It ain’t excellent and it ain’t bogus, BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC is better than bogus and less than excellent.

The film’s opening scene, featuring Bill and Ted as best men at their ex step mum’s wedding, is excellent, and so is the casting of their respective daughters, Samara Weaving as Thea and Brigette Lundy-Paine as Billie.

These two should get a spin-off sequel to themselves!

BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC is written by the team of Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, who wrote the first two films, with Galaxy Quest helmer, Dean Parisot, stepping in as director and Steven Soderbergh executive producing, and utilises a clock ticking countdown plot that unfolds in real time, much the same as the original film, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

As Bill & Ted call collect in their time travelling phone booth, an anarchic anachronism as much a homage to Doctor Who, they pass through an unpleasant future, where not only the fate of the world hangs in the balance but their own domestic bliss.

Saving the world takes second place in their bid to save their marriages and keep their family intact. It’s a neat, sweet, plaudit in an implausible plot that makes this “threequal” palatable.

Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves reprise their roles of the air headed air guitarists in performances that nourish the film with nostalgia without saturating it with schmaltz.

The band literally gets back together with the return of Death, with a suitably undeadpan histrionic reprise by William Sadler.

Also back is Amy Stoch as Missy, Hal Landon Jnr as Ted’s dad, and a posthumous George Carlin as Rufus.

BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC is the prequel to the prequel we thought we didn’t need but had to have. In these unprecedented times, more than ever, we need to heed their creed: Be Excellent to Each Other!