Once told they’d save the universe during a time-traveling adventure, two would-be rockers from San Dimas, California find themselves as middle-aged dads still trying to crank out a hit song and fulfill their destiny.
While “Bill & Ted Face the Music” won’t win any awards for originality, it reunites Keanu Reeves with Alex Winter, the actors who portrayed the two titular characters, Bill and Ted, in two previous iterations; “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), and “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” (1991). While both films were just pure goofy, unadulterated fun, its latest incarnation follows successfully in their footsteps, and what I genuinely liked about it, is that Keanu Reeves, who has gone on to become one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, thanks to his roles in The Matrix trilogy (with a fourth currently in production), and the John Wick series, returned to the role of Ted “Theodore” Logan, a complete airhead, with reckless abandon, and had fun in the process. And because he had fun, I had fun. He didn’t take himself too seriously when most other actors would have put this character in their rearview mirror. Because of this, “Bill & Ted Face the Music” continues the (mis)adventures of our hapless duo.
This time around, middle-aged Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Reeves) have failed to write a song that has been prophesied to unite the world. They are married to their 15th-century English sweethearts, Elizabeth (Erinn Hayes), and Joanna (Jayma Mays), but both women are very unhappy with the way their lives are going. Bill and Ted and their band, Wyld Stallyns, were once the biggest group on earth but now they are reduced to playing wedding songs and buying back their most successful CDs from music stores at rock bottom prices. At couples therapy, Elizabeth and Joanna tell the boys that they are not happy and Ted finally realizes that he and Bill have spent most of their adult life doing nothing. When all seems lost, Kelly (Kristen Schaal), the daughter of the duo’s deceased former time-traveling guide Rufus (the late George Carlin), appears and brings them to the future so they can meet her mother, the Great Leader (Holland Taylor), where she informs them that they were supposed to have composed a song that would unite the world and warns them that they have until exactly 7:17 pm that evening to write the song or the universe will collapse.
Using their old time-traveling phone booth, Bill and Ted decide to go to the future to steal the song from their future selves but no matter how far they go, none of them have written the song. Meanwhile, Kelly travels back to the present to San Dimas, California, where Bill and Ted live to tell them that the Great Leader has sent a time-traveling robot named Dennis Caleb McCoy (Anthony Carrigan) to kill them, hoping it will restore balance to the universe but unbeknownst to her, they are currently somewhere in the future. While in San Dimas, she meets Bill and Ted’s daughters, Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who manage to convince her to take her time machine to various points throughout history so they can recruit a bevy of musicians they feel will help inspire Bill and Ted. Who better than Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ling Lun, and Grom, an African drummer that existed long before recorded history, but will it be the inspiration Bill and Ted need in order to save the universe?
If you’re a fan of Bill and Ted then you will enjoy this latest entry in the franchise. There are enough goofy moments and plenty of air guitar salutes to silence even the harshest critics. Even Death himself (William Sadler) returns, having been kicked out of the band for wanting to go solo. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter appear to be having a blast and even stated prior to the film’s opening, they would be up for a fourth entry in the series but that it would depend on how the fans reacted to the movie. So, if you want to see another chapter, buy “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” you won’t be disappointed.
Now available on Blu-ray™, DVD, and Digital HD
