Review: 'Bill & Ted Face the Music' is a silly, hope-filled adventure

Bill & Ted Face the Music
3.5 out of 5 Stars
Director: Dean Parisot
Writer: Chris Matheson, Ed Solomon
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Samara Weaving
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13 for some language

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) – Synopsis: Having failed to write the song that would unite the world, Bill and Ted travel into the future to ask themselves for a little help.

Review: There are been rumors regarding a third Bill & Ted film for years. So much so that I’ve had my share of ideas of what that film might look like. Maybe one of the duo would mature, drop out of the music business and leave the other to struggle on their own. What if they both mellowed and went separate ways? Better yet, what if Bill and Ted had a bitter split and only the impending apocalypse could get the band back together?

Turns out my ideas were far more complex and layered than what writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon settled on. In “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” adult Bill and Ted are pretty much the same guys that they were when we first met them in 1989. Sure, they are a little wiser. Having success and seeing it all slip away has a way of dulling a person’s optimism. Still, they believe that there, somewhere in the cobwebbed corners of their creativity, sits the greatest song in the history of the world. And, as ridiculous as it might sound, I believed that too. Well, at least in that cinematic sort of fantasy with time travel sort of way. That helped me to realize that I don’t need or want to see Bill or Ted doubt themselves. Their undying optimism is part of what makes them who they are.

So, when the world starts to fall apart because Bill and Ted have yet to write a song that will bring us all together and famous historical characters disappear from the timeline (and reappear at different points in history), they decide to travel into the future to ask themselves what the song sounds like (because they obviously wrote it at some point). Meanwhile, their daughters, Thea and Billie, head back in time to recruit an all-star band to help with the writing process.

There’s a lot to like in “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” starting with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, but I loved Brigette Lundy-Paine’s performance as Billie. It’s also nice to see William Sadler back as Death and Amy Stoch as Missy.

I don’t know that “Bill & Ted Face the Music” is a great film, but I did catch myself smiling when the credits started to roll. That might not seem like much, but it meant a lot to me.