“This is the story of our most excellent dads.”
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter bring those most excellent characters, Theodore “Ted” Logan and William “Bill” S. Preston, Esq., back to the screen in Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020).
More than thirty years after Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the teenage best friends, wannabe rock stars, and goofball time travelers are now middle-aged husbands and fathers still searching for the song that will unite the world. Their efforts have not met with much success. Their band Wyld Stallyns has long since slipped into oblivion, they haven’t spoken to their bass player in decades, and they are reduced to playing cheap bars to indifferent patrons.
They have, however, succeeded in one area: their daughters, Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving), are real chips of the old blocks: best friends, savvy music connoisseurs, and generous, optimistic, enthusiastic young women. So when The Future returns with a deadline—they have only 77 minutes to write and perform the song that will unite the world across time and save reality as we know it—their daughters embark on their own most excellent adventure to recruit the greatest musicians throughout time. There’s also a killer robot, a marriage crisis, a return trip to Hell, and a reunion with Death (William Sanderson), who still holds a grudge over the breakup.
It’s sweet and silly, with all the innocence and whimsy of the original films, and nary a cynical or sarcastic note in the entire journey. There is an admirable inclusiveness to this adventure—daughters Thea and Billie are integral to saving the world and their fathers could not be more proud or supportive—and an embrace of and respect for music across genres and centuries.
Director Dean Parisot (who directed the affectionate cult comedy Galaxy Quest) embraces the spirit of the screenplay by creators Chris Matheson and Ed Soloman, who wrote the original big screen Bill and Ted adventures. Fans of the original films will approve and newcomers can also enjoy the goofy fun.
Kristen Schaal costars as the time travel emissary, Erinn Hayes and Jayma Mays are the frustrated wives who have their own time-travelling adventure, Anthony Carrigan is the killer robot with an identity crisis, and Dave Grohl and Kid Cudi play themselves.
Rated PG-13
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Bill & Ted Face the Music (Blu-ray)
Bill & Ted Face the Music (DVD)
Bill & Ted Face the Music / Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey / Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (3-Film Bundle) [Blu-ray]
Bill & Ted Face the Music / Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey / Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (3-Film Bundle) [DVD]
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The DVD and Blu-ray release includes the cast and crew panel at ComicCon@Home (hosted virtually by Kevin Smith) and four very brief promotional featurettes.
