REVIEW: Bill & Ted Face the Music Will Be a Hit For Some & a Miss For Others
After 19 years, Bill and Ted are back for another excellent adventure, this time joined by their daughters, Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving). Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves return as Bill and Ted in the third movie in the Bill & Ted franchise, Bill & Ted Face the Music.
Face the Music finds Bill and Ted unable to write the song that would reunite the universe and save reality as we know it. When the future comes to warn Bill & Ted they only have 78 minutes to write the song before the universe is destroyed, the duo heads to the future to figure out what song they need to write. Their daughters set off on their own journey to the past to unite the perfect band to play the song.
Like the first two movies, this one is just as wacky. While it isn’t as funny as the first two movies, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, it does have it’s moment. Accepting the film will be a bit ridiculous will allow you to still enjoy it. The addition of their daughters and their wives, Princess Joanna (Jayma Mays) and Princess Elizabeth (Erinn Hayes) were welcomed as they showed Bill and Ted had grown somewhat in the 19 year gap.
Winter and Reeves slide back into playing Bill and Ted with ease, but the secondary cast left a lot on the table. Lundy-Paine and Weaving were interesting newcomers. Their acting wasn’t always the best, Weaving being the better of the two, but they made sense as daughters to Bill and Ted. At times, it felt like they were trying too hard to mimic Reeves and Winter’s portrayal rather than make the characters their own. William Sadler returns as Death and there isn’t nearly enough of him in this movie.
Fans of the franchise will not be disappointed by this new movie. Those who are making this their first adventure into the Bill and Ted world, I highly recommend watching the first movie in the series before watching this one. This way you get a sense of the characters and the wacky world they live in. If you don’t, you won’t be confused but it will definitely have an affect on your overall take on the film.
Grade: C+