BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC : Tuesday 15th September 2020.

'BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC' which I saw earlier this week is the PG Rated long awaited third instalment in the 'Bill & Ted' franchise following 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' in 1989 and 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey' in 1991. Both of those films combined generated US$79M at the worldwide Box Office off the back of production budgets amounting to US$27M. This Sci-Fi comedy film is Directed by Dean Parisot whose previous feature film credits take in 'Galaxy Quest', 'Fun with Dick and Jane' and 'RED 2', was released in the US on 28th August and last week here in Australia, cost US$25M to produce and has so far grossed US$3.5M. It has generated largely positive Reviews.

Here Alex Winter reprises his role of William S. 'Bill' Preston Esq. and Keanu Reeves his role as Ted 'Theodore' Logan. Following a montage of the history of the Wyld Stallyns and their rise to meteoric super stardom and their inevitable fall from grace as they failed to write that one song that would unify the world, their CD sales took a sharp nosedive and the pair were destined to play low level gigs in dive bars in front of largely stoned or drunk patrons, Bill and Ted have remained surprisingly upbeat. Now in 2020, they are initially seen making a speech and then playing their latest song at the wedding of their mother/step mother (it's complicated) which goes horribly wrong and sounds like a cacophony of disjointed uncoordinated musical instruments all fighting against each other to be heard. 

After the failed wedding gig in front of family and friends, Ted confides in Bill that he thinks they well never write the prophesied song, and a local music store has offered him $6,500 for his Les Paul guitar which he is seriously considering taking up. However, their young daughters Theadora 'Thea' Preston (Samara Weaving) and Wilhelmina 'Billie' Logan (Brigette Lundy-Paine) have great faith in their fathers and are their greatest supporters. They egg them on with words of encouragement. 

Meanwhile, Kelly (Kristen Schaal) the now grown up daughter of their earlier time travelling guide Rufus, arrives from seven hundred years in the future to take them to 2720, where they meet with The Great Leader (Holland Taylor), who is also Kelly's mother who advises them that they have until 7:17pm that evening to write the song that will unite the universe and prevent all reality from collapsing once and forever. 

Realising that it will be almost impossible for them to write such a song in just over seventy minutes they use Rufus's time travelling phone booth to steal the song from their future selves. Landing back home but two years hence in 2022, they learn that their future selves are even more unsuccessful than they were, and that their wives have left them. With Bill and Ted missing, the Great Leader sends a time-traveling robot named Dennis Caleb McCoy (Anthony Carrigan) to kill them, hoping therefore to restore balance to the universe. Kelly travels back to the present to warn them, but instead meets their daughters, Billie and Thea, who decide to help their fathers create the song. Using Kelly's time machine, Billie and Thea recruit musicians Jimi Hendrix (DazMann Still), Louis Armstrong (Jeremiah Craft), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Daniel Dorr), Ling Lun (the legendary founder of music in ancient China, played by Sharon Gee), and Grom (a drummer from before recorded history, played by Patty Anne Miller).

Bill and Ted travel to five years down the track to 2025, where they have seemingly become successful. However, they are tricked by their future selves, who try to pass off a song by Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures) as their own. Billie, Thea, and their newly recruited band members from across time return to the present day to meet up with Kelly and a time-displaced Kid Cudi (Kid Cudi), but Dennis inadvertently kills them and sends them all to Hell. In the ensuing fracas Bill and Ted jump forward to 2030 and discover that their future selves are incarcerated in prison and have become ripped, muscle bound heavily tattooed inmates who now have an axe to grind with their past selves for leaving them at the mercy of the Police authorities during the bust at Dave Grohl's place, which led to their imprisonment. When their future selves get into a brawl with other inmates, Bill & Ted make a quick exit and jump forward to 2067.

There they find a much older Bill and Ted on their deathbeds in a hospital. The aged Bill and Ted give their younger selves a USB drive containing the fabled song written by Preston/Logan, stating that it must be performed at 7:17pm at 'MP 46'. Upon saying their final farewells and exiting the hospital, Dennis appears, but stands down upon learning Bill and Ted have the song, and painfully informs them that he killed their daughters, and every member of their band too. In an attempt to coax Dennis into killing them so they can rescue their daughters in Hell, Bill snaps the USB drive in half and tosses it away. This backfires as a distraught Dennis full of remorse, turns his killer laser beam weapon on himself, but Bill and Ted throw themselves in the way of the beam, so sending all three to their deaths and the depths of Hell. There Bill and Ted locate their daughters and the band. With the help of Billie and Thea, Bill and Ted square away their differences with their old bandmate Death (William Sadler) to return everyone alive to 2020.

The group arrive on a busy freeway at the 'MP 46' sign post as reality is collapsing all around them, and with only a matter of minutes left until 7:17pm. Bill and Ted realise that the 'Preston/Logan' hand written on the USB drive retrieved by Dennis, actually refers to Billie and Thea, and that the song must be performed by everyone across time and space. They are joined by their wives, Princess Elizabeth Logan (Erinn Hayes) and Princess Joanna Preston (Jayma Mays), who have both come to the realisation they are happiest in their current time period. The four use Rufus' phone booth to create infinite copies of themselves across time and space, handing instruments to everyone who ever lived. Everyone across reality performs the song together, with Billie and Thea producing, while Bill and Ted lead the band on guitar. The universe is repaired and everyone returns to their proper dimensions in time and space.

I would have to say that my expectations going into this film were not particularly high, and I came out not feeling surprised or disappointed either. This film largely hit my mark, and as the third instalment in the franchise with a 29 year hiatus between films two and three it does a largely respectable job of maintaining the quirkiness, the wackiness and the idiosyncrasies that made those first two instalments so popular and unique for their time. Keanu Reeves comes across as being just a little bored and non-plussed about the whole affair but Alex Winter more than makes up for him with his zeal, energy and innate positivity, while William Sadler gets undoubtedly the best lines in the little screen time he is afforded. Samara Weaving and Brigitte Lundy-Paine also put in a respectable turn as Bill and Ted's chips off the old blocks. The film has heart, is goofy, effects laden and there are no bad guys here, only a couple of aspiring muso lunkheads caught up in their own time warp trying to do the right thing by just about everyone they come into contact with, and living by their own credo to 'Be Excellent To Each Other'! A phrase worth heeding in these uncertain times! For lovers of 'Excellent Adventure' and 'Bogus Journey' this final instalment is sure to please and deftly recreates the silliness of those first two films. For everyone else, if you're not expecting too much, then you won't be disappointed.

'Bill & Ted Face the Music' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 10th September 2020.

The 77th annual Venice International Film Festival is currently being held, running from 2nd through to 12th September, albeit in an abridge format because of the ongoing impact of COVID-19. Australian Actress Cate Blanchett has been appointed as the Jury President for this years Main Competition, with other jury members including Matt Dillon (the American Actor), Joanna Hogg (the British Director and Screenwriter), Christian Petzold (the German Director and Screenwriter) and Veronica Franz (the Austrian Director and Screenwriter). Two Italian films were chosen to open and close this years festival - 'The Ties' Directed by Daniele Luchetti opens the festival, and 'You Came Back' Directed by Stefano Mordini, will close. 

The following films are amongst the eighteen features selected to be in the Main International Competition this year.

* 'And Tomorrow the Entire World' from Germany and France this political drama film is Directed by Julia von Heinz.

* 'The Disciple' from India is a drama film Directed, Written and Edited by Chaitanya Tamhane, with Alfonso Cuaron Executive Producing. 

* In Between Dying' is an Azerbaijan, Mexico, United States Co-Production that is Directed, Co-Written, Co-Produced and Edited by Hilal Baydarov.

* 'Lovers' from France, this thriller is Directed by Nicole Garcia and stars Benoit Magimel and Stacy Martin.

* The Macaluso Sisters' is an Italian drama film Directed and written for the screen by Emma Dante based on her own 2014 play of the same name.

* 'Miss Marx' from Italy and Belgium, this English language biographical period drama film is Written and Directed by Susanna Nicchiarelli and stars Romola Garai, Patrick Kennedy, John Gordon Sinclair, Felicity Montagu and Emma Cunnliffe.

* 'New Order' is a Mexican and French Co-Production that is Directed, Written, Co-Produced and Co-Edited by Michel Franco.

* 'Nomadland', from the USA is Written, Directed, Edited and Co-Produced by Chloe Zhao and stars Frances McDormand and David Strathairn.

* 'Notturno' from Italy, France and Germany is a documentary film Directed, Written, Co-Produced and lensed by Gianfranco Rosi. 

* 'Pieces of a Woman' is an Hungarian, American and Canadian Co-Produced drama film Directed by Kornel Mundruczo, Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese and starring Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn, Sarah Snook and Benny Safdie.

* 'Quo Vadis, Aida?' - is an internationally Co-Produced war drama film Written and Directed by Jasmila Zbanic. 

* 'Wife of a Spy' is a Japanese historical romantic drama film Directed and Co-Written by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. 

* 'The World to Come' is an American drama film Directed by Mona Fastvold and starring Vanessa Kirby, Katherine Waterston, Casey Affleck, Christopher Abbott and Jesse Plemmons. 

For all the latest news and views from this years Venice International Film Festival, you can check out the official website at : https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2020

This week then we have five latest release new movies gracing your local Odeon screen. We start with the third instalment in a franchise that saw its humble beginnings back in 1989, with its follow up offering coming two years later, and its been almost thirty years since this pair of would-be slacker rock legends graced our screens, but here they are again, setting off in their time travelling phone booth to save the known universe. We then move to a Moroccan film about the unlikely bond that develops between two very different women that could just bring about their salvation. Next up we have a home invasion tale surrounding a young teenage girl out to thwart a group of convicts on the run after they invade the weekend getaway home she and her family are staying in searching for a special key. This is followed by a sequel to a 2019 film about young love and the trials and tribulations surrounding this couple, and whether the guy is really meant to be with the girl. And we close out the week with an Australian documentary film about a much loved Australian country music icon, and his wife in particular who struggled for years to gain the recognition she deserved to be regarded as a singer/songwriter in her own right.   

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC' (Rated PG) - here we have the long awaited third instalment in the 'Bill & Ted' franchise following 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' in 1989 and 'Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey' in1991. Both of those films combined generated US$79M at the worldwide Box Office off the back of production budgets amounting to US$27M. This film is Directed by Dean Parisot whose previous feature film credits take in 'Galaxy Quest', 'Fun with Dick and Jane' and 'RED 2', was released in the US on 28th August, cost US$25M to produce and has so far grossed US$2.5M. It has generated largely positive Reviews.

Here Alex Winter reprises his role of William S. 'Bill' Preston Esq. and Keanu Reeves his role as Ted 'Theodore' Logan, as The Great Leader (Holland Taylor) the ruler of the future tells them that they must compose a new song to save life as we know it. But instead of writing it, they decide to travel through time to steal it from their older selves. Meanwhile, their young daughters Theadora 'Thea' Preston (Samara Weaving) and Wilhelmina 'Billie' Logan (Brigette Lundy-Paine) devise their own musical scheme to help their fathers bring harmony to the universe.

'ADAM' (Rated PG) - in her Directorial debut, and Co-Written by Maryam Touzani she has here crafted a moving and heart-warming story of food, friendship and female empowerment, set against the backdrop of a modern-day Casablanca medina. This Moroccan drama film saw its selection in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Exploring the unlikely friendship between two very different women, one a lonely widow and the other unmarried and pregnant – whose paths cross in a tiny bakery. Initially closed off from the world, the widowed Alba (Lubna Azabal) is reluctantly charmed by pregnant Samia’s (Nisrin Erradi) eagerness to lend a hand with baking. When conservative values threaten both women’s freedoms as Samia struggles to prepare for her growing baby, the bond they grow to share could be the saving of them both.

'BECKY' (Rated R18+) - this American action thriller film is Directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion and was due to have its World Premier screening at the Tribeca Film Festival in April of this year. That showcase was cancelled due to COVID-19 and was subsequently released via VOD, on some digital platforms and in drive-in theatres in the US in early June. Now its gets a limited showing in Australia, having taken US$1M at the Box Office so far, and having garnered mixed or average Reviews thus far. Here courageous, determined and rebellious Becky Hooper (Lulu Wilson) tries to reconnect with her father Jeff (Joel McHale) during a weekend getaway at a lakefront house. But the trip soon takes a turn for the worse when convicts on the run, led by the merciless Dominick (Kevin James), suddenly invade the home in search of a special key stashed away somewhere on the property.

'AFTER WE COLLIDED' (Rated M) - is the sequel offering to 2019's 'After', and this American romantic drama film is Directed by Roger Kumble and is based on the 2014 new-adult fiction novel of the same name by Anna Todd. Is Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) really the deep, thoughtful guy that Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) fell madly in love with, or has he been a stranger all along? She wishes she could walk away. It's just not that simple. Not with the memory of the passionate nights they spent together. Still, Tessa's not sure she can endure another broken promise. She's focused on her studies and just starting an exciting new internship at Vance Publishing. She's also being pursued by Trevor Matthews (Dylan Sprouse), a handsome new co-worker who is exactly the kind of guy she should be with. Hardin knows he made a mistake, possibly the biggest one of his life. He wants to right his wrongs and overcome his demons. He's not going to lose Tessa without a fight. But can, and will, he change?

'SLIM & I' (Rated PG) - Directed and Written by Kriv Stenders, whose previous film making credits take in 'Red Dog', 'Kill Me Three Times', 'Red Dog : True Blue', 'Australia Day' and 'Danger Close : The Battle of Long Tan' most recently last year. Here this Aussie documentary film tells the story of Australia's Queen of Country Music, Joy McKean, who takes us on a journey through her life revealing the story of her career, her decades of touring around Australia, her marriage of more than fifty years to Slim Dusty (the icon of Australian country music who recorded 106 albums throughout his career spanning seven decades), and her determination to be recognised as a performer and songwriter in her own right.

With five new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-