BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC

Director
Dean Parisot

Starring
Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Kristen Schaal, Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Pain

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey left our anti-heroes at their peak after winning battle of the bands with their pumping, metal-loving band, Wyld Stallyns. Complicating matters even further were the title credits at the close of Bogus Journey that pointed to the duos rock n roll success, a sequence that the writers have openly acknowledged was not created by them. The biggest question I had going into ‘Face the Music’ was ‘where could they go from there?’ The answer…? Possibly to hell and back.

It’s been three decades since we were last advised to ‘be excellent to each other’ by Bill S Preston Esq. (Winters) and Theodore ‘Ted’ Logan (Reeves). The films that catapulted Keanu Reeves into stardom have been revisited, but this time, Bill and Ted are middle aged dads.

The film follows our dynamic duo and their dimwit/genius daughters, Billie and Theodora, played brilliantly by Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Pain, in their quest to write the song to unite the world across all time and usher in a utopian future as was previously prophesised.

Highlights include Weaving and Lundy-Pain’s embodiment of their father’s happy-go-lucky, accidental hero, doofishness (yes, I made that word up), a touching reunion with Death and an opportunity to revisit beloved characters at later stages in life, a plot device that isn’t entirely new, with ‘T2 Trainspotting’ taking a similar approach in their 2017 redux, but one that worked well in this film.

As a Bill and Ted fan, I recognise that I had a vested interest in enjoying this film and it might not be to everyone’s taste. As this is the third instalment, I do recommend watching the earlier films as much of this film would fall flat on a newcomer. I can truly envisage those now, middle aged, Gen X Mums and Dads excitedly introducing their own children to their childhood heroes and this film was clearly created with these fans in mind.

3 stars