Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Kristen Schaal, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, William Sadler, Anthony Carrigan, Erinn Hayes, Jayma Mays, Hal Landon Jr., Beck Bennett, Kid Cudi, Amy Stoch, Holland Taylor, Jillian Bell, Dave Grohl, DazMann Still, Jeremiah Craft, Sharon Gee, Patty Anne Miller, George Carlin, Piotr Michael.
It is time to face the music, the unavoidable truth, that not everything in life that has a certain groundswell of opinion must be made, produced, or even given much consideration. That is the position that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter regrettably find themselves in as they return 25 years later to their alter egos of Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan in Bill & Ted Face The Music.
What was once a welcome diversion, even required viewing, and one that certainly caught the ironic zeitgeist of the time, has in its third instalment unfortunately become an unashamed parody of itself, an intimate self-love fest, which has in parts the honour of its previous incarnations, but not enough to make an audience that has moved on since the late 80s/early 90s fervour over the two loveable San Demas slackers with hopes of music domination, fall in love with them all over again.
If to be kind, if not excellent to each other, then it could be argued that the generation who took the ethos of Bill and Ted to their hearts, have the right to nostalgia, to catch upon the people whose story provided catchphrases and slogans, in much the same way that people yearn to see what happened to their former high school sweetheart, hoping that they stayed as attractive and funny as they were when they were 18.
The problem is that the person of your dreams when you were a teenager doesn’t always stay the same, and those cute habits that you once found endearing, somehow make your teeth grind when you spend a couple of hours in their company, seeing their photos, and wondering if they are ready to chew their arm of to escape in the same way that you are.
Written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon and directed by Dean Parisot, Bill & Ted Face The Music didn’t really need to be made, it however does exist, and whilst it is good for the soul to see Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter performing together again, whilst the great William Sadler gets to perform as the bass loving Death once more, and the running joke of Missy working her way through the family, the observation of fractured American families held together by a certain individual, there is very little else within the film to see it conclusively as a bonding agent. Instead, it is disappointingly seen arguably as a moment of avoiding the fan fiction additions and the clamour from certain quarters hell bent on reliving their own late teenage years through the eyes of melancholic wistfulness.
Unsatisfactory, unedifying, a moment of solace punctured by the occasional good joke, but one that is not enough to live long in the valley of good cinematic memories.
Ian D. Hall