Viewed – 05 February 2021 online rental

This wasn’t a movie I thought we’d ever see. More or less 30 years since the last one, actor Keanu Reeves has certainly separated himself from that late eighties ‘dude’ persona. This has best buds Bill (Alex Winter) & Ted (Reeves) now middle aged and having not made the big time like they were destined, and haven’t made the ‘song to unite the world’. So when Kelly, the daughter of old time traveling friend Rufus, turns up to tell them that things haven’t turned out well in the future, Bill & Ted learn they have to come up with that song in 72hrs before the fabric of reality tares itself apart. At the same time, daughters, Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Theordora (Samara Weaving) decide to help by travelling back in time to bring together the ultimate band, using notable figures from history.

It’s a ridiculous story that borrows the plots from both Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, which means its kind of chaotic. Thankfully, Reeves & Winter jump back into their roles with ease and their dude banter will always be funny. Considering they have a time-travelling phone booth, the ticking clock plot device makes no sense whatsoever, yet as the dudes bump into different versions of themselves … there’s still fun to be had. As for the daughters of Bill & Ted – their adventure of recruiting music figures is a missed opportunity, with the choice of grabbing Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong and Mozart, followed up with grabbing some cave woman drummer, a no name rapper and a flute playing Japanese woman (??) … surely there’s far more notable figures they could have chosen? Also Lundy-Pain is doing the most cringe-worthy bad-impression of a young Keanu Reeves it’s painful.

On paper this must have looked like a great idea, and at times it is entertaining, mostly down to Reeves & Winter, but the writing is weak and the plot lacks anything even remotely new or clever. As a ‘can they still do these characters?’ experiment it kind of works, but as a worthwhile sequel, not so much.

Verdict: Poor