Minutemen: From colonial reserve troops to time travellers?

It's interesting how people get names for their creations. The minutemen I'm talking about aren't the colonial troops, but a time travelling trio from Disney Channel Original Movie called Minutemen.

The story follows a trio of social misfits comprised of Virgil Fox (Jason Dolley), Charlie Tuttle (Luke Benward) and Zeke Thompson (Nicholas Braun). A self proclaimed "Captain of the Dorks", Fox actually had "fell down" the social ladder when he was trying to defend Tuttle, an Einstein prodigy after he crashed through the American Football practise with his rocket buggy. After Tuttle realizes that his rocket car had the same inner workings as a time travel machine. With the help of Fox and Thompson, Tuttle was able to construct a time machine that had a slide projector attached to it. Initially, Fox wanted to use the time machine to win lottery tickets but soon realizes that they had a greater mission to go after, to save teens from embarassing moments.

Time travel has been a dream for people around the globe, but physics shows, that it's just plainly impossible. So why not let Hollywood do it for us? That is exactly what Minutemen does. Following from inspirations from the Back to the Future series back in the late 80's and early '90s, Minutemen is surprising done really well. The story is well written and Jason Dolley is perfect for his role in the movie. However, I've also noticed that he usually plays roles that he's picked on like in this movie and in another movie that I've reviewed in the past when Dolley played Pete Ivey in Hatching Pete.

What's interesting is the amount of homages this movie makes to the Back to the Future series. These include:

• Tuttle's cat is named Albert Felinstein - Dr. Brown (Back to the Future)'s dog was named Albert Einstein
• When Albert Felinstein was fished out of the time travel vortex, he is covered in frost just like the DeLorean when Dr. Brown's dog was in the test trial.
• The school dance was inspired by "Enchantment Under the Sea", the 50's school dance in Back to the Future
• The club that was created by Tuttle and his trio was named "Back to the Future Fan Club" just so they can use Room 77 to build their time machines.

Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Adventure, Comedy and Sci-Fi
Regulatory Rating: G
Publisher: Family Channel (Disney Channel, USA)