, I like this song.” As soon as he said it, I exclaimed, “I’m glad you said something because I like it, too!” And their technique foreshadows the ending to a degree.
Unfortunately, this is the only good song in the movie.
Best Action Sequence:
Just when I was feeling very suspicious of the movie in general, when I was becoming quite convinced that it wasn’t actually going to be any good at all, Bill and Ted have this zany moment with two very unlikely interlocutors.
I demanded, “Why is X suddenly doing Y?”
And then Ted asked, “Why are they both doing Y?” And I swear to you, I would never have known Keanu Reeves was doing Y if he hadn’t told me himself. After that, I listened harder and believed him, but I think his personal endorsement convinced me more than his skill will accents.
At the end of this encounter, Bill and Ted do something very dramatic (which they hope will not be memorable). I found that quite funny.
Weirdest Joke:
Okay, I’ll preface this by saying that my dad’s name is Dennis. So one line in this movie made everyone in our living room burst out laughing hysterically. To be honest, at first Anthony Carrigan’s character reeaalllllly annoyed me. Then I started thinking he was funny. His strange, awkward humor is one of the many things that will probably make this movie funnier after millions of rewatches.
The Negatives:
Bill & Ted Face the Music needs a much stronger song. I get (and appreciate) (and commend) the ultimate message of the movie, which is both timely and touching. But I still think the final act would benefit from a catchier song.
The first movie (in which Bill and Ted couldn’t even play) memorably concludes with Power Tool’s “Two Heads Are Better Than One” which plays over the end credits and always had me running gleefully back and forth through the room when I was a kid. The end of this movie does not make you want to dance. It makes you want to fast forward to see if there’s a post credits scene. (Note: There is one.) And that’s very unfortunate, a huge opportunity wasted. The idea Bill and Ted come up with, their solution for saving the world is so good. Even before they figure out the solution, just the idea for the band is inspired. I would have liked more follow through with that concept. Even just sampling a bunch of different songs within an otherwise mediocre melody would have worked. Play something. Maybe some of the music that would be involved is protected by copyright, but I am reasonably sure that the music of at least one of those artists must be in the public domain. Why not have another artist play this music in his own style?
The first movie actually had catchy music throughout. Maybe that steady stream of 80s rock songs doesn’t represent the pinnacle of musical achievement, but it’s all catchy, engaging, and memorable. This movie is entirely about music and songs, and yet the only melody from it I can even recall is one everybody in the entire world has already known for hundreds of years.
Aside from the song thing, the movie also lacked a certain heft. The simplest way to describe the issue is to say that Bill & Ted Face the Music feels like a made-for-TV movie. I saw it on TV, and it felt right at home there.
The other big problem is there are three storylines here, and two of them feel extremely rushed and inadequately developed. My husband and I even guess that material relating to the subplot involving Bill and Ted’s wives (Jayma Mays and Erinn Hayes), the princesses, must have been cut for time. I mean, yes, the movie tells us what’s going on with them, but it’s disappointing to discover there’s not a bit more to that thread. And the journey of Billie and Thea is way, way too rushed. Their exploits should be much more fun. Winter and Reeves themselves have the best part, which is good, but even their material is uneven.
Overall:
If you’re looking for a fun, breezy way to pass the time, Bill & Ted Face the Music will deliver large doses of nostalgia, goofy humor, and Keanu Reeves. The movie isn’t perfect, but it might be better than Bogus Journey, (only rewatches of both will tell), and it’s definitely better than no third chapter of Bill and Ted’s adventures. Face the Music is a bit weak but redeemed by its delightful moments. In the end, there are so many delightful single moments, that you get your money’s worth from the movie through their collective power. There’s a touching George Carlin tribute, too.