A chaotic, if charitable comedy puts Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter back into their Generation X stoner roles.
Creators Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon write and Dean Parisot directs Bill & Ted Face The Music that posits Reeve’s Ted and Winter’s Bill as middle-aged dads (with family issues).
They’ll need that souped-up-phone box as these amiable never-beens are tasked with writing a song to save civilization donned with bagpipes and Theremin. For some it will seem like Reeves’ brooding Neo and John Wick characters might bring a heavier aura to his endearing Ted.
The screenplay turns on the arrival of the irked daughter (Kristen Schaal) of Rufus (the late George Carlin in virtual-reality form) to issue an ultimatum about reality and the duo’s marriages.
As they try to find answers, their daughters (Samara Weaving and Bridgette Lundy-Paine race through history to put together the band to end all bands (consider Louis Armstrong, Jimi Hendrix and Mozart). Even if what they end up performing could be perceived as an anathema.
Through Face The Music is tidy in length it seems to carry more wright than necessary to get to its hardly cynical destination in slipshod fashion. Holland Taylor and William Sadler as the Grim Reaper are welcome in what is anachronous but a tonic in its impish absurdity during on-going precariousness.