Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) – A Movie A Day 2021 #23

One of the movies released last year that I was very disappointed I didn’t get to see in the theater was Bill & Ted Face the Music. I love the original two movies, I watched the Bill & Ted cartoon when I was a kid, I bought the comic books, and I even really tried to love the NES game (which I still play every once in a while). But with the lack of open movie theaters last year, Face the Music is one of those movies I never got a chance to see on a big screen. But I’ve now seen it on a relatively small screen, and even though it’s not the same experience it would have been, I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie. 

So here’s a quick recap of the series for those unaware. The first movie, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, came out in 1989 and stars Alex Winter as Bill and Keanu Reeves as Ted. Bill and Ted travel through time in a phone booth to collect historical figures so they can pass their history class in order to continue their band, Wyld Stallyns, so they can write a song that will usher in an age of peace and prosperity across the world. The second movie, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, has evil robot versions of Bill and Ted from the future travel back in time to kill the real Bill and Ted before they can win a battle of the bands. Bill and Ted have to find a way back from the afterlife and win the battle of the bands so they can continue improving as musicians and create the music that will create a utopian society. 

In Bill & Ted Face the Music, we join the eponymous duo in 2020, and they are still struggling to create the music that will unite the world. Bill and Ted are both married to the medieval princesses that they fell for in the first movie, but Bill and Ted’s abnormally close friendship is putting a strain on their marriages. With their home life in jeopardy and with their musical career going nowhere, Ted is beginning to lose faith in their own abilities to create the music they’re expected to. When things seem like they can’t get any worse, a visit from the future warns Bill and Ted of the imminent collapse of all of space and time if they don’t play the song that unites the world in just over an hour’s time. That sends Bill and Ted on a trip into their own futures to try to take the reality-saving song from their future selves since they don’t think they can write it themselves. Meanwhile, Bill and Ted’s daughters, Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) respectively, travel backward in time to collect a group of iconic historical musicians to perform as their fathers’ backing band. Hijinks ensue, and danger lurks as a confidence-lacking robot from the future is sent through time to kill Bill and Ted before they can complete their mission. 

It’s a goofy concept, and I think it’s great. The stakes in the movie are increased from the previous two films with the entirety of life, the universe, and everything on the line, and the traveling through space and time is increased with journeys to the future, past, and even the afterlife all taking place, sometimes simultaneously. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter seem like they’re having a blast revisiting these characters after nearly three decades, and everyone else in the cast looks like they’re having just as much fun. The cast, by the way, is great. I loved seeing Reeves and Winter reunited with William Sadler (and with Hal Landon Jr. as Ted’s father), and everyone new to the series plays their roles fantastically. I especially enjoyed Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine as Bill and Ted’s daughters, and I quite enjoyed Anthony Carrigan (who I know best as Zsasz from the TV show Gotham) as the killer robot. Carrigan’s robot character caught me off-guard with some of his funny bits, and I ended up thoroughly enjoying his performance. Really though, the movie is an ensemble with Reeves and Winter leading a large group of very funny people. 

I very much enjoyed the story as well. It’s silly like it’s supposed to be, and there’s a heart to it that I didn’t quite expect. Maybe because the main goal of the movie is to unite the world through music and I’m a sucker for musical performances in movies, but I was more moved than I thought I would be by the time the credits started to roll. Bill & Ted Face the Music is just has a joy about it in every single scene, and I loved every minute of it. I don’t think it’s my favorite of the series, that honor is still with the Excellent Adventure, but Face the Music is a smart continuation of the series that hits all the right notes. Reviving a series after nearly three decades can be tricky, but I think Face the Music did it right. It brought out enough new characters and new ideas for it to feel fresh, but there were loads of references to the first two movies to satisfy huge nerds like me who adore Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey. It’s campy, silly, funny, and fun. I’ll definitely be watching it again and again.