Bill & Ted Face the Music (Dean Parisot, 2020)

[domino harvey]

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter just confirmed Bill and Ted Face the Music will film this summer

[Brian C]

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter just confirmed Bill and Ted Face the Music will film this summer

I’m cautiously on board for this. You don’t often see the combination of good-natured and surreal that the first two movies had. If the new one can hold on to that, despite the characters being middle-aged now, i feel it would be a pretty impressive achievement.

[mfunk9786]

It's an awesome title, that's for sure.

[flyonthewall2983]

And it's with Orion, of all places

[domino harvey]

It's such a shame Alex Winter never got any mileage out of these films and especially Freaked. In some alternate perfect world, Freaked would be as well-known as Anchorman et al

[smccolgan]

Bill & Ted Face The Music, still set for a Summer 2020 release

[domino harvey]

Surprisingly does not look terrible

[knives]

Does look ancient though.

[domino harvey]

Soderbergh has a producing credit on the film after helping it get made as “cheerleader”

[Monterey Jack]

Soderbergh has a producing credit on the film after helping it get made as “cheerleader”

Rather odd, considering how much he looks down his nose at "mainstream" cinema.

[domino harvey]

Dude, like half his films ARE mainstream cinema, what are you even talking about

[Jack Kubrick]

Yes, the man behind the ultra- austere arty film series as the Ocean's (insert number) is a precocious snob looking down at Hollywood entertainment.

[PfR73]

Soderbergh has a producing credit on the film after helping it get made as “cheerleader”

Rather odd, considering how much he looks down his nose at "mainstream" cinema.

Soderbegh has a working relationship with Bill & Ted screenwriter Ed Solomon, who wrote Mosaic and the upcoming Kill Switch.

[Monterey Jack]

I just remember some story about him watching The Rocketeer, leaning over to whoever he saw the film with, and referring to James Horner's score with "Don't you hate this shit...?"

[flyonthewall2983]

Surprisingly does not look terrible

It looks about the same as the other two films did, albeit this was shot digitally.

[smccolgan]

I’ll admit that I went in with low expectations, but I ended up really enjoying this. It felt like a throwback to the era of the earlier films, and the familiar faces from those films were integrated well, I think.

I will say Anthony Carrigan was not in it enough for my liking - he’s one of the best parts of Barry and he eventually gets to shine in this. Keanu clean-shaven is a little unnerving, but I enjoyed that this film says a bit about the aging/familial process without hitting you over the head.

William Sadler is a joy in this, too.

[domino harvey]

Wow, I sort of remember this but I guess everyone involved is only too glad no one is bringing it up

[TheKieslowskiHaze]

Wow, I sort of remember this but I guess everyone involved is only too glad no one is bringing it up

These guys brought it up. Looks pretty embarrassing.

[bamwc2]

Brad covered it too.

[Pavel]

Finally watched this. It had two fun ideas: continuing the finding-historical-figures-and-bringing-them-to-the-present tradition, this time specifically focusing on great musicians in an attempt to form the coolest, most stylistically-diverse band imaginable; and going forward in time and meeting future iterations of Bill and Ted, often created by actions taken previously in the film.
The fatal flaw—and fatal it is—is that it's just not particularly funny. I could barely breathe watching Excellent Adventure (which I adore), this barely got a chuckle out of me. But totally serviceable, inoffensive, etc.

[therewillbeblus]

I felt similarly, Pavel, and though I’ve forgotten almost everything about the movie already, I recall feeling that a major factor in its failure was the choice to essentially replace the two daughters as the leads. I’m not convinced that it was a casting problem, but probably just an error in judgment that even talented young actresses could or should try to pull off Winters’ and Reeves’ mannerisms. Brigette Lundy-Paine and Samara Weaving seem to be passionate performers tapping into versatile skills, but none of their interplay was funny to me and came off as egregiously, actively unfunny. They get some points for trying, because these are not easy shoes to fill (which is the whole problem with trying, really) and they go for broke in their attempts, which is admirable in theory. In practice, though, it was hard to watch. The future scenes with future Bill and Ted had some promise and it was a shame the elements didn’t gel there.

[spectre]

Just watched Face the Music after revisiting the first two films with my nine-year-old son (Excellent Adventure: a lot better than I remembered!; Bogus Journey: not as good but still pretty funny in parts) and thought it wasn't even in the same ballpark, sadly. As Pavel says above, there's very little if anything to laugh at here – for me, the prevailing vibe is either cringeworthy or dull. I can't even imagine how it'd play to someone who didn't have any nostalgia for the first two films, which are, sure, dumb comedies but at least charmingly original and eccentric. This felt tired and kind of cheaply put together, and I'm puzzled by the (admittedly measured) praise it received from fans at the time of its release.