Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)

I was excited to hear about one more Bill & Ted movie.  In both cases, it’s said that the title duo save the world by releasing a song.  Exactly what that meant and how that played out were left to the viewers’ imaginations.  It was a lot of pressure, to say the least.  Someone  comes from the future and says that the fate of the known universe  rests on your musical skills.

As the title of this movie implies, it’s time to see what it is that actually brings the planets into alignment.  With the death of George Carlin during the intervening years, Rufus only makes a cameo.  It’s up to his daughter, Kelly, to move things along, historically speaking.  You see, it’s only a few days until William and Theodore have to actually perform.  They have no song.  The band has fallen apart.  Their respective marriages aren’t far behind.  At least their daughters  have some talent.

To their advantage, they have access to a time machine.  They realize that they can go ahead and get the song from their future selves.  Working against them is a killer robot sent by the very future that they’re supposed to save.  Oh, and they only have a few hours to write the song, get the band back together and actually perform this unwritten melody, all while the cosmos, in its entirety, is falling apart.

It’s a bold premise, to say the least.  I guess after the first two movies, you need something a little different.  If you haven’t seen the first two movies, it’s possible to watch this one as a stand-alone movie.  There are a few callbacks to the first two movies that you’ll miss, like Ted’s father denying that the events of the second movie could have happened.  If you have seen the first two movies and are on the fence about this one, there are worse ways to spend a few hours.

I have to admit that there was a different feeling to this movie.  Many of the major characters were back, although it seems that the franchise doesn’t have a problem with recasting.  (Outside of Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, I think only one actor has been in all three movies.)  It seems like the movie was made to maybe recapture some of the nostalgia from the late 198s and early 1990s.

True to form, though, there’s a lot of fun to the movie, especially if you don’t think too hard about it.  (I mean, how do you make a franchise out of a time-traveling phone booth?  Who does that?)  The thing that caught my attention was that none of the future versions of Bill or Ted had the song, even though they should have.  It wasn’t until the distant future that they got anything.

True, this may be because the universe is falling apart.  There is that.  I think it’s meant more to be a fun movie with characters that we’re familiar with.  I could see this being something to finally tie up the franchise.  There is a certain finality to it, especially considering the post-credits scene.  There’s also a possibility of some sort of spinoff with the daughters, although I don’t really see that happening.  (I will say one thing:  I find it odd that Bill, Ted and Rufus all had daughters.)

I’m not sure where I stand now that I’ve watched the movie.  It’s not entirely excellent, but it’s not entirely bogus, either.  It’s difficult to come up with three movies that work together, so I will cut the writers a little slack.  Also, the juvenile aspect isn’t that juvenile.  I do get the sense that the music is being faced, at least on some level.  Bill and Ted are adults, but not quite grown up.  As they say, growing older is mandatory.  Growing up isn’t.

 

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Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)

I was hoping to see Bill and Ted Face the Music in theaters.  I even went and rented Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.  Alas, theaters in my area are closed and I’m not paying $24.99 for on-demand, so I’m going to have to wait for the DVD release.  However, that’s no reason not to review Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.

A few years have passed since the first installment and the Wyld Stallyns haven’t yet saved the world.  They are, however, entered into the San Dimas Battle of the Bands, which should start them on their way.  Enter Chuck De Nomolos, former gym teacher.  He doesn’t like the utopian future of 2691.  So, he steals the time machine from Rufus with the intent of killing Bill and Ted.  Just to rub it in, De Nomolos creates two robot doppelgangers to replace them.  The ghosts of Bill and Ted have to find a way to get back and still win the battle while repairing their relationships with their respective would-be-brides-to-be.

You might think that it would be difficult enough to win the Battle of the Bands, future or no future.  Coming back to life should be even harder.  They do end up escaping hell and besting  Death in several games.  (Traditionally, you only have to beat Death at one game to get your life back, but he’s kind of a sore loser.)

So, with Death’s help, Bill and Ted put together a team and win the battle.  In fact, De Nomolos’s intervention is exactly what they need to launch their careers and attain world fame.  So, we have a causal loop.  The future is saved and everyone has a most excellent life.

There are a lot of things about this movie that I’ve come to view differently over the years.  I had always assumed that Bill and Ted were really good at games.  They’re slackers, so they’d undoubtedly want to have as much fun as possible.  It never occurred to me that Death might have been bad at games.  Sure, he’s probably had to play those games before as part of a challenge, but it’s not his main function.

I also don’t recall noticing the causal loop.  There are a few jokes about time travel, like how the use of time machines tends to benefit the good guys.  They also use it to get more time to learn how to play since they’re still horrible musicians.

The one thing that got me was the name of the character Station.  It turns out that it was actually an artifact from a script revision.  There was a deleted scene from a police station that wasn’t properly deleted.  All that was left was the word Station, which became the two alien characters.  I spent the entire movie wondering if station was some sort of slang term from the 90s that I forgot about.  (Notice how no one uses bogus any more to refer to something unbelievable.)

It’s not a great movie.  For a sequel, it’s pretty good, though.  Like the first movie, there are parts that are there mostly to move the story along.  Bill and Ted can possess people because why not?  They get sent to Hell by a layperson condemning them because Hell is where they need to be to take things seriously.  They also get to deal with their own demons.

It’s not the same movie as the first, but I wouldn’t want it to be.  It does seem like a natural continuation of the first movie, which makes me want to see the third even more.  It’s not going to be for everyone, but I do find that this movie is a little better than the average movie from that era.  The pacing is full throttle and keeps your attention all the way through.  Here’s to hoping I can get the new movie on DVD quickly.

 

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Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

There are some movies that have a timeless feel to them.  I can watch The Princess Bride and it will always be a great movie.  Others tend to feel dated after a while.  Movies like Blazing Saddles were definitely a product of their times.  This isn’t to say that it’s a bad movie, but rather that it hasn’t aged well.  Somewhere in the middle is Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.  It’s still a most excellent adventure, but it still has a slight whiff of the late 1980s.

The movie centers around Ted “Theodore” Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esquire.  They’re two slackers who are about to flunk out of high school.  This is some seriously bad news.  If this happens, Ted will be shipped off to a military school in Alaska.  Without Ted, the band Wyld Stalyns won’t form and serve as the basis for a wonderful future where everyone gets along.  So, the future residents of San Dimas send Rufus back to make sure that Bill and Ted pass an oral report.

Rufus lends the duo a time machine in the form of a phone booth.  They can dial any time and place they want, so Bill and Ted decide to visit a bunch of historical figures, like Socrates and Billy the Kid.  Instead, eight people from history come to the San Dimas of 1989 to tell Bill and Ted’s school about what they think of modern society.

Needless to say, it’s not easy.  Bill and Ted have to bust the people out of jail, for instance.  There’s also the issue of getting Napoleon out of a water park named Waterloo.  Bill and Ted are also not the brightest.  Billy the Kid is referred to as Mr. The Kid.  They also pronounce Socrates more like it’s spelled.  So, yeah.  The future of the world rests on these two.

I remember really liking the movie when I first saw it.  This is probably because I was closer in age to the two main characters.  It’s still a funny movie and would probably get a few laughs on first viewing.  However, it’s not quite as funny when you know the jokes are coming.

The movie doesn’t delve into the paradoxes of time travel too much.  The movie is a comedy and is more focused on the jokes, like Beethoven discovering synthesizers at a mall.  (Like I said, 1980s.)  It does make for a smoother movie and I didn’t find myself finding too many plot holes or inconsistencies.  It is a little odd that no one reacts to modern-day clothing in the past, though.

I was prompted to watch this when I heard news of Bill & Ted Face the Music.  It would seem that Keanu Reeves is destined to be a man of trilogies.  Interestingly, both The Matrix and John Wick franchises each seem to have a new movie coming out.  This would make Mr. Reeves very busy for the next few years.

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John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

I suppose that there are two ways of looking at the John Wick films.  One is to see them as movies with lots of fighting.  Each one serves as a vehicle for some pretty awesome action.  The other is to think of it as a group of action sequences so spread out that it requires way more than two hours to tell the story.  After all, Mr. Wick is going up against almost everyone.  That’s a lot of people to take out with just once pencil.

Now that I’ve seen all three movies, I’m leaning towards the second explanation.  If you were to remove or greatly reduce the fighting, you’d probably be down to a pretty short story.  Mind you, it’s a decent story, but that’s not why you came to see John Wick: Chapter 3.  After all, para bellum translates as Prepare for War.  That’s just what the title character has gotten himself into.  (As a single word, Parabellum likely refers to a model of gun.)

The movie picks up right after Chapter 2 ends, with Wick having most of his hour lead left.  He heads to the New York Public Library to find a book.  Specifically, it’s hollowed-out book that contains some a cross, some coins and a picture of his deceased wife.  He puts the picture back and takes the other items.  Using them won’t be so easy; he has to fight his way out of the library, using the book as a weapon.

After what Wick did in the second movie, everyone is after him.  There’s a bounty on his head in excess of $10,000,000.  It’s in his best interests to get the heck out of Dodge.  That’s what the cross is for, though.  It’s his ticket to Morocco, where he meets up with someone who owes him.

Meanwhile, The Adjudicator shows up in New York City.  The organization that Wick used to work for has rules and Wick broke the big one.  Wick was declared excommunicado, which was the appropriate punishment.  The Adjudicator is there to determine who else is guilty and what their punishment is to be.  Needless to say, it leads to a few good fight scenes.

If you’ve already seen Parabellum, I would imagine that you weren’t disappointed.  It does seem like a natural extension of the first two movies.  You get some new cities, which provide new visuals.  It also provides Wick with another city to depopulate.  (I can see some guy standing on the edge of town, next to the sign that reads, “Casablanca:  Population 3,359,818”.  After Wick takes out a few people, he has to change it to 3,359,816.  Before he can update the sign, Wick kills three more people.  The guy sighs in disbelief and silently curses to himself.)

You might wonder how many new ways there are for Wick to fight.  He does use horses to kick people.  His contact in Casablanca has two trained dogs, each of which helps attack the bad guys.  Neither the horses nor the dogs seem forced, which is good.  (There did seem to be a touch of CGI with the horses, though.  That might just be my imagination, but I don‘t think the actors would want to risk actually being kicked by horse.  That would have to hurt.)

For those that haven’t seen the first two movies, I’d recommend doing that first.  While you could probably follow the action, this really is one big story.  Things will make more sense if you view the movies in order.  It is worth it, though, if you like action movies.

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John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

I have this line I say to myself whenever a character dies in a movie:  No sequel for you!  I found myself saying that a lot while watching the first John Wick.  I found myself saying it just as much with Chapter 2.  Almost an entire mob outfit dies at his hands, all because Iosef Tarasov saw a car he liked and had to have it.  It wasn’t even about the car, though.  Iosef made the mistake of killing John’s puppy.  Chapter 2 begins with John killing the remnants of the organization, starting with Iosef’s uncle, who had been selling the stolen cars.  Yes, John is out to get his car back, which he promptly totals.

The movie’s real story starts with Santino D’Antonio, who visits John to call in a marker.  He wants his sister, Gianna, killed.  Being that she holds a seat on the underworld’s high council, Santino can’t do it himself.  John initially refuses, but eventually accepts.  Lots of people get in John’s way and die as a result.  Once John completes his mission, a lot more people die.

In fact, Santino calls in a hit on John.  (As he points out, what kind of brother would he be if he didn’t?)  So, yeah.  The rest of the movie is John evading and/or killing bad guys while searching for Santino so that Santino might be denied a major part in Chapter 3.

Sure, the plot is little more than a vehicle for the fight scenes.  And yes, the plot is at least coherent.  Still, you’re not thinking about watching this because of the plot.  You came for the fight scenes, which are as impressive as the first movie.  In this regard, there’s a part of me that wonders why one needs a coherent plot line for action like this.  You could easily have three (or, shortly, four) separate movies with different characters.

That’s how stylized the fight scenes are.  John Wick has earned the right to be called franchise.  I’ll be going into Chapter 3 with a pretty good idea of what I’m getting.  And yes, there is a story going on.  It’s nothing deep, nor is it high art, but there is something to follow between fight scenes.

So, I will be seeing Chapter 3 and, probably, Chapter 4 when it comes out.  The funny thing is that I’ve never particularly been a fan of fight movies.  This is most likely the result of having access to movies at the library and paying for the movie theater by the month.  You come to realize that an action movie can be exciting.

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John Wick (2014)

I got the DVD out of the library in preparation for John Wick 3.  (I’ll be seeing John Wick Chapter 2 in the next few days.)  the story is very action oriented.  There‘s an XKCD where two characters are discussing Summer blockbusters.  One laments that there haven’t been any good action films.  At best, the films were at least 60% non-action.  While John Wick isn’t River Tam Beats Up Everyone, it’s probably the closest I’ve seen so far.

The movie starts with the title character grieving for the loss of his wife.  In anticipation of her death, Helen Wick arranged to have a puppy named Daisy delivered to John after her death.  She knew that the only other thing in this world that he paid attention to was his car.  The puppy would allow him to have someone there for him as he grieved.

Enter Iosef Tarasov.  He’s the entitled son of mob boss Viggo Tarasov.  When Iosef sees Johns nice, shiny car, Iosef wants it.  John rebukes Iosef, which ;leads to Iosef breaking into John’s house one night.  Iosef steals the car and kills Daisy.   Normally, this might be the end of the story, but John Wick used to work for Viggo as a hit man.  As Viggo points out, John’s not the bogeyman.  He’s the one you send after the bogeyman.  That’s who Iosef pissed off.

The rest of the movie is John seeking revenge on Iosef.  Viggo tries desperately to protect his son, including putting out a $2,000,000 bounty on John’s head.  Viggo has essentially sentenced his entire organization to death.  Anyone who gets in John’s way is shot.  Both of the people who take the contract also end up dead, even though one is John’s friend.  (I suspect that John Wick will be the only one who will make his way to Chapter 2.)

The world that John lived in is pretty complete.  There’s even a cleaning crew that takes ‘dinner reservations’ when bodies need to be disposed of.  Services are paid for in gold coins.  There’s even a hotel where hit men can rest without fear of being killed.

I suppose if you’re going to do a movie like this, you’d better do it well.  I didn’t really have many issues with the movie that weren’t to be expected.  Yes, it’s cliché when one person manages to kill dozens of armed people that are chasing him, but John Wick is supposed to be that good.  I was a little surprised that he didn’t sleep with a gun under his pillow.  (Granted, he wasn’t expecting someone to break into his house, but still…)

My only other question deals with the end of the movie and I’ll probably have it answered shortly.  I don’t want to ask it here so as to not potentially ruin the ending.  However, I may ask it in the next review if the answer isn’t clear.

I would say watch this movie only if you like very violent stories.  Consider the death count.

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The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Sometimes, leaving well enough alone can be a good thing.  The first Matrix movie could very well have been it and it would have been a great movie.  We have this revelation that humanity is really living in a simulated world.  A small band of people are fighting the machines that keep us enslaved.  Instead, it served as the basis for two movie sequels.  Instead of being all philosophical like the first movie, both sequels skewed towards action.

Matrix Revolutions picks up where Matrix Reloaded left off.  Neo is trapped in the computer world.  Agent Smith has found his way into the real world.  Also, the machines have sent sentinels to attack Zion, the city of humans freed from the Matrix.  If they can’t be defeated, Zion will be destroyed in a matter of days.

Normally, I’d go into plot review, but the bulk of the movie is the humans fighting the machines, this time in a more literal sense.  The movie begins with Neo having to be rescued from his disembodiment.  The machines are attacking the city, which is fighting back with guns.  Meanwhile, Agent Smith has taken over everyone in the Matrix.  The movie ends with Neo fighting Smith to the death and Zion being saved.  The machines will have to do without humans as a power source.

The first movie was a tough act to follow.  It had this big reveal that what the characters experience isn’t reality.  It’s a simulation that everyone’s immersed in since birth.  There really aren’t too many places you can go with that.  Matrix Reloaded did mention that this wasn’t the first attempt at it and that it’s been going on much longer than initially assumed.  Here, it’s more like, “Ok.  Let’s wrap things up.”

I’m not sure if the sequels were planned.  There was a four-year gap between the first and second movies being released with the second and third movies being released the same year.  It’s a pattern similar to the Back to the Future franchise, where the sequels weren’t planned, yet ended up being good.  For me, the Back to the Future franchise was due mostly to good writing and the right concept that had talented people behind it.  That kind of formula is difficult to replicate.

Here, it’s like some planning went in to it, but not very much.  It looks like one story that was split into three with only the first movie retaining any real substance or quality.  The second move got a little bit with the third movie there just to round it out.  Also, it’s very uneven.  It’s almost like three versions of the same story that were somehow reworked into a passable storyline.

If you’re looking into the Matrix movies, you could easily skip the second and third movies without missing anything.  Both movies are around two hours and at least have the possibility of being entertaining, but I wouldn’t necessarily rush to rent them.  If you never got around to watching them, it wouldn’t be a loss, either.

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The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

WARNING:  I give away major details about the movie here.  If you haven’t seen it and don’t want the movie spoiled, you may want to wait before reading.


I’ve found that there is a direct correlation between the quality of a sequel and the proximity of planning of said sequel to the writing of the original material.  There are exceptions to the rule.  Back to the Future was planned as a one-off movie, although the sequels were done well.  (This did give rise to a few issues, like Jennifer being brought along for the ride, despite there not being much room for her in the DeLorean nor there being much for her to do.)  When the first Matrix ended, we were left with a bit of a cliffhanger.  We know that Neo is supposed to fulfill a prophecy, but we don’t know much about it.

Here, we get all the details.  The movie takes place six months after the original.  Morpheus, Neo and Trinity are awaiting word from The Oracle.  Agent Smith, who had been destroyed at the end of the first movie, is back and he has a new ability.  He sends Neo a message in the form of his earpiece, indicating that he’s no longer an agent of the system.  When Neo meets The Oracle, Neo realizes that she’s a program, herself.  She also confirms that Smith refused to be deleted, making him a rogue program.

It’s Neo’s mission to find The Source, as in where The Matrix came from. To do this, he has to find The Keymaker, who is held by the Merovingian.  The Merovingian doesn’t want to let The Keymaker go, leading to an epic battle.  The Keymaker is able to give Neo the necessary key before dying.  This allows Neo to meet The Architect, the one that designed the Matrix in the first place.

It’s revealed that there have been other iterations of The Matrix.  The early ones were unsuccessful.  The version seen in the movie was stumbled upon by accident.  It’s nearly perfect with the only flaw being a cumulative set of errors resulting in The One.  It is the purpose of The One to prevent a catastrophic failure of the system.  When the time comes, The One will return to The Source, allowing his code to be used to reboot the system.  (Neo is the sixth such failsafe.)

The Architect gives Neo a choice:  Return to The Source and save humanity or go back to the Matrix and allow the system (and, with it, humanity) to crash and burn.  Neo, of course, returns to the Matrix to save Trinity.  He tells Morpheus of what he’s learned.  The only hope to save humanity now is to destroy the machines en route to destroy the liberated human population.  Alas, that’s for the third movie.

The movie is, for the most part, an action movie.  While it does advance the mythology considerably, much of the story is spent on fighting.  (For instance, Neo has to take on several dozen copies of Agent Smith.)  It’s really this that I found a little odd.  The sole purpose of The One is to reset The Matrix.  Why make it difficult for him?  You might say that The Merovingian is fighting to get The Keymaker back, but The Merovingian comments on having to fight Neo’s predecessors, meaning that this is probably part of the plan.

It’s necessary for Neo to return his code to The Source.  I don’t know if he can do this if he’s dead, so why use deadly force?  The only explanation is something that The Oracle’s guardian said: You never really know someone until you fight them.  Had Neo not been the one, it wouldn’t have mattered.

For that matter, why kill The Keymaker?  Wouldn’t he be necessary for the next Neo?  I suppose that another Keymaker could be created.  As The Oracle said, programs get replaced all the time.  Still, why make it difficult?  If The Keymaker had died before making the key for Neo, Neo would have no way to meet The Architect and presumably return to The Source.  If Neo had died in battle, there’s no guarantee that he would be of any use in rebooting the system.

One big question, though:  How did humans survive deep under the Earth’s surface?  It’s got to be pretty hot there.  Furthermore, if the machines can dig that deep, can’t they access and utilize the heat from the Earth’s core?  Wouldn’t that be easier?  I know I’m not the first to point out the inefficiency of using humans as batteries.  Being that Neo is the sixth One, this means that the machines have probably had several hundred years to find and implement a better method of getting energy.

It’s still a good movie.  I feel like that annoying kid that keeps raising questions.  The movie is meant to be an story about man versus machine.  There are bound to be issues, some of which resolve themselves.  Like some machines, maybe they’re even necessary.

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The Matrix (1999)

Plato’s cave is an allegory about how perception versus reality.  A group of people facing a wall in a cave can only think in terms of the shadows.  It isn’t until they turn around that the realize what’s going on.  However, people will be reluctant to turn around, as they have no real reason to.  The people in the cave will continue to think in terms of the shadows until they break free.

Likewise, a person living in a computer simulation would have no means by which to conclude that there’s any other reality.  If we were living in a computer simulation, as Elon Musk has said is probable, we would have no means by which to even question a higher existence.   This is the start of the premise for The Matrix.

Thomas A. Anderson, better known as Neo, is a regular guy in a regular job, or so he thinks.  He’s contacted by a group of people who know the truth.  Everything around him is a construct of computers.  It’s all a simulation.  If he takes one pill, he can go back to his normal life and forget everything.  Take the other pill and he can exit the simulation and start to fight it.

Neo takes the second pill and finds himself violently disconnected from the system.  He finds himself on a ship, surrounded in part by the people that rescued him, including Morpheus, who runs the ship, and Trinity.  Most of them have been disconnected from the simulation, although a few were born outside The Matrix.  They mostly fight the system, but also find others to disconnect.

Normally, someone is only disconnected as a child.  Most adult minds can’t handle being separated from The Matrix.  Neo is a special case, as Morpheus believes Neo to be The One, as in the one who can bring down the entire system and free everyone.  It’s a heavy burden to carry, but Neo seems up to the task.  He seems to be able to assimilate most of the training materials in short order.

The hard part is learning that the laws of physics mean nothing in a simulation.  After a while, you can leap between rooftops and run up walls.  This, of course, leads to all sorts of special effects on steroids, a few of which have long since passed into the public awareness.

The movie does seem to be driven mostly by effects, but does have enough of a story to bring them all together.  I was recently looking at some of those basic story lines that are accurate in a very vague sense.  If I had to apply that here, I’d say that it’s a futuristic movie, set in the present, about humanity having been beaten back into the stone age.  This movie sets up the trilogy.  We get an explanation of what happened to humanity that it ended up like this.  We also see Neo’s transformation from an office worker to possible savior of the species.

I should warn those that haven’t seen the movie that it is kind of dark.  It seems like the entire movie was shot at night.  Even the office scenes are somewhat dark.  I’d put the age level in the mid-teens.  High school and up should be able to handle it.  Yes, there is some killing and it’s not pretty.  Consider that the movie is rated R.  To say it’s because of the violence would be an understatement.

One thing that occurred to me is that many of the real people, like Neo and Trinity, seem to use fake names.  I think Neo is the only character to be given what we would consider a real-sounding name.  Likewise, many of the ‘fake’ characters, like Agent Smith, seem to have real-sounding names.   The only exception to this is The Oracle.  If I recall, this holds true more for the first movie than the sequels.  It was just something that occurred to me while watching it recently.

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