Last week, I treated myself to a “Bill & Ted” movie marathon. The first two films are a delight, but the third… not so much. “Bill & Ted: Face the Music” picks up 30 years later, and undoes the satisfying conclusion of the previous movie to reset so that the series can continue.
But that’s not where the franchise ends. Well, it is, but not really. Alex Winters and Keanu Reeves, the titular Bill & Ted, currently star in “Waiting for Godot” on Broadway, and it scratches the itch that “Face the Music” failed to. Instead of arbitrarily continuing a story just because it’s valuable intellectual property, I got to see the actors inhabit a similar dynamic, but with a new tone and, well not new, but a different story. It reminded me that a sequel isn’t necessarily the answer to people’s demands for more. This is something Hollywood knew but forgot.
When “Sleepless In Seattle” was a huge hit, people wanted more. Smartly though, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan didn’t make a sequel. Instead, they made “You’ve Got Mail.” It was another rom com starring them, but they played new characters in a, well not new, but different story. It was an even bigger hit.
This wasn’t a play that originated with them, nor Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant who made four movies as romantic interests together, but back in the silent era when Harry Lloyd and Joblyna Ralston teamed up for five films together.
If we don’t want to talk about romantic pairings, let’s look at Paul Newman and Robert Redford. You couldn’t make a “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” sequel without a whole lot of idiocy, but we all loved seeing the duo together again in “The Sting”, and it won Best Picture. It’d be sacrilegious to make “Goodfellas 2,” but “Casino” and “The Irishman” draft off Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci’s history together to deliver the satisfaction of sequels without needing to be one.
As “Devil Wears Prada 2”, “Practical Magic 2”, and “Focker-in-law” march into theaters next year, ask yourself if you actually want to see those stories continue. I don’t, but I’d love to see Anne Hathaway go up against Meryl Streep in another movie.
