Film of the Week: Bill and Ted Face the Music

29 years after their Bogus Journey, Bill and Ted return to our screens with yet another amazing adventure across time and space. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter reprise their roles and Ted “Theodore” Logan and William S. “Bill” Preston alongside William Sadler who returns as Death. In the third installment, Bill and Ted have spent years trying to fulfil the prophecy detailing they are going to write a song which would unite the world, and they get caught up in yet another adventure where, this time the stakes have been raised and it’s not just about uniting the world, it’s about saving all of time and space which had already started to collapse around them.

Whilst the pair get wrapped up in that adventure, their daughters try, and help the best they can by pulling together history’s greatest musicians, and their wives go off on an adventure of their own as they feel Bill and Ted is getting a little too wrapped up in trying to fulfil that prophecy. Samara Weaving plays Bill and Joanna’s daughter, Theadora “Thea” Preston and Brigette Lundy-Paine plays Ted and Elizabeth’s daughter, Wilhelmina “Billie” Logan, and they both have the same characteristics as their dads. Samara and Brigette’s performance were hilarious throughout.

In this film we do finally see the song performed which does unite the world and saves both time and space. The thing is, however, I am split down the middle between whether I should like and dislike the ending. Narratively, it makes sense that their daughters were the ones to produce the song, and Bill and Ted performed on stage. Whilst they don’t necessarily write the song, they do perform it, alongside their daughters who were the ones to produce the song. The prophecy stated that Bill and Ted were destined to write a song, referring to “Billie” and “Thea” respectively. What splits me down the middle was, as a fan of the series, I really wanted Bill and Ted to be the one sto write and produce the songs; that’s what I’ve been waiting for, for the past two movies, and this one doesn’t deliver on that. It also cuts to the end credits rather abruptly after the song has been performed, although we do get a brilliant scene with old Bill and Ted rocking out one last time.

Even though I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place regarding the ending, the rest of the film had me laughing. It’s in keeping with the previous installments’ wackiness. It was awesome seeing Keanu and Alex play their iconic characters one more time. The overall film is inoffensive, over the top, and my favourite part was when everyone was questioning how a robot can go to Hell, and yet it was never explained how that was even possible. I thought maybe the robot would be revealed as being an actual human inside a robotic suit, or a robot that had developed a soul throughout his journey with Bill and Ted, but no, he’s just a robot and it’s never explained how it was possible he could go somewhere no robot has ever gone before.

If you’re a fan of the two predecessors, I do highly recommend Face the Music as it does recapture the charm the other two had, and will have you in stitches before the first half hour is over.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)