Kidzworld watched Bill and Ted Face the Music. Can Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter use nostalgia, music, optimism and pure silly popcorn movie fun to make us all forget our troubles even for a while?
In Bill and Ted Face the Music, we bring back time-traveler, slacker musicians William "Bill" S. Preston Esq. (Alex Winter) and Theodore "Ted" Logan (Keanu Reeves) popular in two movies in the late ‘80’s early ‘90’s. Still hoping to create a song that will unify the world as their destiny promised, the now middle-aged besties are launched on a new adventure when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it. It’s a race against time as they are helped by their daughters, some historical figures and a few music legends to find the song that will set their world right and bring harmony to the universe.
Bill and Ted Face The Music Clip "Hopscotch"
Bill and Ted get ready to time travelCourtesy of Orion Pictures
Backstory and a Wedding
Bill and Ted’s 20-something daughters tell us that their dads were told by someone from the future that they must write a song to unite the world. This was years ago and they are still trying. As their band Wyld Stallyns rose then fell, the guys were not successful alone. Now the universe is falling apart with time folding in on itself and it’s up to the dads to save it….with a special song. At the wedding of Ted’s younger bro with a woman who has married nearly every guy in both Ted and Bill’s families, the guys introduce their new song….it’s pretty awful but their daughters, who seem like female clones of their dads, Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving), think it is well… excellent!
Bill and Ted perform at the weddingCourtesy of Orion Pictures
Therapy and Beyond
Worrying that they are still losers and their wives Elizabeth (Erinn Hayes) and Joanna (Jayma Mays) princesses whom they brought forward in time and married, are going to leave them, the guys take the two couples to therapy where it is obvious that Bill and Ted consider the two couples one “unit”. The guys are about to give up writing songs until a giant, futuristic egg arrives and a girl named Kelly (Kristen Schaal) steps out telling them to join her. They are whisked to 2720 A.D. where they are brought in front of the Great Leader (Holland Taylor) who says that although they got popular they didn’t write a song to unite the world and now they have to write one in 77 minutes that will keep the universe from falling apart!
To the Future
The guys realize that they were told they do write this song so they decide to time travel ahead and steal it from…themselves. Finding their old phone booth time machine, they enter and go two years into the future where they are on the skids, can’t write anything and their wives have left them, moving in time to find the right era for happiness. These losers sure didn’t write the song. Meanwhile, the Great Leader decides that the prediction is wrong and that killing Bill and Ted is the only way to save the future. She sends a robot to kill them. Bill and Ted return to the couple therapy session, tell the wives they love them then time travel 5 years into the future, still hoping to find the song they hope they have written by then.
Daughters dig their dads' musicCourtesy of Orion Pictures
Time Hopping
With 58 minutes left to write and perform the song, the guys find their future selves seemingly successful in a fancy house. Their future selves give them a new song on a CD. They think they’ve solved the problem. Meanwhile, their daughters borrow the time travelling “egg” ship from Kelly and take off to various eras to gather up a great band to help their dads. First stop, the 1960’s where they try to recruit guitar great Jimi Hendrix who says no. Then back to 1922 to talk great musician Louis Armstrong to join. When they put Louie and Jimi together, both decide this would be a great band! Bill and Ted sadly learn that the mansion isn’t their house but musician Dave Grohl’s. He calls the police while our Bill and Ted leave their older selves behind to take the break-in rap.
Beefy Bill and Ted in future prisonCourtesy of Orion Pictures
More Time Hopping
Bill and Ted, with 47 minutes left to find/write the song, go five more years into the future with Great Leader’s robot shooting at them while daughters are off to 1782 Vienna to recruit Mozart for the band. He and Jimi hit it off. Meanwhile, Ted and Bill arrive in 2030 at a prison where their future selves are buffed up musclemen…the version of them arrested for breaking into Ghrol’s house. A fight ensues while the daughters recruit an ancient Asian flautist and a caveman drummer. Kelly, seeing that time crossovers are getting worse, finds rapper Kid Cudi and they join up with the daughters and their new band but the killer robot arrives and kills them all!
Thea and Billie team up with Kid CudiCourtesy of Orion Pictures
In Hell and Beyond
The gang arrives in hell while Bill and Ted visit 2067 in which they are very old men dying in a hospital. Elderly Bill gives our Bill a zip drive with a song by “Preston/Logan” on it. It must be THE song… now to hurry back and play it but the phone booth is gone. They learn that the robot killed their daughters and the new band and they talk him into killing them too so they will go to hell to find them before it’s too late. The zip drive with the song is broken! In hell the gang has one last band member to recruit. Death. He used to play bass in Wyld Stallyns before they broke up years ago. There are 19 minutes left.
The guys have to talk Death into rejoining the bandCourtesy of Orion Pictures
Can It Come Together?
Will Death rejoin the band and help everyone leave Hell in time to get a new song written? Will Bill and Ted actually write the song? Will the band from across the ages be enough to heal the messed up universe? What secrets will be revealed?
Wrapping Up
Even facing the end of the universe, Bill and Ted still look on the bright side. The original films were made in a much less complicated time in which yes, maybe the right music could heal almost anything. If you have seen the two Bill and Ted movies on video, great. If you haven’t, ask your parents or just wing it. The silly time travel mess will fall enough into place.
Director with killer robot actorCourtesy of Orion Pictures
The film is full of illogical nonsense but Keanu and Alex try really hard to recapture their younger selves sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much.
Attempts at a side story of a woman marrying practically every guy in Ted’s family including his younger brother, just seem out of another film. I did enjoy the two clone-like daughters gathering up famous musicians throughout time to help their dads. This sort of action in the early movies was fun as well. The daughters also play a big part in solving the final story problem as well.
Bill and Ted's daughters are just like themCourtesy of Orion Pictures
A movie about healing the entire universe by uniting us all with music is uplifting. Wow, how great if it were really that easy to heal Covid-19, political differences, racial inequity and more…with a great tune. As the guys say “Be excellent to each other”. Meanwhile, this uneven nonsense is enough of an escape to let us award it three stars.
Bill and Ted Face The Music Movie Rating: 
Courtesy of Orion Pictures
See Bill and Ted Face the Music On Demand and in select theaters now!
Can Music Heal Everything?
Does playing a fine tune make you forget your troubles? Does watching silly but fun movies lighten your day? Have you ever seen the two early Bill and Ted films? Talk up time travel and healing the world here and/or on your Kidzworld profile page!
