Bill & Ted Face the Music

Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are back together on the big screen for the first time in 29 years. Now grown up, middle-aged with wives and kids, their band, Wyld Stallyns, never quite took off like they were prophesied to. They soon meet a visitor from the future who’s actually Rufus’ (ya’ know, George Carlin’s character from the first two movies) daughter, Kelly (Kristen Schaal), and she brings them to the future where Bill and Ted find out they only have 77 minutes and 25 seconds to write the hit song, that they’ve yet to write, that will unite the world. Not a perfect movie by any means, but neither of the previous Bill & Ted movies were all that great or critically acclaimed, they were just fun. Face the Music, penned by original creators (Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon), fits right in the wheelhouse of the canon and completes the trilogy, falling somewhere in between Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, fitting in perfectly with the general themes of both. What seems like a nostalgic cash-grab pretty much is, but nostalgia can be fun sometimes, and this is pointless, escapist fun, which the world so desperately needs right now. Kid Cudi and Dave Grohl both make funny appearances. William Sadler from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey returns as “Death” and there’s also a George Carlin hologram.

[PG-13]