Weekend Watch: Bill & Ted Face The Music And Million Dollar Beach House
A duo returns reminding us to be excellent to each other, while Hamptons realtors really don't
Image Credit: Orion Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, those most excellent dudes are back, and realtors flog pricey Hamptons properties.
Meeting up with old friends can be a risky proposition. Do you still have the same chemistry? Have your lives moved on to such a degree that you just don’t connect the way you once did? It’s the same for movie characters, albeit magnified because unlike humans, so much has to go right to make a new film based on a beloved property as entertaining as possible. And not just for those who grew up watching the likes of the Star Wars legacy gang or Kevin Smith’s “View Askewniverse”, to reference some recent return engagements. You also have to appeal to a whole new audience who don’t have the same attachment, just as you might hope that your kids don’t find your old mates weird, creepy or unfunny.
All that to say, I was 13 when Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure hit screens and it remains a cherished memory. Neither of the original two movies are stone cold classics, but they’re a whole lot of fun, the slacker dudes played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter muddling, goofing and air-guitaring their way through history, space and the afterlife. To my teenage brain they were, truly excellent, and even re-visiting them more recently, I chuckled along to their easy-to-like style, which is also a credit to writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, who dreamed the duo up back in college.
Now we have to Face The Music, with Bill and Ted back on our screens after a long wait and several attempts to get a movie made. This time around, in keeping with how the world itself has moved on, the duo are grown up, but still slackers, coasting on the income from their wives and playing gigs to tiny crowds. They’re whisked off to the future to learn that they’re still supposed to write a song to unite humanity and protect the utopian future… but now reality itself depends on it. It’s enough to make you drop your Stratocaster.
Reeves and Winter are back, along with Solomon and Matheson, while Dean Parisot takes over directing duties this time around. The new film is a blend of the old and new – while George Carlin naturally, tragically, cannot be part of the third outing, there are several call-backs to him, while the likes of Death (William Sadler), Ted’s father, Chief Logan (Hal Landon Jr.), his former stepmother Missy (Amy Stotch) all show up. And believe me when I say that the family dynamics for our heroes are even more complicated than ever.
Talking of family, a real highlight of Face The Music are the guys’ daughters, Billie Logan (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Samara Weaving’s Thea Preston, who are sampling and remixing the loopy energy of their father figures while never coming across as impressions. They power one of the more effective subplots of the film, and make for ideal additions to the cast.
There are the wobbles here and there, as the call-backs can sometimes give you the impression of a band trying to recapture its old glories by playing the hits. Which in some ways is fitting given the storyline. In trying to service as many different characters and plots as this film attempts means that some are less fortunate. Jayma Mays and Erinn Hayes gamely try to fill the roles of the heroes’ princess wives, but aside from one couples’ counselling scene, they rarely come across as more than an afterthought. Also on the problematic front, one new character (no spoilers, but it’s not human) simply doesn’t work, taking up valuable screen time from more worthy candidates.
Effects-wise, the lower budget compared to your average giant blockbuster shows itself more than once, with a few dodgy shots here and there, but that almost adds to the charm. No one expects the Wyld Stallyns’ misadventures to look like an Avengers movie.
It’s a relief, then, to say that I was happy to welcome Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan back into my life, even if Face The Music couldn’t quite come to the level of the original two films. Reeves and Winter still rock it, the ravages of time not dimming their comedic partnership. This is a most non-bogus return.
Bill & Ted Face The Music will be in cinemas and Premium Video On Demand on 28 August in the US and on 16 September in the UK.
Image Credit: Netflix
The stakes are somewhat less than reality unravelling in Million Dollar Beach house, but don’t let the cast hear you say that – to them, real estate is life and death. Netflix’s latest addition to its growing portfolio of property shows imports the basic idea of squabbling house-pushers from Selling Sunset, slightly dialling down the drama while ramping up the tours of expensive lairs.
In the Hamptons, the focus is more on rich people buying holiday houses rather than forever homes. The Nest Seekers team are scrambling to make as many sales as possible between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the prime season for purchases and rentals in this luxury seaside stretch. The real estate agents are young and hungry, all boasting a TV-ready story and big personality to accent their claims to be the best seller among the group.
As I mentioned, this lot is less catty than the ladies of Sunset, though that energy is swapped for more of a bro-tastic boys’ club with the women looking to compete. Is it as watchable as Selling Sunset, or the many Million Dollar Listing properties (you might spot Peggy Zabakolas from the New York variant among the realtors here)? That depends. The brotastic energy can be off-putting and if you’re not a fan of backbiting, there are a few egregious examples here (if you are, then enjoy!) But the Hamptons properties are a welcome change from the high rises of New York or the cold steel boxes that dominate Los Angeles. Sprawling waterside mansions and weird art choices dominate, but the buyers and sellers are just as picky.
Whether it’s an argument over staging or a particularly thorny house tour with a client and one of the throwing shade, Beach House hits most of the usual points you’d expect from a show like this. It might not be quite as valuable, but Beach House will tide you over until Selling Sunset returns, assuming the gang at Oppenheim doesn’t run scared from COVID and delay their return for a couple of years.
Million Dollar Beach House is on Netflix now.