BILL & Ted FAce The Music (Review)

It’s funny when I think about it. Last year I thought of all the 2020 summer blockbusters I couldn’t wait to see.. Tenet, Mulan, Jungle Cruise, Godzilla Vs Kong, The King’s Man, Bond 25, Black Widow, Top Gun: Maverick, Ghostbusters: Afterlife , Charm City Kings, Promising young woman, Antebellum, legally blonde 3, Run, Spiral, Halloween kills, Fast 9, spongebob 3, candy man, irresistible, soul, in the heights, free guy, morbious, Hitman’s wife’s bodyguard, monster hunter, without remorse, snake eyes, enternals, cut throat city, (my list could literally go on), I would of never believed you if you told me not only I wouldn’t be able to go to the movies again after seeing “Bloodshot” and “The Hunt” but the only new theatrical movies from 2020 I would see would be “Trolls: World Tour”, “Scoob” and “The Tax Collector”, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.. but here we are with 4 months of left of 2020 and I’m up to my 4th newly released film all year.

Now I have been anticipating “Bill & Ted face the music” ever since I heard they were in development of this film. I loved these movies as a kid, I watch these teens get to become a “teenwolf”, get “licensed to drive”, go “back to the future”, get “gremlins”, visit hogwarts & have excellent adventures while all we got to do was be “boyz n the hood” be a “menace to society” & search our “roots”. I didn’t realize how much of an impact that made on me growing up until looking at the screenplays I write now that are basically black genre pictures (just wait to y’all see my brand of urban sci fi comedy/action adventures or my horror or fantasy films). I would of never expected this would be the only film of summer 2020 I would get to see but I’m so grateful that it exists! I’ve been going to drive ins lately to see movies I already own on DVD and digital so it’s great to see something new that’s not a Netflix original. I love sequels to movies that’s as old as me. I loved the force awakens. I loved Jay and Silent Bob reboot, still waiting on Coming 2 America this holiday (if corona doesn’t push it back) so to say how I excited I was about Bill and Ted 3 is an understatement.

Now I’m a big fan of the original “Bill and Ted excellent adventure”, not so much of “Bogus Journey” but I still have the VHS (to me, that film was too dark with the killer robots from the future sending Bill & Ted to hell compared to the light time travel film the first one was). The film isn’t a cinematic masterpiece and isn’t that great of a comedy but it’s a fun light adventure that entertained me as a kid and holds a special place in my heart. I didn’t play the games, watch the show, read the comics or anything but the nostalgia factor is heavy for me. I couldn’t wait to see what happened to Bill & Ted 25 years since we last seen em, especially since now we’re all adults (even though I’m still 20 years younger than the characters). 

As soon as the film starts we get an update on what has happened since the last film and immediately we see Bill and Ted hasn’t changed at all since the last film. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling and laughing seeing Kneau Reeves and Bill Winter resume these roles like they never stopped portraying these characters. They continued exactly where they left off and it feels like seeing old friends again. It was also great to see a few of the returning cast from the previous films. It sucks not everyone returned (and I get it, you got to cast popular faces for marketing reasons but the nostalgia factor plays a huge part in these sequels for me) but it’s great to see the return of Missy, Ted’s dad and even the grim reaper himself (plus there's a George Carlin cameo)! As for the new cast, I love the fact Bill and Ted are girl dads but thought it was kinda of weird they had the girls act the exact same way their fathers were (well, still are) but it didn’t push me away from enjoying the film.

I love the issue Bill and Ted have in this film is the fact they still didn’t reach their destiny yet. A lot of us after we leave high school don’t achieve what we planned as soon as we join the workforce, graduate college or return from the military. I feel like that’s a problem everyone can relate to. Being the exact person you were years ago and not reaching your full potential is a great way to start the hero’s journey myth but using the logic for the last two films, why not go back in time (in the future) and drop off the music that will unite the world and when they get to the present when the originally wrote the song, they bring it back to the past instead of stealing it from their future selves, the future Bill and Ted would just give it to themselves in the past.. but then again, that would make the movie only 20 mins long.

Now this film doesn’t touch new ground like they did with the first two film (with excellent adventure being a time travel film and bogus journey about the afterlife) but instead they rehash the time travel and killer robot from the future plot, taking a page from the force awakens book by having their children try and rescue our heroes by time traveling and eventually, ending up in the afterlife in the process of saving their dads. Basically passing the torch.

​ I haven’t seen much of the director’s Dean Parisot work other than Home fries and Galaxy Quest, two films from my childhood that I’m still very fond of (and Galaxy Quest is to blame for my love of Star Trek) so I’m not surprise Dean can direct a great modern science fiction comedy adventure film like this. In my opinion, this is the best directed Bill & Ted film. Definitely the funniest out of the three. Now the ending was definitely on the worst end of what was the conclusion of “Terminator: Dark Fate” but unlike the terminator movie, this film didn’t kill Bill and Ted but instead allow them to play a crucial part of what ended up being their children’s destiny and I loved that. I am jealous of the end credit sequence cause I saw when they were requesting people to send in video clips... I could of been apart of that .. but hey, at least I got to see the movie. Definitely stick around for after the credits tho but I gave the film a 10 out of 10. To me, this film is the best one of the “Bill and Ted” franchise.