Bill and Ted's Excellent Comeback

This past week I caught Bill & Ted Face the Music. And it's the first theatrical release I've seen since the pandemic came and ruined all our lives. Since our theaters are still closed, I had to stream this at home. I do wish I had seen it in a theater, but it was still an awesome ride.

Bill & Ted are much older now, and they still haven't written The Song that would unite the world and save the universe. Everything's falling apart, and they only have two hours left to write it and save everything.

It had me laughing almost the whole way through. Some parts were so funny I couldn't stop laughing. And I'm so glad I didn't watch any of the trailers, which I think give way too much away. (Above, I provide an announcement rather than one of the spoiler trailers.)

Watching the first two movies is likely a requirement for fully understanding what's going on in this third installment -- it's not really a standalone movie. My wife seemed to enjoy parts of it and laughed some, but her lack of knowledge of past events did seem to get in the way.

Most of the original magic still exists, but now these guys are older. Keanu, now famous for much more serious roles, really put his heart into it, but I have to admit that he did it a lot better when he was younger. The writing seems to be consistent with the earlier movies, and the nonsense science and time travel is hilarious!

My only complaints: one scene seemed to drag on a little too long, and the movie seemed to end abruptly. Maybe I just didn't want it to end, or maybe I was hoping for a bigger ending. But if you wait till the very end of the credits, there's a good closure scene worth watching -- pretty funny and excellent.

Also, the musician in me was very disappointed in The Song, which was the most basic typical rock-chords type of song with some dinky fill-ins by Mozart, Armstrong, and other musicians. But the movie watcher in me said, "Shut up. No song that they could come up with would satisfy you."

I really loved the song they sing at the very beginning of the movie, trying to unite the world with a song incorporating many different cultural musical influences, which was both terrible and hilarious at the same time.

If you've seen the first two movies, this is like excellent required watching for you ... so get to it. If you haven't, it may be worth renting the first two movies, and then coming back to pick this one up as well. Just be ready for some mind-bending paradoxical excellent and bogus shenanigans.