Bill & Ted Face the Music Parent Guide

Although Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) were told their music would unite the world, the past 25 years haven’t quite worked out that way. The buddies have been married to the 15^th century English princesses from the first film (Jayma Mays and Erinn Hayes) but those relationships have suffered from a quarter century of creative stagnation. Time is starting to run out for the pair – Kelly (Kristen Schaal) has come from the future to tell the boys that if they don’t perform “the song” in about an hour and a half, time and space will collapse in on themselves. Unable to think of a way to write a universally popular song so quickly, Bill and Ted resort to an old standby – time travelling to the future to get the music from themselves. Unfortunately, the future seems to be going downhill. Worse, their daughters Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) have “borrowed” another time-travel machine and are trying to assemble a rocking band for their dads, but have run into a dangerous robot from the future (Anthony Carrigan) who threatens to unravel the entire plan…

The thing you have to understand about Bill and Ted (both as characters and as a franchise) is that they’re really, really, really stupid. That’s part of their charm. Any rational human person would be completely unable to get into or out of the trouble the pair find themselves in, and it’s only through the clever application of creative idiocy that the founders of Wyld Stallyns ever get anything done. If you aren’t prepared for that kind of loveable stupid, don’t watch any of these movies.

I happen to love these films, but I had some doubts about this one going in. Sequels that come out this late have a tendency to be either poorly made fan products or shameless studio cash-grabs: but Bill & Ted Face the Music feels surprisingly genuine. It’s been in the works for years, and I think that it only got made because both the fans and the cast loved the project too much to let it die out. The film feels well loved – even and especially when it starts getting silly.

What differentiates this from other entries in the franchise is the almost total absence of content concerns – the previous films have usually had some fairly raunchy jokes and occasional profanity. This has far less swearing and crude language, and while it isn’t perfect, it’s certainly headed in the right direction. There is a rather alarming scene featuring a wedding between Missy (Amy Stoch) and her former step-son, Deacon (Beck Bennett), which continues in the long tradition of Missy marrying both Bill and Ted’s fathers at different points in the series. I think, having run out of fathers, she’s simply moved on to other relations – not that it isn’t remarkably weird. Also on the odd side is a brief cameo of Jesus Christ with a cowbell, which might be offensive to religious audiences.

From my perspective, Bill & Ted is a touching little movie, with a genuine love for its source material that you don’t see too much anymore. It’s not perfect, or terribly smart, or even entirely coherent – but those are all hallmarks of this classic franchise. And besides, who among us couldn’t benefit from their insightful philosophy: “Be excellent to each other…and party on, dudes!”