Bill & Ted Face the Music is the third entry in the Bill & Ted series, and the first movie to come out since Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey in 1991. So, it’s been almost 30 years since the last movie, which is significant in the context of what this movie is. The long and short of this is that I have some mixed feelings about Bill & Ted Face the Music, and it’s definitely my least favorite of the trilogy, but ultimately I think it still manages to be a pretty good movie.

Anyway, though, the 30 year time gap between movies is significant to the plot, as the actors that played Bill and Ted are obviously much older now. What I will commend Bill & Ted Face the Music for is that it utilizes this age gap perfectly for its story. Anyone familiar with the Bill & Ted mythos will know that Bill and Ted are supposed to be the two that unite the entire world with one song. Well, Face the Music picks up in the lives of the duo 30 years later, and they still haven’t made that song. They receive word from people in the future that time is running out, and if they don’t make the song, all of time and space will collapse in on itself.

It’s honestly kind of the perfect plot for what a new Bill & Ted movie 30 years later. And for what it’s worth, seeing the duo’s lives 30 years later is probably my favorite aspect of the movie. I love what the writers did with the story in this one. Even in the opening scene, we see that Missy has now divorced Ted’s dad (after previously being married to Bill’s dad in the first movie) and now getting married to Ted’s younger brother. So, there are some hilarious jokes about Missy being their mom, sister, etc. You might also remember from the end of Bogus Journey that Bill and Ted now have kids, and we see their daughters, Billie and Thea, fully grown here.

The movie largely incorporates what made the first two movies great, without being a full-on repeat of them. The daughters, Billie and Thea, actually go on an adventure of their own throughout the movie, that’s basically a combination of the journey that Bill and Ted went on in the first two movies. This is all happening while Bill and Ted are traveling through time to try to find their song. This journey for the characters allows us to see the return of great characters like the Grim Reaper, while also getting a whole slew of new historical figures to join the group.

So, Bill & Ted Face the Music works really well on paper, but it just didn’t always work for me in its execution. I think the biggest problem for me is simply the disconnect that comes as a result of there being a 30 year gap between movies. Part of it is as simple as the higher production value, but Face the Music just never quite has the same feel as the first two movies.

I think my biggest problem was actually just Bill and Ted themselves. The characters were really endearing when they were just these dumb teenagers trying to start a rock group, but when they’re in their 40s and are the still the same losers, it kind of just starts to become sad. The film does as best as it can to try to make them a bit more mature, but the movie just falls into a trap where it needs them to still be losers so that they’re not totally different characters. Keanu Reeves is also just a big issue here. It’s really obvious that Keanu Reeves has become more successful than his co-star Alex Winters in the years that followed the first two movies, and so it was very hard for me to distance myself from Keanu Reeves’ real-life persona and be sold on him still being a complete idiot. I didn’t have as much of an issue with Alex Winters, since I don’t really know him for anything else outside of these movies. To his credit, Keanu Reeves is a good enough actor that he’s able to sell it as best as he can, but I just kept seeing Keanu Reeves on-screen, rather than Ted.

I feel bad saying all of that, because I think that Bill & Ted Face the Music is actually the best possible movie it could be for what it is. It’s just hard to ignore the time gap and the Keanuissance that has happened in recent years. Luckily the movie has a strong enough story and writing that it overcomes most of these hurdles to still be a pretty good movie. I definitely laughed the least in this one, but I still had a good time. I’m happy to have gotten this movie, but I don’t feel like I want any more of them.

3.5/5