Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) Review

rating: ****

the story: Bill & Ted, thirty years later, still trying to find the song that will change the world.

review: Here’s my reaction in a nutshell: Most excellent!

Bill & Ted Face the Music may end up the entry in the series that’s most easy to enjoy years down the road, the kind of experience the series has been chasing since the start, taking all the familiar elements and finally knowing exactly what to do with them.

The idea of time-traveling dimwitted wannabe rockers was a fine novelty, guaranteed to stand out, especially since when we first met them Bill & Ted were in high school, like so many other movie characters in the ‘80s. They gave off a similar vibe as Back to the Future, but less complicated, wackier, and as it turned out, Keanu Reeves had better movie star chops than Michael J. Fox. He went on, aside from everything else, to launch two additional franchises with The Matrix and John Wick. Which is virtually impossible. Usually the max is two. Even more usually, one. A lot of stars would be very happy just to have one, especially in the modern era, but many can’t even pull that off.

I don’t think Face the Music works off nostalgia alone. I think you could watch it with no prior knowledge of its two predecessors and it would still be satisfying. Even the callback gags aren’t difficult to parse, and there’s more than enough new gags built directly into the plot (Bill & Ted meeting future versions of themselves, couples therapy) that even if you don’t settle into the air guitars you’ll be fine.

Then there’s Kid Cudi being a time travel physics genius. There’s Dennis Caleb McCoy, who only gets better as the film progresses. There’s even the idea of Bill & Ted not even being the heroes, but knowing not to lean too heavily into that.

It works. It absolutely works. This is how you solidify a cult classic. By making a sequel that only further justifies that status. And pretty much replaces it.