“Bill & Ted Face the Music:” More Excellent than Expected (Review)
While being successful, yet never truly breaking past cult hit status, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey were staples in the Gen X and early Millennial generations. The mixture of signature crude humor with a lot of heart and a love for music has resonated with many people throughout the years. For the longest time, we expected Bill & Ted to just be a duo of movies that were essential cultural touchstones of the 80s and 90s, yet with news of a third and possibly final film from last year, both hopes and speculations were high.
As a big fan of the first two Bill & Ted films (more-so Excellent Adventure than Bogus Journey), I was skeptical of how a third Bill & Ted would land in 2020. Dopey comedies such as Bill & Ted haven’t been the zeitgeist for a while, and I was a little worried if the large passage of time between the first two films and this new one would retain the chemistry and charm that made those initial films the classics they are today. Thankfully, my worries were quickly stripped away, and we received a fun return to form with some added new spins to keep things fresh.
Bill & Ted Face the Music brings us right back to the signature charms and quirks of the previous two movies with ease. Both Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves reprise their respective roles as Bill and Ted, and even though it’s been nearly thirty years since we’ve last seen them together, the same chemistry between the two actors remains as charming as it was before. Although matured a little, both Bill and Ted are still naive children at heart; they’ve faced a lot of problems in their lives ever since they were able to form Wyld Stallyns back in the 90s: with flopped records, a major breakup, and failing to make the destined song that would unite the world together; both Bill and Ted are stuck in a rut with nowhere to go. Though Bill and Ted are relatively happy with their lives despite their band issues, their princess wives are beginning to tire of the constant antics and failure to make something of themselves again. With their marriages beginning to crumble and disappointing their daughters, Bill and Ted get summoned back to the future to make the song that would unite the world before the entire space-time continuum crashes.
The first two Bill & Ted films weren’t particularly diverse. Although there were some notable side characters here and there, the cast was prominently White and male; Face the Music ups this ante by including several POC side characters, and even giving Bill and Ted’s daughters — Billy and Thea — around half of the story to themselves as they try to assist their dads in their quest. Face the Music’s narrative binds together the structures of the first two Bill & Ted movies in a creative way, with Billy and Thea trying to assemble prominent musicians throughout history to form a super-band (similar to Excellent Adventure’s history report plot), and even unexpected trips to Hell with a welcome return of Death, himself (similar to Bogus Journey). The combination of plotlines come with their own added twists of Bill and Ted trying to find a point in time where their future selves have the song that’ll save the world, which is a fun shakeup from the past formulas.
Even though Face the Music is still Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves’ movie at heart, the significance of Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine’s role as the daughters cannot go understated. Both Billie and Thea are given a lot to do throughout the film (and are extremely entertaining to watch). Like Winter and Reeves in previous films, both Weaving and Lundy-Paine build a good amount of chemistry between the two of them to make their roles as significant as their male co-stars. If I was to pull some gripes about the characters, I would wish we were able to get a little more development from these characters before they embark on their end of the quest, since they feel a little one-dimensional towards the beginning; thankfully they come into their own quickly as they start their time travel escapades (they also sort of become the real heroes of the story). I would love to elaborate further on the diversity of Face the Music, because I think there’s some good stuff, here, but most of the characters that start showing up later on in the story (besides a side role from singer/rapper Kid Cudi) weren’t featured in the trailers, so I’d consider that spoiler material.
Even if there’s a lot of old material resurfacing into Face the Music, there’s plenty of new stuff to keep it fresh and fun. The story takes a lot of zany turns, some of which unexpected, the more problematic aspects of the comedy in the past two films (essentially just the usage of the F-slur) aren’t there, making this a great, wholesome time for everyone. Face the Music’s quick comedic antics, the simplified narrative, as well as the brisk, ninety-minute runtime helps the story progress with a rapid, yet great pace. I wouldn’t say there was ever a dull moment in Face the Music, since we’re always progressing towards the next major story beat, with little messing around to make it a slog. Unfortunately, the pacing does become an issue at the end, with an extremely abrupt ending that seemingly comes out of nowhere. I feel that maybe another five-minutes-or-so could’ve helped the film stick the landing a bit better.
One change that I wasn’t the biggest fan of is the heavy reliance on digital effects, which honestly don’t look good at all. To contrast the shoddy green-screen effects and additional digitized effects, there’s some impressive hair and makeup work done in several parts of the film, including convincing and goofy aging makeup, fake hair, and the brief but funny scene where Bill and Ted confront extraordinarily jacked versions of themselves in prison. Visually speaking, Bill & Ted Face the Music can be a little all over the place at times, yet the frequently enjoyable rock ‘n roll soundtrack keeps things light and fun in spite of some visual quirks.
I’m a bit surprised to say that I rather enjoyed Bill & Ted Face the Music, more-so than Bogus Journey. For such a long wait to receive (what’s suspected to be) the final chapter of the Bill & Ted saga, Face the Music does a good job of honing in on the charms that got people to love the prior films all those years ago, as well as providing new twists to keep things fresh and bring in a wider audience. If you want to check out Bill & Ted Face the Music for yourself, it’s currently playing in select theaters (please take caution if you’re to go this route), and it’s also available for digital rental/purchase.
And always remember: be excellent to each other!
