Stoner hipster doofuses Bill and Ted are back.
After “Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey,” the duo, still played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, are yet again here to save the day in the threequel, “Bill And Ted Face The Music.”
Directed this time by Dean Parisot (“Galaxy Quest,” “Red 2”), and written by the duo of Ed Solomon (“Men In Black”) and Chris Matheson (“Mom and Dad Save the World”), ‘Face The Music’ has Bill and Ted having to deal with their daughters, who have to help their middle-aged dads write a new song to save the universe. The daughters are played by Samara Weaving (“SMILF”) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Netflix’s “Atypical”).
“The daughters really love their dads’ music and want to help them,” co-writer Chris Matheson told EW. “They’re trying to help their dads put together this amazing band to save the universe, essentially. You know, Ed and I always imagined Bill and Ted as [not] having any other friends. They just kind of hang out together. They’ve got this kind of weird mind-meld and Billie and Thea have the same thing. They actually really love what their dads are doing and so they decide, well, we’re going to help them, we’re going to help our dads put together an incredible band.”
We don’t really have any other synopsis, but we do finally have a trailer. How the original film became such a cherished cult classic is beyond me, part of it, I presume, as to do with nostalgia and the infectious spirit of a young Keanu Reeves. Just one look at this first trailer and you can already sense that, 30 years later, Reeves just doesn’t fit in anymore with this kind of shtick.
Whether “Bill And Ted Face The Music” actually arrives in theaters on August 21st, 2020 is another question mark.
It gives me no pleasure to report that this is one of the worst films of Schrader’s career. Wooden acting, Jack Huston and Sofia Boutella are badly miscast, the script is dull, the photography is flat; nothing works.