Movie Breakdown: Bill & Ted Face The Music
Pre-Screening Stance:
I’m admittedly on the fence when it comes to a new Bill & Ted entry. I like the first movie, but the second one is too batshit bonkers for its own good. Also, while I think it will be nice to see Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter on the screen together again, it’s hard to ignore that many long-in-development comedy sequels end up landing land flat (see: Zoolander 2, Anchorman 2, Dumb And Dumber To, etc.). Fingers crossed!
Post-Screening Ramble:
I had a tough time with Bill & Ted Face The Music. It’s not so much that it’s an outright bad movie, it’s just that it’s largely missing the energy of the first two films. Keanu Reeves looks old (for the first time ever) and he delivers all of Ted’s lines like he’s reading them off of a cue card. Alex Winter doesn’t exactly sizzle in Face The Music either, but he at least seems comfortable and interested, which when compared to Keanu’s dead Ted, it’s much less of a distraction. As for the plot, it’s fine on paper – Bill and Ted have yet to create the song that will unite the world, and they have to right now or Earth and the universe will be destroyed. This provides plenty of opportunities for our titular heroes to jump around time to figure out what they need to do to make the track that’s so desperately needed, but their antics feel tired and it makes the movie drag. On the flip side of that, their kids – Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving) – trip through time on their own in an attempt to assemble the perfect band to assist their fathers, and all of these scenes, while hokey, are pretty fun. It really is a young person’s game, I suppose.
Again, I didn’t find Bill & Ted Face The Music to be terrible, but it’s not exactly something to write home about. If you’re going to watch it, be sure to lower your expectations quite a bit.
One Last Thought:
I know that the actresses who portrayed the original princesses (Kimberley Kates and Diane Franklin) weren’t even in the second movie, but I think it would have been cool to bring them back for Face The Music.
