'Bill & Ted Face the Music' Review Thread

Rotten Tomatoes: 81% (62 reviews) with 6.59 in average ratingMetacritic: 66/100 (30 critics)As with other movies, the scores are set to change as time passes. Meanwhile, I'll post some short reviews on the movie.It’s silly and occasionally a little slow, and it could use the kind of in-person audience that it won’t get in these pandemic days. But if you felt any affection for “Bill & Ted” in the past, you’ll feel it again here, because the movie rides on the same kind of goofy charm as its predecessors. Winter and Reeves, meanwhile, manage to make the years and the mileage show without losing that essential Billishness or Tediosity; maybe they weren’t born to play these guys, but it’s still a lot of fun when they do.-Steve Pond, The Wrap“Face the Music” is a giant party of a movie, made all the more gratifying by the way it sits at odds with the divisive moment that greets its release. Things may be dire (in this movie and IRL) but Bill and Ted’s unbridled enthusiasm as their stumbles through daunting circumstances turn gleeful ignorance into a form of escapism. Their biggest takeaway (“Maybe we should always not know what we’re doing!”) doesn’t reach the same quotable sagacity of “Be excellent to each other,” but it’s on the same continuum. A little stupid idealism can go a long way, and “Face the Music” makes the case that morons can come together to set the world right. Talk about movie magic.-Eric Kohn, IndieWire: BBill & Ted Face the Music is a pleasant escape for the quarantine-stricken, a sweet and entertaining romp that defies expectations by largely recapturing what worked about the series so many years later. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter rekindle their past chemistry almost instantly, even if their successors, Brigette Lundy-Paine and Samara Weaving, aren’t always quite as well-served by (or as comfortable with) the daft material. Still, the whole ensemble cast is entertaining and the movie itself proves a good-natured distraction from our own grim time.-Jim Vejvoda, IGN: 7 "good"The film is weightless and super-goofy — a blissed-out air balloon of nostalgia. It zips right along, it makes you smile and chortle, it’s a surprisingly sweet-spirited love story, and it’s a better tribute to the one-world utopian power of classic rock than “Yesterday” was. On a scale of one to 10, I wouldn’t say that “Face the Music” goes to 11, but it’s a most excellent sequel.-Owen Gleiberman, VarietyWhile “Face the Music” is best when you don’t think about it too hard, it's also a movie that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t bother to have an insincere moment. “Be excellent to each other” is not a throwaway saying, but a thoughtful mantra wired into the DNA of the movie and its stars. Each have done their own things in Hollywood (Winter is an ace documentary director, Reeves is an icon driving the Keanussance), and their Bill and Ted is a duo that feels as essential now as they ever did.-Brian Truitt, USA TodayI was worried that Bill & Ted may not have the staying power, especially when we’ve seen comedy sequels like Zoolander 2 and Bad Santa 2 falter so badly after decades away from their beloved originals. The secret of the Bill & Ted movies is that they work out from simple characters, but then make their circumstances different enough so that it doesn’t feel like a retread. There are moments when the pacing gets a bit slow and Bill and Ted fighting with their future selves get a little redundant. But there’s no mistaking Face the Music for the previous two movies, especially as it reaches its lovely crescendo about the kind of future we not only leave to our children, but what those children give to us in return. Party on, dudes.-Matt Goldberg, Collider: B+Director Dean Parisot (Red 2, Galaxy Quest) manages to more or less corral this clown car for the next 90 minutes, though even that runtime can feel like a stretch. Mostly, the joy comes from watching Reeves and Winter on screen, two holy fools just doing their best to bring light and love and non-heinous riffs — and remind the bleary-eyed citizens of 2020, perhaps, of a simpler, sweeter world gone by.-Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: BKeanu Reeves & Alex Winter are back, dudes, and still pretty awesome.-Pete Hammond, Deadline: BThe conclusion of “Bill & Ted Face the Music” is pure corn, and by that point, they’ve earned it. It’s a film that’s somehow both offhand and meticulous, shaggy yet crisp, and the apparent joy of its creation is infectious. I laughed through a lot of it, and smiled through the rest. What a treat this movie is.-Jason Bailey, The Playlist: B+It’s harder than ever to believe in the idyllic land of harmony foretold in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. 2020 is the most non-non-heinous year of my lifetime. Perhaps that’s why Bill & Ted Face the Music’s optimism in the face of the apocalypse feels so welcome. It suggests that even if a song could never fix the universe, maintaining hope can be a world-changing act. Bill & Ted might be about life’s disappointments, but it is not one of them.-Matt Singer, Screen Crush: 7/10The film suggests that Bill and Ted’s dreams of stardom aren’t so stupid after all.-Chuck Bowen, Slant: 2.5/4Being excellent is uncommon in the belated threequel.-Richard Roeper, The Chicago Sun Times: 2/4A sequel of rare sincerity, Bill & Ted Face the Music avoids feeling like a craven reviving of a hollowed-out IP or a cynical reboot, mostly because its ambition is the stuff of affection—for what the filmmakers are doing, made with sympathy for their audience and a genuine desire to explore these characters in a new context. Maybe that’s the despair talking. Or maybe it’s just the relief of for once confronting the past and finding that it’s aged considerably well.-Dom Sinacola, Paste: 6.9/10DIRECTORDean ParisotWRITERChris Matheson & Ed SolomonRELEASE DATE:August 28, 2020Budget:$25 millionSTARRINGKeanu Reeves as Theodore "Ted" LoganAlex Winter as William S. "Bill" Preston, Esq.Brigette Lundy-Paine as Wilhelmina "Billie" LoganSamara Weaving as Theodora "Thea" PrestonWilliam Sadler as DeathKristen Schaal as KellyAnthony Carrigan as Dennis Caleb McCoyJayma Mays as Princess Joanna PrestonErinn Hayes as Princess Elizabeth LoganHolland Taylor as The Great LeaderKid Cudi as HimselfJillian Bell as Dr. Taylor Wood via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2Qt8iRP