There's a sweet message at the heart of Bill And Ted Save The Music. In fact, there are a couple of sweet messages. This will come as no surprise to fans of the previous two movies, in which our hapless heroes stumbled on adventures with a kindness and optimism to make up for their lack of intelligence. The film itself may be the weakest of the three, but maybe it's just what we need in the midst of the dumpster fire that is 2020.
The plot doesn't take long to get going at all. Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are still friends, and still married to the two princesses (Joanna, played by Jayma Mays this time, and Elizabeth, played by Erinn Hayes). There are also two daughters, Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving). They also still have yet to write and perform the one song that will keep time and space holding together, something that becomes a much more pressing concern when they are visited from the future by Kelly (Kristen Schaal) and informed that the song is needed in a matter of hours. Unable to think of anything, Bill and Ted come up with the idea of travelling to see their future selves to get the song they will know by then. Things start to get complicated.
Written once again by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, and bringing back a lot of the same cast members able to reprise supporting roles (including William Sadler as Death, Hal Landon Jr. as Ted's father, and even Amy Stoch as Missy), this is a film that feels made by people with their heart in the right place. Director Dean Parisot should also be a good choice, and he handles everything well enough.
It's a hard film to dislike, and I don't. It's also hard for me to pin down exactly why I didn't love it. The characters feel too old for their shenanigans this time around, but that is kind of the point. The plot does complex in a childishly simple way, but that is also part of the appeal. It has plenty of little touches for fans to enjoy while never keeping newcomers in the dark. What's not to appreciate about that?
I'm really not sure. There was just something that felt odd this time, and I am not completely unconvinced that my own mixed feelings to the film don't stem from the sweetness of it being juxtaposed against what may well be the personal worst year of my life (so far).
Winter and Reeves are great in the lead roles, as expected. They may have a little less energy this time around, in their main incarnations, but they certainly love these characters, and clearly have fun. Weaving and Lundy-Paine are saddled with having to do impressions of their onscreen dads, which is something performed better by the former than the latter. Sadler is yet again a highlight, Schaal is a good time-travelling agent, and Jillian Bell is a lot of fun in her small role (playing a marriage counsellor). Anthony Carrigan is less enjoyable, playing a killer robot sent to take care of Bill and Ted, and the portrayals of Jimi Hendrix and Louis Armstrong feel a bit off, but these characters are all offset by everything else going on.
You also get some fun cameos, plenty of unexpected wisdom from Kid Cudi, and impressive plotting that leads us to an ending that manages to be both slightly unexpected and yet also quite predictable and satisfying (I hope that makes sense when you see it).
Lots of people loved this. I liked it. I think it is a distraction that many people will enjoy just now, more for the fact that it's appropriately available at a time when it feels almost needed than the actual quality of the final product.
6/10
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