A most(ly) excellent adventure.

Part Wayne’s World, part Back to the Future, part Beavis & Butthead, few films wholeheartedly encapsulated Gen X better than Bill & Ted. Between Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, the franchise captured the MTV generation perfectly.

Mixing the slacker aesthetic that permeated so much 80s and 90s pop culture with a high concept time travel plot, Bill & Ted was the perfect Generation X storm, going on to create a bodacious legacy that would last well beyond its era. So here we are, almost three decades after the franchise’s last instalment, and while the world has immeasurably changed around them, now more than ever we desperately need the Wyld Stallyns back reminding us to be excellent to each other once again.

Yet to fulfil their destiny of crafting the tune to unite the world, best friends Bill S. Preston Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves), now comfortably middle aged, must set out on another most excellent adventure as a visitor from the future warns of impending doom. Helped along by their daughters, Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine), a new cast of historical music legends, and some familiar faces from the past, Bill and Ted must embark on a time-straddling quest for the song destined to bring harmony to the universe.

Let’s be honest, when we hear that yet another fond film memory from yesteryear is being exhumed for a reboot/sequel, how many of us instantly glaze over? Our nostalgia being cynically preyed upon for the sake of a few bucks is now the Hollywood norm, however, Bill & Ted Face the Music feels different.

While of course there will always be a nostalgic angle to any sequel thirty years after the original, there’s something about this one that just feels right. Refreshingly devoid of cynicism, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its sequel were both rather sweet and endearingly well-meaning tales that, despite their scruffiness, felt utterly sincere.

Now, of course Bill & Ted’s unifying message was naïve and overly simplistic, but its heart was entirely in the right place, and if there were ever a time to revisit that call for worldwide unity, it’s now. It goes without saying that our current reality is lightyears away from that of the early 90s, yet the basic premise of being excellent to one another is as important now as it has ever been.

However, goodwill alone isn’t enough to justify bringing a much-loved but long-gone franchise back from the dead. Far too many attempts to cash in on our cinematic nostalgia have fallen flat as they struggle to give good reason for their being, and for Bill and Ted Face the Music to fully warrant its existence there had to be a hook.

Thankfully, however, the film’s concept is a cracking one. Picking up 30 years on from where we left Bogus Journey, Face the Music immediately throws us a curveball that brilliantly undermines the heroic moment that we last saw Bill and Ted. They didn’t write the song to save the world as was prophesised, they did what most of us would do in such circumstances – get lazy, grow old, and stay as rubbish as they’d always been.

This setup alone is enough to get behind Face the Music as more than a mere nostalgic Hollywood cash-in. Unfortunately, however, while the core concept is a solid one, the execution never quite lives up to the promise.

As appears inevitable with any nostalgia fix like this, Face the Music comes stuffed with call backs, Easter eggs, and a bunch of familiar returning faces, which will no doubt warm the heart of any Bill & Ted fan, yet they only take things so far. Rushed and underdeveloped, the plot never quite feels right, starting out with the best intentions but never fulfilling its potential.

Clocking in at a tidy 90 minutes, there’s something all too brief about Face the Music, as it absolutely flies by like a phonebooth through a time tube thingy. Now, a film being concise isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and there’s much to be said for a movie not overstaying its welcome, but the way in which Face the Music races along with undercooked scenes and an underdeveloped plot just feels messy.

At times coming off like a greatest hits medley from your favourite band, Face the Music takes all the best bits from both its predecessors without ever giving the whole experience. For all their easy-going shenanigans, both Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey worked hard for your affection, putting the graft in to make you care not only for the titular duo but for all the weird and wonderful side characters, something that Face the Music appears reluctant to do.

Even the film’s conclusion, as uplifting and most excellent as it is, ends far too abruptly, pulling the plug just as things are warming up. In truth, the film is in desperate need of an extra 15/20 minutes just to let things breathe, something that would’ve done wonders for the story and given it far more impact.

While the years have certainly taken the edge off their energy, our bodacious protagonists are as loveable and engaging as ever, as they both roll back the years. Of the two stars, Alex Winter seems positively full of beans, clearly well up for another adventure and loving being back in the spotlight and back with is buddy once again.

Opposite him, Keanu Reeves is…well…Keanu Reeves really. Obviously, Keanu is quite the star now, and while back in 1991 it was easy to buy him as a dim-witted slacker like Ted, the three decades of fame since make it hard to see past the fact that this is Keanu Reeves we’re looking at here.

The man quite clearly doesn’t need the money, so there’s little doubt that he wants to be back riding the phonebooth, however, there’s something a little off with Keanu’s performance. Whether it’s his voice or his odd gate, it’s hard to put a finger on what exactly it is, but there’s something not quite right, and while there’s no doubting his pally chemistry with Alex Winter even after all these years, his off-kilter performance gives a strange feel to the whole film.

In perhaps the film’s smartest move, old Bill and Ted are supplemented by “Little Bill” and “Little Ted” – aka Billie and Thea – who rapidly become Face the Music’s brightest spots as they embark on similar adventures to that of their dads in the first two films. While the film sometimes struggles to juggle the time travelling escapades of both fathers and daughters, there’s little doubt that both narrative strands are a ton of fun, with the youngsters even outshining their more seasoned co-stars on more than one occasion.

Almost everyone else, as fun as they are, are just a tad too underdeveloped to thoroughly satisfy. Bill and Ted’s princess wives are still around but their entire side plot falls flat as they pop in and out of the film with little impact, and while it’s great to see William Sadler back slapping the bass as the Grim Reaper, it’s a shame more isn’t made of his scene stealing presence.

Alongside them, none of the various historical musicians picked up along the way have the chemistry to touch Napoleon, Billy the Kid, or even Socrates, yet they do their job well, as does Amy Stoch who steps into the rather large shoes of the late, great George Carlin, while one of the film’s surprising MVPs is Anthony Carrigan as the emotionally insecure killer robot Dennis Caleb McCoy.

And, as strange as it sounds, it’s this character that perhaps best sums the film up. A brand-new character but instilled with the goofy, ridiculous essence of the Bill & Ted franchise, Dennis is weird, ramshackle, and looks like he was put together with spit and gaffer tape, yet is nonetheless pure, unadulterated fun.

With its heart squarely in the right place, Bill & Ted Face the Music is a hugely fun watch throughout, even if it often falls short of its predecessors. Clocking in way too short, much of Face the Music feels underdeveloped, underutilised, and just plain messy, however, at its core, it’s precisely the kind of uncynical, light-hearted, most excellent entertainment that will take you far in these dark and uncertain times. And there’s a lot to be said for that. STATION!