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blues-sevenfold · 3 years

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Bill and Ted Face the Music (and Temporal Universe)

I’ve watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure a long time ago, along with Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey - and I found both movies to be fun to watch, even if the time travel doesn’t make much sense (which I believe, overall, Back to the Future did a better job with - even if it wasn’t perfect). The first two films posit a stable time loop, in which people cannot change history.

Collecting various historical figures for a history oral report is a very interesting premise, and I really do enjoy the dynamic between Billy the Kid and Socrates. However, when you include characters like Napoleon and Genghis Khan in the group... well, historically, they weren’t very nice people - so it’s a little surprising that they weren’t more violent in 1988.

The sequel was very entertaining, too - even if I’m not too keen on the idea of hell. I like how Death personal friend of Bill and Ted, and they also got Station (an extraterrestrial) from heaven to join them. So I like how the band included two princesses from Medieval England, Death, and an extraterrestrial (with the ability to split into two). I don’t really care as much for a two robots - but I don’t consider them to actually be part of the band, since they aren’t involved in the music-making portion of the band.

I just watched the third and newest film on YouTube (via rental), and it turned out to be better than I expected. I still don’t like how they largely retconned the end of Bogus Journey. And to Captain Logan... Hey, did you forget that your son’s band had the Grim Reaper and an extraterrestrial in it?! Nonetheless, I enjoyed the part of putting together an all-star band - by collecting musical greats throughout time.

~~~~~~

I’m thinking that something like this happens with Temporal Universe. It’s the only universe featuring Jemmy Reed... and a fully-functioning time machine! While Jemmy still isn’t a musician (as science is more his forte), he's able to combine his scientific knowledge with his musical knowledge and become a music producer.

The year is now 2017, and the time machine hasn’t been used for a little over nine years. Jemmy has been quite busy. He’s been very active in promoting the usage of green energy, and the past decade has seen various changes that helped to improve the environment. He’s also fairly active on YouTube, either doing political commentary videos or song mash-up - both of which are quite well-received by many. He also works as a music producer.

The day that Jemmy and older Jimmy from 2007 initially visited 2017 is coming up. Bernie Sanders is the US President, instead of Donald Trump. Jemmy and Aduke have two children: Vincent (7) and Emily (5). Zacky Vengeful and Kelsey have two children: Claire (7) and Claude (5). The children are as close as their parents are. Luna Laguna informs Jemmy that the upcoming event will create a brief and minor disruption of the space-time continuum, and it will be a perfect opportunity to create a song that will unite the world.

~~~~~

Zacky Vengeance, along with M Shadows (his first time), takes Jemmy’s time machine to collect the ultimate all-star band:

The first person they pick up is, quite naturally, the younger Jimmy Reed from 1957 - since he already knows about time travel. From his perspective, it was slightly over a year since he last travelled through time - although he did have a recent hot tub incident earlier that year, in which he had briefly reunited with Jemmy.

The trio then head to 1967, where Jimi Hendrix is performing - as M Shadows films part of the concert on his smartphone. Zacky suggests that they should pick up Louis Armstrong before they contact Jimi Hendrix.

The trio head to the 1922 to collect Louis Armstrong. After playing a portion of the Jimi Hendrix concert, Louis Armstrong agrees to join them.

The quartet head back to 1967 to get Jimi Hendrix, once Jimmy Reed and Louis Armstrong prove that they really are who they say they are.

The quintet now head back to 1782 to get Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, after a stint of Jimi Hendrix playing guitar along with Mozart’s composition.

Jimmy Reed suggests that they head back to 2600 BC to collect Ling Lun. It was a place that younger Jimmy and Jemmy visited for about a week. Zacky was also there, albeit via dreaming - and Kelsey dreamed of being Ling Lun. There is also advanced technology in that era and region. Jimmy inputs the coordinates to the region. Ling Lun remembers Jimmy, and comments that Zacky also looks familiar - and she agrees to join them.

Jimmy Reed suggests that they head back to 9000 BC to collect Grom. It was the last of a series of adventures that younger Jimmy and Jemmy went on, and visited for about a week. It was also where Jemmy met Aduke, and brought her back to 2007. Grom was a very close friend of Aduke, and who Kelsey dreamed of being. There is also advanced technology in that era and region. Jimmy inputs the coordinates to the region. Grom remembers Jimmy, and comments that Zacky also looks familiar - and she agrees to join them.

Back in 2017, they have about 12 hours to prepare for the great concert - and a warm reunion between Aduke and Grom also occurs. As soon as Jemmy and older Jimmy from 2007 arrive, random people begin to show up - which include various various historical figures and religious figures: including Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Krishna, and Moses. People from the eras that Jemmy and young Jimmy previously visited also appear, including various incarnation of Zacky. Cecilia Moore Hopkins, Jimmy’s immediately prior incarnation, also appear. It turn out that, due to Jimmy’s surprise, John Lee Hooker is also there - as well as both Sonny Boy Williamsons. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are both there. This event ends up blocking a major freeway, so that’s where the concert appears.

Here are the roles everyone has:

M Shadows: vocals

Jimmy Reed: vocals, harmonica

Louis Armstrong: trumpet

Ling Lun: flute

Jimi Hendrix: lead guitar

Zacky Vengeance: rhythm guitar

Luna Laguna: bass guitar

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: piano

Grom: drums

Jemmy Reed is the one who organizes the band. I haven’t decided yet exactly what Luna Laguna is, other than that she’s an otherworldly being.

When Jemmy and Jimmy from 2007 are about to head back to their own time, Luna informs that they aren’t gonna remember any of this until they reach the same moment through the natural course of time. Jemmy from 2017 remembers the event from the perspective of his younger self right away, but Jimmy from 2017 won’t until his self for 1957 returns to his own time.

After Jemmy and Jimmy from 2007 leave 2017, everything returns to normal - except for some islands of Atlantis to the west of Huntington Beach. While the event is largely limited to the region of Huntington Beach, it has wide reaching effects - especially since more than a few have recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube.

ETA 7/8/2024: Changed the names of Zacky and Kelsey’s children to “Claire” and “Claude”.

#world building #time travel #bill and ted #bill and ted face the music #jimmy reed #Avenged Sevenfold #zacky vengeance #m shadows #text post #xg

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ghostiestart · 4 years

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hey are Bill and Ted from that movie that came out recently? i like your art but i haven’t seen it yet and i don’t want to think i only have to watch a movie to get it and then miss like half the references, you know?

bill and ted have three movies and the third came out last fall yeah! the first two are from 1989 and 1991-- order is excellent adventure, bogus journey, face the music :D

#asks #robin-is-better

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agentnico · 4 years

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Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) Review

“Be excellent to each other! And party on, dudes!”

Plot: Once told they'd save the universe during a time-travelling adventure, 2 would-be rockers from San Dimas, California find themselves as middle-aged dads still trying to crank out a hit song and fulfil their destiny.

So somehow we find ourselves in the year 2020 where the world has gone into complete bedazzlement at the load of poppycock that has been thrown down upon us all. Somehow this is also the year we finally get a third Bill & Ted feature! It all really doesn’t make any sense, but hey, the latter is actually a positive occurrence so no reason to complain. Or is it? What if this movie turns out to be bad? Can it recapture the magic of the originals? To be honest, I only saw Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure for the first time two years ago, so I lack the nostalgia feel that is so applicable to the main fan-base of these films. The second one Bogus Journey I watched the first 20 minutes of and then switched off. The first film was such a sweet and naive little film that didn’t try to be bigger than its shoes, whilst the second one seemed to lack the charm of the original. Now the third one, does it hold up?

The answer is yes! It’s goofy, nostalgic, endearingly sweet, and keeps the child-like humour and tone of the first film. In fact, the movie feels like it belongs in the past. These kinds of movies are not made anymore. There’s that element of simplicity and ridiculousness to the whole thing that aren’t prevalent in most movies these days, even comedies, that always push for more realism. Bill & Ted Face the Music is corny, dumb and predictable... and that is exactly what it needed to be!

Worldwide treasure puppy-dog-eyed legend that is Keanu Reeves is....well, what can I say, it’s Keanu! Love me some Keanu! Who doesn’t love Keanu? Raise you hand right now, who doesn’t? You, I see you, we aren’t pals no more you sick donkey faced pricky moron! I’ll send John Wick after ya! That being said, now now, don’t raise your eyebrows just yet, I simply find the need to point out that our dear Keanu make come off as a bit rough along the edges as he returns to the role of Ted. He sounded a bit tired in this film if I’m honest, and I think it’s hard for him now to shake off that action-star burden that he has set upon his shoulders. Seeing him trying to act goofy is nice and all, but he didn’t really feel like how Ted would act if he grew up. But it’s still commendable that Keanu Reeves decided to return to this role all these years later, and I should also point out, the actress playing his daughter in this movie Bridgette Lundy Payne rocks out an immaculate impression of Ted from the original movies, so it’s not like Face the Music is lacking that Ted flavour. Great to see Alex Winter back in the movies too! What has the guy been up to all these years? Honestly, does anyone know? Wonder, what Google might say....hmm...apparently he directed a couple of live-action Ben 10 features for Cartoon Network. Okay then, that is not most excellent, but hey, we all have to pay the bills. Alex Winter though is great in this movie. He definitely manages to bring back the youthful innocent feel to the character, and weren’t it for the obvious age change physically, I’d say its the same old Bill! He has his old mannerisms down to a tee which was very familiar and comforting. And his daughter is played by rising star Samara Weaving who’s been showing nothing but promise in the likes of Ready Or Not, Netflix’s The Babysitter, Mayhem and others, so it’s always a pleasure to see her, however I was a tad disappointed with her here, as it she seemed she wasn’t even trying to imitate the dorky nature of Bill, at least nowhere as well as Lundy Payne did with Ted. It’s not that she was terrible or anything, there was just nothing sensational about her, making her be very much overshadowed by the rest of the cast. William Sadler also makes a return as Death, and though it is definite fan-service, his inclusion did not seem forced and in fact he had some of the better lines.

Bill & Ted Face the Music is exactly what it needs to be. It’s got a lot of heart, quirky characters and a whole load of random debauchery all to please fans of the franchise who have been waiting years for this. Also, the ending of the film (though very abrupt) leaves you with quite a positive message, so even though the music in the film is not that special, the meaning behind it is what makes it work. That being said, that new Weezer song that’s played during the end credits is a banger!

Overall score: 7/10

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reachexceedinggrasp · 4 years

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So I watched Bill & Ted 3 and it was cute, I laughed out loud four or five times. It was very tonally and atmospherically similar to the first film... just its... vibe. Very like the first one. Which I guess is great for people who love that movie, but my deep and abiding love for Bill&Ted really comes from Bogus Journey, not Excellent Adventure. I love the characters and quote it on the regular, but the first film I think is more funny and endearing than it is good as a film. The story is stretched pretty thin to sustain feature length, the pacing is uneven, it’s all a bit rambling and amateurish. Whereas Bogus Journey is actually brilliant. I’ve mentioned before, but I watched it properly for the first time a couple years ago and unexpectedly sobbed uncontrollably at the ending because it was so nice.

The unrelenting, unaffected optimism of these goofy films is extremely moving to me, that ending just epitomised what makes them great.

And, as I was pretty confident would happen given the writers’ own opinions about the sequel, this movie walks back and retcons my favourite part of Bogus Journey for... no real reason. The ultimate solution it arrives at is... not awful... I guess... but it’s just not what you want. I get what they were going for and it’s a sweet idea, but the ending of Bogus Journey will stand as the ending for me. Face the Music just wasn’t worth it to lose that. The direction they took the story makes perfect sense to get a third film out of the premise without wildly altering the feel, but I didn’t like it much. And I don’t like that B&T become their own villains in the future; the whole conceit of the characters is their insuppressible good nature. It doesn’t make sense they would persevere for 25 years basically unchanged, but 5 more leaves them so embittered they are radically, radically altered. When they were their own villains in Bogus Journey it was because they were evil robots. And even evil robot Bill and Ted are totally devoid of bitterness or resentment because they’re still Bill and Ted. Like, that was part of what made it so funny.

There’s a robot in this which could have been great and was a funny idea, but is extremely underdeveloped as both a concept and a character. He comes off as kind of a discount version of Death. Who is also in the film anyway.

I must commend the actress playing Ted’s daughter, because she is doing a fucking bang-on impression of him that’s full of subtle ‘Tedness’ details that shows she legit studied his performance in the originals. And she doesn’t go over the top, it’s not a caricature, it’s just exactly right for a B&T movie. They even gave her Keanu’s coveted ‘Ted Hair’, which really made me laugh when I realised.

Alex Winter slides right back into the shtick, pretty much flawlessly, which is really amazing considering he hasn’t acted in decades. (Speaking of which, everyone- WATCH FREAKED.) Although they toned down the bodacious language, which... guys, no. Do not. I think they were afraid it wouldn’t work any more and would be embarrassing, but you have to go with it. Be fearless.

But yeah. Amusing. Not an addition to the ‘verse I want to take on board, though. Won’t be adding it to ~the canon~.

Rufus’ daughter is pretty pointless and isn’t given much chance to be funny. Ursula’s mum from George of the Jungle was an inspired casting decision as Rufus’ wife and the new Most Important Person in the World, also wasted.

So it’s roughly equal to the first film in overall quality with much weaker characters (the historical figures definitely don’t get to shine nearly as much though you’d need to add ten+ minutes to give them enough time to do so and it was probably a good idea not to drag it out), but it is still funny and endearing. I did love the running joke that Ted is awkward with himself

#cool breeze over the mountains #the guy playing Louis Armstrong looked nothing like Louis Armstrong but I guess you don't come to B&T for accuracy do you lol #there was a recent-ish comic that follows directly from Bogus Journey and it was amazing #they scared me briefly they would subvert the idealism of the universe but they didn't and I loved it so much #remember the literal one time B&T actually had a villain?#yeah they redeemed and befriended him #because of course they did #they befriended DEATH #I LOVE them SO MUCH #Bill and Ted #Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure #Face the Music #Bogus Journey

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angelofberlin2000 · 5 years

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by Natalie Finn | Fri., May. 17, 2019 3:00 AM

When Keanu Reeves was asked the other night, "What do you think happens when we die?" interviewer Stephen Colbert probably wasn't expecting such a deep—or assured—answer from the movie star.

"I know that the ones that love us will miss us," the 54-year-old actor said sagely, rendering the Late Show host unusually speechless.

It was a sincere, thoughtful response—vintage Reeves, really—from someone who's had reason to think about such things.

"I haven't really thought about my career future, or what was going to happen, until really recently," he also told GQ in February. Asked why he started thinking about it, he replied, "Death!"

Watch https://www.eonline.com/videos/289305/how-keanu-reeves-training-for-john-wick-3-compares-to-the-matrix

How Keanu Reeves' Training for John Wick 3 Compares to The Matrix

The still eerily youthful-looking Reeves, who's back in theaters Friday in the third installment of the blockbuster John Wick franchise, has become a brand unto himself, the name "Keanu" signifying not just movie stardom but also a certain kind of performance and even a state of mind: chill, zen, blissfully checked out ("Sad Keanu" meme notwithstanding). His name—which has lent itself to a comedy about a cat and a recent hit song by Logic, and which of course a studio exec wanted him to change when he first came to Hollywood—does mean "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, after all.

But still waters run deep, and despite being in the public eye for more than 30 years, he's one of the least-known people whose chiseled face you would recognize anywhere. Few play it as close to the vest as Reeves, who, though he does the occasional interview and shows up to fulfill his side of the bargain in promoting his films, does not talk about his personal life. And not in the way that most celebrities don't really talk about their personal lives.

As in, it's entirely unclear if he even has one, although—look at him—he must.

"I came to Hollywood to be in movies," Reeves told Parade recently. "I feel really grateful that I've had that opportunity, but I'm just a private person, and it's nice that can still exist."

He doesn't even publicize his charity work, but his causes include children's hospitals, fighting cancer, the arts and the environment.

"I always find it surreal that complete strangers come up and ask me personal questions," he told Parade back in 2008. "I don't mind speaking about work, but when the talk turns to 'Who are you?' and 'What do you do off-screen?' I'm like, 'Get out of here.' I've been in situations where people have felt they had a relationship with me or something and I didn't even know who they were."

Not that Reeves is an anti-star. He lives in the hills above West Hollywood, spent plenty of time enjoying the local nightlife in his youth and has starred in countless quotable action movies—and gets paid handsomely for them, enough so that he can take off and do passion projects like his first (and only, to date) directorial effort, 2013's The Man of Tai Chi, or show up unheralded on a Swedish sitcom (Swedish Dicks, now on Pop) or in any indie film he so desires, like the recent Destination Wedding, an acerbic comedy that reteamed him with Bram Stoker's Dracula co-star Winona Ryder.

He's perfectly congenial yet usually looks somewhat serious, but not because he's taking himself seriously—more as if he wants to answer even the most lighthearted of questions with respectful gravity. But hey, as Stephen Colbert just found out, if you ask Reeves a potentially loaded question, prepare to get an answer.

Asked by Parade in 2008 if he believed in aliens, because he was playing the alien Klaatu in a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, he replied, "Some days I do. Some days I don't. There's so much unexplained and unexplainable phenomena that's presented to us. But beyond that, the cosmos is so vast. We can't be the only sentient entity. It might not look like us, but it's going to be out there."

His signature Keanu cadence used to be mistaken for a sign of vacuity, but Reeves attributed however he came off in interviews to his overall discomfort with talking about himself.

"I've never played stupid to keep someone distant," he told Vanity Fair in 1995. "I don't play stupid. Either it's been a failure on my part to articulate, or my naivete, or ingenuousness, or sometimes it's the nature of the form... And you know, I find myself more able to give an explanation of a project five years later than in the middle of it. It's so present-tense! I can tell you how I feel, but its context is harder to explain... Sometimes when I'm interviewed I'm not ready to do that. So you say...'excellent!' And you know what, man? It's OK."

It certainly was.

Ted Theodore Logan, Johnny Utah, Jack Travern, Neo, John Wick: all characters that had to be played by Reeves. He's done everything from Shakespeare to sports flicks to A Scanner Darkly, and soon you'll be hearing his voice as Duke Caboom, a motorcycle-riding stuntman with a wistful backstory, in Toy Story 4, which will probably sneak in to top The Matrix Reloaded, which made $742 million worldwide, as his single highest-grossing movie.

"So I made Duke a little more gravelly but still tried to give him energy and a big personality," Reeves shared with Entertainment Weekly in March. "I just thought that Duke should love what he does. He's the greatest stuntman in Canada! I wanted him to be constantly doing poses on the bike while he was talking, to have this great extroverted passion."

He turned down Speed 2 to play Hamlet onstage in Canada. He was one of the first big stars who memorably jammed on the side with his own band, Dogstar, in the '90s and now he co-owns a custom bike shop called ARCH Motorcycle in Hawthorne, Calif, because he loves motorcycles as much as you think he does.

"Riding can be a place to think and feel. It's a way to work things out," he recently told Parade, noting that inclement weather doesn't stop him. "I like riding in the rain. It's a little more sketchy." He rides mainly alone, but he and the ARCH crew cruise Pacific Coast Highway on Sunday mornings.

And if motorcycles provide one soul-soothing salve for Reeves, acting provides another.

"In acting, you're constantly discovering new feelings and thoughts and exposing yourself to them," he told Parade in 2008. "I guess it could be considered psycho-therapy. All I know is that, as an actor, I can tell you a story that you'll listen to. Maybe it won't just entertain you, it might also teach you something. I think film has the power to change your life if you want to let it.

Combine his real-life inscrutability with his is-it-genius-or-does-he-just-do-the-same-thing-every-time approach to acting, and he's become more myth than man—and that, too, is a huge part of his appeal. He's just so Keanu.

"I don't own a computer and I don't e-mail," he said in the 2008

Parade

interview. "I'm fascinated by people who freak out when they don't get an instant response to an e-mail. It's like they expect as soon as they send an email to get the answer back and if they don't it's like awful. I just hope people won't totally lose the ability to write letters because it's a good way to communicate."

He preferred typewriters, Reeves said—and we can only hope he and Toy Story star Tom Hanks had a chance to talk about typewriters together.

"I only have good things to say about him," Swedish Dicks star Peter Stormare, who met Reeves doing Constantine in 2005, which led to the actor's role on his show, told GQ. "Once a year, we'll have a beer together and talk about life and things. He's very private. He leads his life the way he wants to lead it. And I guess it can be lonely sometimes. But I think he's just like me. There's a comfort in being alone sometimes, especially when you're working on something."

"We bonded over motorcycles, bass guitar, and Harold Pinter," Alex Winter, the Bill to his Ted, also told the magazine. "Reeves had a really good book collection."

Reeves was born in Beirut, to a Hawaiian father and English mother, but they divorced when he was about 2. Mom Patricia remarried in the US., but after that didn't work out she settled with a 7-year-old Keanu and his younger sister, Kim, who was born in Australia, in Toronto. Reeves reportedly hasn't spoken to his dad since he was 13.

"We were latchkey kids," he told Esquire in 2017. "It was basically 'leave the house in the morning and come back at night'. It was cool." But, he told Parade, "Even for a runaway English girl, my mother gave us a proper upbringing. We learned manners, respect for our elders, formal table settings. I also learned a nonprejudicial, nonjudgmental acceptance of other people."

His favorite part of school was doing plays and studying Shakespeare in English class, so he dropped out at 17 to try his hand at acting.

"My attendance record was very bad. I was lazy," Reeves told Vanity Fair. "I knew I wanted to act when I was halfway through grade 11, I guess, and school wasn't important."

His first acting job came on the Canadian series Hangin' In in 1984. Then he moved to Los Angeles and made his big-screen debut in the Rob Lowe-starring drama Youngblood in 1986. Later that year he won his first major role in the gritty teen crime drama River's Edge, which went on to win Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.

So it was off to the races for Reeves, who in the next five years made a wildly diverse array of movies, including the very-'80s comedy The Night Before, Dangerous Liaisons, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (and its sequel, Bogus Journey), Parenthood, Point Break and My Own Private Idaho.

He was very much living the fast Hollywood life, and it wasn't all charmed.

In 1993, River Phoenix died of an accidental drug overdose—another painful thing Reeves didn't want to talk about, but he spoke fondly of his friend and My Own Private Idaho co-star.

"I enjoyed his company. Very much," Reeves told Rolling Stone in 2000. "And enjoyed his mind and his spirit and his soul. We brought good out in each other. He was a real original thinker. He was not the status quo. In anything."

As for Phoenix's death, "It's something he thinks about all the time, something he never really talks about," a friend told People. "Friends know not to go there with him."

In 1994 his estranged father, Samuel, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for drug possession in Hawaii, but was released in two. "Jesus, man. No, the story with me and my dad's pretty heavy. It's full of pain and woe and fucking loss and all that s--t," he told RS around that time. In 1995, he told Vanity Fair, when asked why he didn't want to know more about his dad's case, "Why would I want to find out what I didn't know?" He called the situation "pretty incredible," and that was that.

Reeves has a massive scar on his abdomen from when he suffered a rupture spleen in a motorcycle crash while riding in L.A.'s Topanga Canyon in 1988. He went into a hairpin turn going about 50 mph.

"I call that a demon ride," he reflected to Rolling Stone. "That's when things are going badly. But there's other times when you go fast, or too fast, out of exhilaration...I remember saying in my head, 'I'm going to die.'"

"I remember calling out for help," he continued. "And someone answering out of the darkness, and then the flashing lights of an ambulance coming down. This was after a truck ran over my helmet. I took it off because I couldn't breathe, and a truck came down. I got out of the way, and it ran over my helmet."

Also while his star was on the rise, his sister Kim battled cancer for years starting in the late '80s. "He helped me through," she told Vanity Fair about her brother. "When the pain got bad, he used to hold my hand and keep the bad man from making me dance. He was there all the time, even when he was away."

Actor and Dogstar bandmate Roger Mailhouse told Rolling Stone about Reeves in 2000, "He's a really giving person. He'd give you his last shoe. Really smart, too. He's incredibly booksmart. He's a really interesting person who doesn't talk a lot of s--t."

Asked how his friend had changed over the past decade, i.e. the '90s, Mailhouse said, "I don't worry about him as much. I used to worry about him. Because I think of him as one of my best friends in the world, was he going to crash his motorcycle, or this or that. We did some wild things. I guess it's just growing up. I don't know—maybe it had something to do with River Phoenix, maybe. Losing someone close to him. But now I'm just proud of him. He's getting to do it the right way."

For years you'd be much more likely to see Kim or Patricia on Reeves' arm at a premiere or other big event—such as when he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005—than any girlfriend, and the actor hasn't been publicly involved with anyone for years.

Not that he hasn't been linked to a bevy of his co-stars, including Sandra Bullock and Charlize Theron, but if he's in a serious relationship, it's not with a celebrity.

On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2013 he was wearing what anyone would take for a wedding band on his left ring finger, but no revelations ever sprang from that accessory choice.

When Parade asked recently if he remained a bachelor, Reeves replied (squirming a bit, according to the magazine), "Well, I'm not married."

Through the interviews he's given over the years, a theme running through them is the visible discomfort he starts to evince when the conversation veers toward the too-personal. And some topics are just off-limits altogether.

Reeves started dating actress Jennifer Syme after meeting her at a party in 1998 and they were expecting a baby together—but the child, a girl they named Ava, was stillborn at 8 months. They laid her to rest in January 2000, according to People, and broke up weeks later.

Read

Sandra Bullock Almost Starred in The Matrix Instead of Keanu Reeves

They remained close up until Syme, who suffered from severe postpartum depression, died in 2001 when she crashed her Jeep Cherokee into several parked cars on a L.A. street and was thrown from the vehicle. In 2002, her mother, Maria St. John, sued Marilyn Manson, who had thrown a party that Syme attended that night, for wrongful death, alleging he had given Syme the cocaine that an autopsy found in her system.

"After Jennifer was sent home safely with a designated driver, she later got behind the wheel of her own car for reasons known only to her," Manson, who knew Syme through filmmaker David Lynch and had worked with her on Lost Highway, said in a statement.

The rocker continued, "This lawsuit, which is completely without merit, will not bring back Jennifer's life. It serves only to reopen the wounds and the pain felt by all who loved Jennifer. It is a pity that St. John sullies her own daughter's reputation by filing this baseless claim."

They reportedly reached a settlement out of court, but Manson maintained he had nothing to do with Syme taking drugs that night.

Reeves has never spoken publicly about his relationship with Syme, which certainly fits right into how he was before, let alone since. But he grieved. And he eventually had something to say about that.

"I think, after loss, life requires an act of reclaiming," he told Parade in 2006. "You have to reject being overwhelmed. Life has to go on."

The actor continued, "Grief changes shape, but it never ends. People have a misconception that you can deal with it and say, 'It's gone, and I'm better.' They're wrong. When the people you love are gone, you're alone. I miss being a part of their lives and them being part of mine. I wonder what the present would be like if they were here—what we might have done together. I miss all the great things that will never be."

So he knew exactly what he was talking about when he told Colbert, "I know that the ones that love us will miss us."

Calling it "unfair" and "absurd," Reeves told

Parade

, "All you can do is hope that grief will be transformed and, instead of feeling pain and confusion, you will be together again in memory, that there will be solace and pleasure there, not just loss."

"Much of my appreciation of life has come through loss," he concluded. "Life is precious. It's worthwhile."

He said at the time that he would like to have a family, and reiterated the sentiment a couple years later, but Reeves told Esquire in 2017 with regards to "settling down": "I'm too… it's too late. It's over." Asked to clarify, he added, "I'm 52. I'm not going to have any kids."

Famous last words from a litany of 50-something men, and he was reminded of that. Reeves just said, "That's a whole other… But no. I'm glad to still be here."

"I'm every cliché," he continued. "F--king mortality. Ageing. I'm just starting to get better at it. Just the amount of stuff you have to do before you're dead. I'm all of the clichés, and it's embarrassing. It's all of them. It's just, 'Oh my God. OK. Where did the time go? How come things are changing? How much time do I have left? What didn't I do?' I'm trying to think of the line from the sonnet… 'And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er / The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan / Which I new pay as if not paid before.'"

"So, yeah," he added, reportedly with a smile. "I'm that guy."

In turn, Reeves can't help but come off as the solitary figure he so often plays in his films, from Constantine to The Matrix to John Wick. Heck, even Duke Caboom sounds a little melancholy.

At the same time, you're just as likely to see him in a romantic tear-jerker or a quirky comedy as a shoot-em-up. He's played heroes and hustlers, sweethearts and cruel villains, teachers and slackers, doctors and lawyers.

"For me, it's just continuing to be able to work with great artists and tell stories that people enjoy," Reeves told Parade. "I was always hoping, even when I was young, that I could do different things," he says. "I'm really grateful for that. I'm

Though he had no idea John Wick would be such a hit, Reeves was in top form in the 2014 action extravaganza as a retired hit man who goes on a revenge spree after gangsters kill the beloved dog that was a gift from his late wife.

It made almost $89 million on a reported $20 million budget. Sequel time!

"You hope and you dream but the reality is even sweeter," he told E! News in 2017 about the first film's surprise success when he was promoting John Wick: Chapter 2. "It's great to be involved in a project that has so much affection."

Chapter 2 made $172 million worldwide.

Now back for John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum, Reeves has revealed that he started training heavily about three months before filming began to get back into dynamo shape, and he still goes whole-hog (or horse, in this movie's case) in the action sequences, right up until a car runs into him.

"I'll do some fight scenes and then John Wick will get hit by a car," Reeves explained to Colbert on The Late Show, "and that's Jackson Spidell, who's an amazing stuntman." Spidell has been Reeves' stunt double in all the John Wick movies. "He gets hit by the car, then I'll get up from the car, then I'll do a whole bunch more of, like, gun-fu and whatever, jujitsu, judo—and then, if I get thrown off something, Jackson does his thing."

Even more exciting for some fans, however, depending on whether you like your Keanu dark or more dude-like, is the news that he and Alex Winter are finally set to start shooting Bill & Ted Face the Music, the much-discussed follow-up to 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and sequel Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, which came out in 1991. The years-in-the-making comedy is tentatively due out in 2020.

And so on his latest press tour, Keanu Reeves left his usual trail of breadcrumbs. They may not lead you straight to his door, but they'll definitely keep you on the path.

#keanu reeves #Inside Keanu Reeves' Inscrutable Private World-Tragedy Motorcycles and Epic Movie Stardom

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round up // SEPTEMBER 20

Do you remember…2020’s month of September? Pop culture was changing the minds of pretenders, and we knew it was here to staaaaaayyyyyy…

Pardon that corny intro, but I assure you it’s relevant to this list. As always this is a round up of the best movies, books, music, TV shows, and whatever-else-you-can-think-of that was new to me in the last calendar month, in roughly the order I experienced them. This month is full of comedies, murder mysteries, several more lists within this list, and, yes, a little bit of Earth, Wind & Fire. What’s not included? An apology for getting that song stuck in your head.

September Crowd-Pleasers

Clear and Present Danger (1994)

If you’re wishing for a Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime fix, this is your best bet until the next season drops. With a cast including Harrison Ford, James Earl Jones, Willem Defoe, Joaquim de Almeida, and Henry Czerny, you know this face-off between Jack Ryan, the U.S. government, and a Colombian drug cartel will be exciting. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Palm Springs (2020)

This Sundance hit (now streaming on Hulu) si at its best when it’s sentimental, goofy, and introspective, a rare combo that makes it a mostly* fresh take on the rom-com. You can read my review (including that asterisk*) at ZekeFilm. Crowd 9/10 // Critic: 8/10

Double Feature — Girl Power Action: G.I. Jane (1997) + Mulan (2020)

In both of these stories, a woman is the first to join the man’s world of the military. In G.I. Jane (Crowd: 8.5 // Critic: 7/10), that’s Demi Moore going through training for the Navy SEALs, and in Mulan (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10), it’s Yifei Liu disguising herself as a man to save her father’s life in ancient China. Not everything has aged perfectly about G.I. Jane (and there’s reasonable controversy around the production of Mulan), but for a dose of girl boss energy, this duo will do the trick. You can read my full review of Mulan at ZekeFilm.

Double Feature — Bill & Ted: Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991) + Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)

Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan are gems not to be taken for granted, which is why I have no qualms about them reuniting after a 30-year break. (Of course, I also recommend the original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but I watched it years before this September.) Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

Double Feature — Mistaken Identity Rom-Coms: Nothing Sacred (1937) + Green Card (1990)

In Nothing Sacred (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8/10), reporter Fredric March thinks small-town girl Carole Lombard is dying—really, she just wants an excuse to see the big city of New York. (Another instance of the journalism plot!) In Green Card (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), Frenchman Gérard Depardieu and American McDowell marry so he can stay in the States and she can get a couples-only apartment with a greenhouse. They have to keep up the ruse for her neighbors and the INS, which is easier said than done since they can’t stand each other. I know that whole “I’m not who you thought I was” trope can get old fast in romantic comedies, and frankly, if you don’t like the genre, these won’t be the ones to convert you. But if you’re like me and love a good rom-com (okay, and let’s be real—I also like quite a few bad ones), these two are worth the watch.

Draft Day (2014)

If only football were this exciting in real life! I checked this out because it was one of Chadwick Boseman’s earliest movie roles, and while it’s a supporting role, he’s no less wonderful. I was more surprised I was sucked into the politics and strategy behind the NFL Draft. Since I can’t express to you how much I don’t care about football in a reasonable word count, I’ll just say Boseman, Kevin Costner, and Jennifer Garner performed a miracle in making a movie other than Remember the Titans that can make me care about the sport at least for a few hours. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8/10

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

A musical about plants is a very specific Venn diagram of my interests, and this ‘60s-set comedy with Howard Ashman music is the best possible version. Backup singers, celebrity cameos, and a stylized set help it balance the musical and comedy aspects, making for a very catchy soundtrack and for me lose count of how many times I laughed. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10

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Paul Rudd Asking You to Wear a Mask

National treasure and “certified young person” Paul Rudd talks about TikTok just like I do.

Get Organized with the Home Edit (2020-)

If you enjoyed Marie Kondo’s Netflix show last year, this new one from the streaming service will scratch the same itch. Clea, Joanna, and their team aren’t as rigorous in their organizing method, but the transformations they perform are still inspiring. They do their magic twice in each episode, including for one celebrity, so if you’ve ever wanted to see how Reese Witherspoon displays her Legally Blonde costumes or how Retta maintains her Poshmark store, stop what you’re doing and start this show right now.

Blazing Saddles (1974)

This spoof of the Western genre lives up to the hype. (More on my thoughts on Westerns below.) Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986)

A very far-fetched plot in which Whoopi Goldberg starts chatting with a British secret agent on some very ‘80s technology, but her charisma sells it. It’s another early Nancy Meyers entry, which means now the only movie written and/or directed by Nancy Meyers that I haven’t seen is one obscure ‘80s title I can’t seem to find anywhere—if you know where I can rent, buy, or borrow Irreconcilable Differences, let me know! Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 6.5/10

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Demi Adejuyigbe’s Annual Tribute to “September”

Demi Adejuyigbe was a treasure on Gilmore Guys, and he’s a treasure every year on September 21st. Actually, he’s always a treasure, and this video should be watched every day of the year.

September Critic Picks

Touch of Evil (1958)

It’s a quintessential film noir for a reason. Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, and more make this investigation into a bombing at the U.S./Mexico border complex and compelling. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter by Jeremy Arnold (2016)

My sweet friend Maddie gave me the most quintessentially me pop culture gift I can think of: A set of Gilmore Girls-themed colored pencils (!!) and a copy of this Turner Classic Movies book, which provides historical background and filmmaking highlights of 52 of the best movies ever made, including Once Upon a Time in the West (below). I have 17 more of the titles in this book to watch (including a couple that weren’t on my radar already), but I also just learned while writing this that there’s a Volume 2…guess that watch list is just going to get longer!

Double Feature — Agatha Christie Murder Mysteries: The Mirror Crack’d (1980) + Evil Under the Sun (1982)

Last month I shared the trailer for Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile remake, but if you can’t wait for that Agatha Christie adventure, I recommend watching this pair from the ‘80s. And boy, are they star-studded: Jane Birkin! Tony Curtis! Rock Hudson! Angela Lansbury! James Mason! Kim Novak! Diana Rigg! Maggie Smith! Elizabeth Taylor! Both kept me guessing till the end, and you can read my full reviews of The Mirror Crack’d and Evil Under the Sun on ZekeFilm. Both Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Double Feature — Classic Westerns: Rio Bravo (1959) + Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Unlike rom-coms, I can’t watch a bad Western and still enjoy myself. (Okay, and let’s be real—there are some great ones that have made me realize this genre just isn’t my cup of tea). The silver lining is it’s a pleasant surprise when they grab me. Rio Bravo (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10) stands out for an atypically complex Dean Martin role and Howard Hawks’s breezier direction than many Westerns; Once Upon a Time in the West (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 10/10) is memorable for an atypically evil Henry Fonda role and Sergio Leone’s artsy direction. Though they don’t have much in common, both were pleasant surprises.

Double Feature — ‘90s Crime Thrillers: The Player (1992) + The Usual Suspects (1995)

In The Player (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10) Tim Robbins is a Hollywood exec getting death threats from a writer he rejected. The problem? He’s not sure which one. As he’s trying to save his career and his life, we’re watching something between a savage spoof and a take-no-prisoners dramatization of how showbiz destroys art and lives. In The Usual Suspects (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10), Kevin Spacey is telling the cops about a heist gone wrong, and we’re trying to put together what happened as he flashes back. Both of these movies are full of twists, so hopefully those brief synopses have piqued your interest—I don’t want to give that part of the fun away.

American Graffiti (1973)

The last night before students go to college probably doesn’t include drive-in food or a sock hop-style dance anymore, but the mix of anxiety and hope for the future that George Lucas, Ron(ny) Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, and more captured in American Graffiti is timeless. I flashed back to that specific almost-an-adult angst as I watched—any film that can capture time in a bottle like this is one worth remembering. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

Awake in the Dark by Roger Ebert

While this is will ruffle exactly zero feathers, I’m here to say that Roger Ebert is the real deal. This collection includes 500 pages of reviews of his top films of each year, overviews of movies he thought were overlooked and underrated, interviews, and essays on why criticism matters. An interview with Jimmy Stewart makes you feel like you’re in the room. An essay about The Color Purple fits right in with the #OscarsSoWhite conversation. A review of a movie about a donkey that I’ve never seen almost made my cry. Ebert combines populism and intelligence in his writing, and as one whose whole blog literally revolves around those two ideas, I both admire and envy how great a writer he was.

You Can’t Take It With You (1938)

The last Best Picture winner I needed to see of the ‘30s is one of the most fun I’ve watched yet. Read my Crowd and Critic reviews to see why it’s a worthy winner. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 9/10

Rolling Stone Top 500

Trying to wrap your arms around this list is a little like trying to wrap your ears around every album every made and your mind around every piece of good music journalism ever written. So…yes, I’m a little overwhelmed. But I’m pleased as punch several of my most-listened-to albums have made the cut (Harry! Lorde! T. Swift!) and that albums from my lifetime are being affirmed as all-time greats (Continuum! For Emma! Lemonade!) But the biggest takeaway is no surprise: I’ve got a lot of great music I still need to listen to.

Also in September…

I watched another Best Picture winner this month, and while it was deserving, I never want to watch it again. Read my Crowd and Critic reviews of The Silence of the Lambs to find out why this movie disturbed me so much.

On SO IT’S A SHOW? this month, Kyla and I went back to the ‘80s for Top Gun, which is the best we can do until Top Gun: Maverick actually hits the big screen. Then we dug into the ‘60s Beach Party movies of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon to see what they had to do with Dean and Lindsay’s marriage on Gilmore Girls.

Photo credits: 52 Must-See Movies, Roger Ebert, Rolling Stone. All others IMDb.com.

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