Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) | Film Review

New Year’s Day 1989, the world was on the brink of nuclear disaster. The cold war was raging, and President Ronald Regan’s 8-year run was coming to end. The following month, two bodacious teenagers set out on a most excellent adventure through time and space, to assemble the greatest history project EVER in order to ensure that they would most definitely pass. This would also give them the ability to eventually write the song that would unite the world. As if almost linked, later that year the Berlin Wall fell. The cold war was now over, and an era of prosperity and music in the 90s became a uniting force as the internet showed us just how small the world is. It was almost as if Bill & Ted were real-life poetic prophets.

It is now 2020, fires rage across continents, hurricanes ravage our shores, a global pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands of people, and the human race is as divided as ever. We were united in music in the 60s, we were united again in the 90s. What will the music of the 20s bring us? Hard to say because if Bill & Ted, the Wyld Stallyn,s don’t deliver the song that will unite the world by 7:17 PM San Dimas time, 2020 and the world as we know it will come to a most bogus end. It is finally time for Bill and Ted to Face the Music and deliver on that promise made to humanity 30 years ago.

Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon return to finish their Concerto in C-Major with direction by Dean Parisot. Alex Winter returns as Bill S. Preston, Esq. along with Keanu Reeves as Theodore “Ted” Theodore, III. The two actors are decades removed from the absurdity of their roles, yet you would never know it as they comfortably pick those guitars up and are ready to rock. Reeves is eternal, this is true, but Winter in particular shines with his return as Bill. Wouldn’t it be fun to see him pop up as a most excellent assassin in John Wick 4? Maybe that’s ridiculous, but this duo carries both heart and joy with them wherever they go, and 2020 could definitely use a bit more of that.

For the closing movie in this bodacious trilogy set 25 years after the events of the first, Bill & Ted are joined by their lovely princess wives Elizabeth and Joanna (Erinn Hayes and Jayma Mays). Both are bright spots, yet feel surprisingly short-changed here. And of course their lovely daughters Thea “Theodora” Preston, and Billie “Bill” Logan are involved, whom we first meet at the end of the last installment, Bogus Journey. Thea (Samar Weaving) and Billie (Bridgette Lundy-Paine), though they come off as trying a bit too hard to fit in versus coming to the parts naturally, do everything they can to help their dads assemble the world’s greatest band in order to help write the song that will unite the world and save reality.

All the favorites join the party for one last concert for the ages as Ted’s dad and brother both return in a touching moment, as does Missy… I mean mom, or is it my prom date, or is it my aunt? Whatever, Missy’s story continues as well. Plus, after Death left the Wyld Stallyns in the credit sequence of the previous film, William Sadler returns to hopefully find his way back into the most excellent band of all time. There are other cameos, plucked from the heavens of fandom, that you will have to see for yourself which just makes the movie what it is, a completely ridiculous yet creative journey to unite and save the world once and for all.

Bill and Ted at the end of Bogus Journey did indeed deliver an epic song, but it was not THE SONG and ever since, the more the Wyld Stallyns try to write it, the worse their music becomes. The great ones summon them to the future and scold them for their inability to write the song and put them on the clock to complete the tune by 7:17 PM otherwise not only will the world not be united, but it and all of reality will actually come to end! Because Bill & Ted are most excellent slackers they attempt to go to the future and steal the song from future versions of themselves which only shows how more depressing each version of them get. Rufus has moved on, but his daughter, Kelly (Kristen Schaal), helps the girls along with Bill and Ted to understand what the true meaning of all of this is.

In the end, was Bill & Ted Face the Music one of the greatest movies of all time? Definitely not. Does it need to be? It is the closing chapter in a trilogy we had no idea we wanted – let alone needed – in a year desperate for friendships, unity, and righteous tunes. This was a most excellent adventure one last time with these wonderful characters, affording us escape for a brief moment from the horror show that is 2020, and a reminder of the ability for movies to bring an audience together. Plus, you get to finally hear one of the greatest mashups of music in history!

Don’t go into this film expecting greatness, go in ready to smile and nod your head in heartfelt approval. You will definitely come out feeling great and hopeful that we can be united by simply being excellent to each other and PARTYING ON, DUDES!