Was talking to a friend about this yesterday, and he brought up Dumb and Dumber To, and made a comparison between that movie and this. I think there are key differences between the two franchises that give me a little more optimism for this new Bill & Ted film.
Dumb and Dumber was a minor comedy classic (maybe I don't need to qualify that assessment, and just call it a classic). The Farrelly brothers, Jeff Daniels, and Jim Carrey all had something to prove on that first film, and they delivered a series of hysterically-funny sequences and gags. That movie was lightning in a bottle.
The sequel was an obvious paycheck-gig for all concerned: the brothers had been superseded by Judd Apatow in mainstream comedy and hadn't had a major hit in over a decade, Daniels was looking for a sweet paycheck as his TV series was coming to a close, and Carrey could only get the kind of money he was paid at his '90s height by abandoning his principles and doing a sequel. The film was easily forgotten, and Carrey hasn't made a mainstream film since.
On the other hand, the third Bill & Ted film isn't a film Reeves has to make. He's doing fine for a longtime movie star his age: he's done pretty well commercially (and arguably creatively) with the John Wick films, and he seems to have avoided the .100 batting average of a latter-day Cusack or Cage. And he isn't doing it because he has to return to the spotlight: if that was the case, he wouldn't have turned down the Jude Law-role in Captain Marvel.
Reeves is making this third film because he wants to make it. And we want him to. Reeves also gives it a lot more credibility, given his willingness to take chances over his career (taking on The Matrix, turning down Speed 2, playing Siddhartha for Bertolucci, doing a gay contemporary Shakespeare-film for Gus Van Sant).
Here's the big kicker: the Bill & Ted films aren't comedy classics in the way that a Dumb and Dumber arguably is. If you were to push me, I'd say they are favorites, rather than classics (with only Sadler's performance and those very funny Seventh Seal-scenes pushing the series into something close to brilliant). So it doesn't feel like going over sacred ground like the Farrelly brothers did.
The science-fiction concept also lends itself to a sequel in the way that Dumb and Dumber doesn't. In short, there's potential for this project, and I'm anticipating the return of characters that I liked in a story that seems promising. Reeves is as hot as he's ever been with the Wick films, so for him to agree to this means there must be something very interesting in the script.
