Review: Bill & Ted Face The Music

When all hope looked to have been lost, it finally took almost 30 years before we saw a third Bill & Ted film.

I remember experiencing the first two Bill & Ted films as a kid, and found them to be rather enjoyable. The first installment (Excellent Adventure) was great fun and managed to make two seemingly dumb lead characters be weirdly endearing and engaging.

While I feel the sequel (Bogus Journey) wasn't as memorable. There was still fun to be had and the craziness of the story made it a welcomed addition to this crazy world of dudes, babes, time-travel, being excellent to each other and partying on.

I ended up coming out of this particular chapter to the franchise with mixed feelings. It gives us a nice little intro and an idea where Bill and Ted are in their lives both literally and spiritually. Once I could see where the story was going, I thought it was a well-drawn out structure. However, the execution or utilisation of the story fully worked. For a comedy, I didn't really laugh that much, it somewhat lacked that drive and the pacing seemed to lag. I was quite surprised by that for a feature that was just over 90mins. Plus, the ending felt really abrupt to me and surprised me in a "oh, that's it" moment.

It was great seeing both Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter return and get back in the saddle. They did it with ease as if Bogus Journey only happened yesterday. I was surprised with Winter especially as he doesn't to seem an active actor or filmmaker. Outside of Bill & Ted, there's very little other mainstream projects that he has been part of.

I was a bit unsure of Kristen Schaal and Samara Weaving's performance. While I feel Weaving was trying to make the performance her own, Schaal looked more like an impression then anything else.

Also, it was nice seeing William Sadler reprise his role with ease. One actor that could steal the show for audience members is Anthony Carrigan's character. He could very well draw the biggest laughs. I must finally mention on the acting side, is that there is the odd cameo or two that pleased me.

There's a good amount of visual effects in the film. Some of them worked well with some cool 90's effects. But there were moments that clearly looked like a green screen and made it look slightly tacky. The costumes were pretty good and even impressive in parts and could very well the films biggest positive.

So while there was nothing seriously wrong the film. There was just little to want me to see it again. However, there was enough content in the films tone and story that for me made it passable viewing. The feel-good and positive vibes it has, does make it the type of film we kind of need at the moment. Reeves and Winter feel like they've been playing Bill and Ted for decades. I feel it is well written, the story was perfectly functional and they balanced  the story that would please the fans as well as bring in a new generation of followers.

I must mention that there is a post-credits scene. It's a solid end note to the feature and is worth staying for if you were left wanting more when the credits began. Also, the credit aren't that long as the credits are pretty reasonable in length.

Rating: 7/10