Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Kristen Schaal, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, William Sadler, Anthony Carrigan
Director: Dean Parisot
Release date: 18th September 2020
Many years have passed and now we find Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) both middle aged, married to their princesses and both have a daughter; Billie and Thea. Life is good but now Wyld Stallyns are playing at a family wedding and their set isn’t going well… Ted’s dad has had enough and tells him to get a proper job. Feeling slightly dejected, the boys are shocked when a flying pod appears outside their houses. A futuristic looking woman emerges and takes them to San Dimas in the year 2720AD. Her name is Kelly (Kristen Schaal) and her dad is their old friend Rufus. Bill and Ted are told that they never reached their true potential and they have until 7.17pm that evening to write ‘the song that will unite the world’ or the whole fabric of space, time and reality will collapse… Panicked, Bill and Ted use an ‘antique phonebox’ to try and travel in time to track down the song. Meanwhile back in 2020, Thea and Billie are indeed their father’s daughters, and decide that they must help their dads to achieve their goal.. With very little time til the world ends, both pairs must travel through the past and the future to find ‘the song’.
We were first introduced to best friends, William “Bill” S. Preston Esquire and Ted “Theodore” Logan back in 1989, when they travelled through time together and had an Excellent Adventure. Two slacker friends, who through their shared love of music, were destined to save the world but their parents didn’t share their vision or even understand what they were talking about most of the time.
Very much a movie of its time, it spawned a sequel, ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ in 1991 and introduced its viewing public to words and phrases such as Bodacious, Wyld Stallyns!! and of course the guitar noise when they were pretending to play.
A movie that’s been talked about and hoped for for the past twenty or so years, it didn’t ever feel like the story would be properly concluded or even expanded upon. Thankfully now we’ve been introduced to a whole new generation of characters, including their twenty-something daughters, who are almost mirror images of their dads. Thea shares pretty much all of her dad’s mannerisms, including the way she walks and speaks. Billie is slightly more understated but is still a carbon copy of her dad. Both are into their music and wax lyrical for a lot of the movie.
That being said, we really need a movie like ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ at the moment. A pure piece of escapism and humour, it’s nice not to have to overthink a story.. characters we know and love, who have aged alongside us but haven’t changed in their mentality.
Very weird seeing Keanu Reeves without a beard though!
Lots of laughs and visual gags will remind you what you enjoyed about the first two movies. Go see this third installment and enjoy the ride!
Overall: 8.5/10
