STORY: The two goofy musicians Bill & Ted haven’t yet come up with a song that can save time and space. The duo are now in a race against time to create the song that can unite the world and save the universe.
REVIEW: It’s 2020 already and the world is about to end unless Bill Preston (Alex Winter) and Ted Logan (Keanu Reeves) can deliver a song that can save life as we know it. But the two wannabe musicians are far from creating any song, let alone a song that can save the world. Even if you haven’t seen the previous two installments, the opening scene establishes quite clearly that Bill and Ted, now in their middle-age, continue to be the losers, whose rock and roll destiny is as unfulfilled as their marriages. But before they can fix that they are whisked away in a time-travelling capsule by Kelly (Kristen Schaal), who takes them to the future to meet her mother, the Great Leader (Holland Taylor). She tells them that they have until 7:17 p.m. that evening to write the all-important song or the universe will collapse. Desperate to make it happen, Bill and Ted use their deceased time-travelling guide Rufus’s phone booth to steal the song from their future selves. Never mind the logic that there would be no future without the song anyway. On the other hand, when Kelly goes back to earth to look for Bill and Ted, their daughters Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving) step up to help their fathers. They hop into Kelly’s capsule and travel back in time to recruit some of the biggest musicians of all time. And thus begins a mad roller coaster ride across time periods, but will Bill and Ted be able to deliver the goods?
Keeping up with the legacy of Bill and Ted’s trademark goofiness, this third instalment builds it up further and takes its bizarre and adventurous plot to a whole new level of madness. But it remains silly as ever. The execution is packed with a busy screenplay that involves a lot of time travel across continents and eras, that is frankly hard to keep track of and myriad characters that keep popping in and out.
Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves are quite animated as Bill and Ted, respectively, playing up to their innate silliness. But it’s fun to see the two talented actors rub off each other, trying their best to create humour even when the overall writing and dialogues are so painfully unfunny. Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine are well cast as the daughters, who try to help their dads by going back in time to form the ultimate musical team. Frankly, their track has more spunk than Bill and Ted’s. Legendary musicians like Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Mozart and Ling Lun are played goofily by character artists such that the whole thing comes across as a sorry spoof. American rapper Kid Cudi is the most convincing because he plays himself, but instead of creating music, he is mostly relegated to explaining the complex quantum physics mumbo-jumbo to the rest of the characters.
Visually, it’s a treat though to see them all in one frame, even if they don’t look convincing. Also, the film uses heavy-duty visual effects and colourful CGI, mostly to show the characters dropping in with a thud in different time periods.
The film’s soundtrack lacks any significant music piece, despite it being a musical comedy. Generally, one awaits a tuneful extravaganza, at least, in the final act, but given Bill and Ted’s questionable talent, we never get one here.
That said, ‘Bill and Ted’ wears its inanity on its sleeves, never pretending to be more than a tale of two best friends believing in each other. With its nostalgia and goodwill in place, this one takes you on an adventurous ride across time and space. Hop on if you don’t mind a few bumps on the way.
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