Bill & Ted Face the Music

Bill & Ted Face the Music – 30 years after the prophecy that Bill & Ted will create a song so wonderful that it will unite all of humanity, the pair are still struggling to come up with anything. Taken to the future by Rufus’ daughter, they are told they have mere hours to write their fateful song or there will be dire consequences for the world. Out of ideas, they decide to travel forwards in time to steal the song from their future selves. Meanwhile, their daughters try to help by time travelling backwards to bring famous musical figures together for inspiration. 

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) – Director: Dean Parisot

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63040569

Rating: PG

Running Length: 91 mins

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Kristen Schaal

Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction

REVIEW: ‘BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC’

As you may have guessed from reading our ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure‘ and ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey‘ reviews, we at Is This Movie Suitable are huge Bill & Ted fans! So a third film released three decades after the first film positively filled us with glee! However, we can maintain our usual level of professionalism to objectively critique a second sequel. Any further instalment in a beloved series so long after the original entries usually doesn’t bode well for the quality! However, we can happily tell you that ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ is exactly what we wanted it to be. The chemistry between Alex Winter (Bill S. Preston, Esq) and Keanu Reeves (Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan) is just as natural and heart warming as it always was and, despite now being middle aged, their enthusiastic and positive attitudes remain.

The bodacious buddies remain married to the princesses from previous movies and now they each have a daughter. Bill’s daughter is inevitably named Thea (Samara Weaving) and Ted’s daughter is inevitably named Billie (Brigette Lundy Paine) and both are chips off the old block. What the movie expertly does in the opening sequence is summarise what has happened to our duo since the events of Bogus Journey: Bill & Ted initially enjoyed huge success but, having never written the song that will unite the universe in peace, are now down and out and bereft of inspiration. To discover the secret of their prophesised success, Bill and Ted opt to use time travel to steal it from their future selves but their daughters, desperate to help, choose to use time travel to seek the musical muse elsewhere. It’s a lot of fun to see the pair back in the old phone booth time machine and that their future iterations are increasingly antagonistic towards them brings plenty of gags.

Overall, ‘Bill and Ted Face the Music’ may not quite reach the peak of the first two movies but it is by no means a poor relation. This is a movie that knows exactly where it came from and pays homage to its origins in the best possible ways without being a copy of what was previously successful. With a lot of the original cast clearly enjoying their roles once more and newcomers adding plenty to the mix (since when did an assassination robot sent back in time get such good gags?!), it is easy to say that the third Bill and Ted movie is most triumphant!

CONTENT: IS ‘BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

Recurring character, Missy, having previously been married to Bill’s dad and then Ted’s dad, is now seen marrying Ted’s younger brother, Deacon. Her prolific love life within such a small group of male characters hints at a promiscuity with her character, however nothing is ever explicitly stated.

A future version of Ted is an alcoholic and he is seen drinking vodka straight from the bottle.

An established character from all three movie is killed by being vaporised. They see Death pointing at them immediately after.

A robot is beaten up by a group of prisoners. Other characters can see things from his point of view so there are close-ups of feet kicking and fists punching him. He monotonously says ‘ow’ but does not suffer to much and is fine when he is seen later.

A character tells others ‘Don’t fudge with me!’

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC’ FOR KIDS?

This most excellent follow up to ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ brings audiences what they’ve been waiting for for so long. We feel ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ is appropriate for kids aged 6 and over, however the storyline is more likely to be enjoyed by children aged 8 and over.

• Violence: 1/5 (Bill & Ted are threatened with a gun, it is fired at them but misses)
• Emotional Distress: 1/5
• Fear Factor: 0/5
• Sexual Content: 1/5
• Bad Language: 2/5 (a couple of moderate curse words)
• Dialogue: 0/5
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of time travel, saving the future, the mental stress of responsibility, Death, the uniting force of music, forgiveness, not giving up and inspiration.

Words by Laura Record