Bill & Ted Face The Music

 


The two Bill & Ted movies are classics of their age in a way that other films aren’t. The California slackers with their carefully crafted wit and their unlikely destinies represent some of the most fun to be had back in the day. And a remake didn’t ever seem like a good idea because the films have a chaotic nature that seems fine back then, and okay it worked twice—but it’s been a long time now and if people don’t keep quiet they’ll make good on their Ferris Bueller’s Day Off sequel talk. That’s an idea that would be more of a travesty even than another Wayne’s World movie. It just wouldn’t work.


This works though. It doesn’t do anything that the other films haven’t already done but it kind of works and is charming and fun. Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are adults now with their Princess wives and their teenage daughters, and when we first see them they’re a wedding band… And they play their song—which is called "That Which Binds Us Through Time - The Chemical, Physical, And Biological Nature Of Love And The Exploration Of The Meaning Of Meaning Pt 1” Not a wedding band song so much as a Prog Rock masterpiece. And that’s when I realised that I love this movie.


Because although Keanu Reeves has been with us forever and looks very old to be doing the Theodore Logan thing, it somehow doesn’t matter. Bill and Ted are still looking to unite the world with one great song but they haven’t done so. And their marriages will, we learn, ultimately suffer. But, and here’s where the film is genius, their daughters have taken up the musical passion, and they set about assisting their fathers in fulfilling this final destiny. Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) are perfectly cast, with Brigette Lundy-Paine especially nailing the role. The two actresses are great together and so thoroughly commit to the role that it’s joyous. They decide to go through time in order to assemble the greatest band whilst their fathers rescue their own marriages and meet themselves at different points—and end up on the wrong side of Dave Grohl at one point. The girls meet Jimi Hendrix (DazMann Still) and Louis Armstrong (Jeremiah Craft—who is incredible!), and show one of them phone footage of the other. The Louis Armstrong performance has a subtlety that sets it apart from an impersonation. Elsewhere the script is filled with the kind of dialogue that’s been much copied. The writers still have it.


This is a film that most people would wait to see on the small screen but I’d certainly have gone to the cinema if that’d been an option. The Amazon purchase price is high compared to a cinema ticket, perhaps, but this film unlocks a lot of healthy joy. If you like the original films then it’s essential that you complete your destiny and watch this.

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