I've mostly done Disney Channel Original movies between 1997 and 2005, and that's maybe because they have their own strengths and qualities to them, and have a lot of nostalgia factor to them and it's fun to compare how early Disney Channel Original Movies were compared to later. This time, I'm jumping to 2008, the very first one of 2008, I remember liking this one, and so why not?
"Minutemen" first aired on Disney Channel on January 27, 2008.
This movie stars Jason Dolley, for a pinpoint of history was on the Disney Channel series "Cory in the House" playing Cory's friend Newt. Later he would appear on another Disney Channel movie and in the longer running series, "Good Luck, Charlie". So this mid-Disney Channel carrer time for him. He plays a boy named Virgil Fox. This movies starts with him and friend Derek Beaugard and their first day of High School.
Derek is played by Steven R. McQueen whom you may know from the "Chicago" series the fire one and thh P.D one. There's also a girl named Stephanie Jameson who plays the girl. I mean she fits the role of the old Disney Channel sitcom format of three friends where one friend is the opposite gender of the two others and the protag might have a crush on them. She's played by Chelsea Kane whom you know from the ABC Family series "Baby Daddy".
Three's Company /Copyright Disney
The move sets up that three friends are going to try stuff for high school, Derek with football, Stephanie with cheerleading. (uhh) This movie is called Minute Men and while yes we do have two dudes, the poster has three dudes hmm. During Football/ Cheerleading try-outs ( combined apparently) there comes a boy driving a vehicle that seems to have lost control and he seemingly plows through the field causing everyone to scurry.
zoom zoom / Copyright Disney
Charlie Tuttle is that boy, he's a younger neighbor of Virgil who is like a super-genius. He's played by Luke Benward whom you might know from "How to Eat Fried Worms". He also had a role in his own Disney Channel movie and his a role on "Good Luck, Charlie".
Anyway, Derek decides to throw a football at Charlie to cause him to fall off the vehicle even though Virgil said leave him alone because he was going away. The football players rush Charlie and Virgil tries to stop them but he gets picked up. The ending shot has Charlie and Virgil in cheer leader uniforms hanging on a statue.
They had too much time on their hands to do this though/ Copyright Disney
The movie skips ahead 3 years.(Either that or I hit fast forward too hard) Virgil and Charlie are friends and it seems that Derek and Stephanie are together. But wait there's a third boy on the poster and it's not Derek so hmm.. more on that.
Since the incident mentioned above, Derek and Virgil have drifted apart as friends, and also just for fun, Virgil has a crush on Stephanie. Meanwhile, the movie is setting up our third main, Zeke, they show him riding to school on his motor cycle and later carving his name in a binder, showing he's kind of an outcast and a little weird.
No one is going to steal my binder now/ Copyright Disney
Charlie gets Virgil out of class to show him his latest work: time travel. There's also a little romance sub-plot for Charlie where a girl named Jeanette Pachelewski has a crush on Charlie and Charlie kind of ignores it. (what a twist)
Now back to Zeke, Zeke Thompson is played by Nicholas Braun, whom if you've seen the HBO series "Succession" or looked up his name and found out like I did ,plays on that show. They need Zeke because he can do mechanics since he and his dad build monster truck dinos. So, Virgil agreed to help with the time machine if he can do what he wants to do with it first. With Zeke added in we have our three on poster.
This living room feels tiny/ copyright Disney
I do like the character dynamic between the three, we have Virgil who's goal is clear, he wants to be popular and feels that three years of his life went to being a mess because of the incident. Charlie is the more eager scientist who wants to achieve a great goal, and Zeke is the outcast, kind of quiet, but not mean and also the more laid back one.
The first thing to do they are going to try and get a lottery ticket with time travel, a wise idea. (yes) Also this movie has J.P Manoux in it, you will know him from "Phil of the Future"I just had to mention him. The vice principal isn't very good, he doesn't care about messing up the high school social order and didn't even care a kid is stuffed in vending machine. Anyway, they are able to bribe him to get a nice secluded room to build and secure their time machine.
The time machine has been made and completed. Now they are going to test it, they also have wear snow suits and only have ten minutes at time or they could explode. (Which would make the movie different) They go back in time to yesterday. Oh oops they also find out they are underage and can't buy lottery tickets. (Should have used the time machine to see that coming) They ask a street performer to help them out. He took the money and ran.
Anyway one of the geek boys has is clothes stolen in gym class and of course the Vice-principal is of no help because his weird adherence to social hierarchy. This gives Virgil an idea to help kids in school with time travel to fix things. And using the movie title as their group name. Jeanette shows up again and she wants to join their club, what she thinks is the "Back to the Future" club. After some hard work, they say yes, and they get new snow outfits.
We're ready to time travel to Aspen/ Copyright Disney
So the first mission is to help Chester and his clothes, by giving him more stylish clothes. Also, the vice-principal doesn't like the minutemen because they destroyed his model. The minute men continue their missions of being time travel superheroes. Kind of a fun idea, meanwhile,the movie is setting up that some guys are watching them because of the strange activity.
The true future I want/ Copyright Disney
It also seems the two boys the movie named that got helped, have let their new popularity get to their heads, I don't know what the movie meant by that. Is it like saying don't mess the social hierarchy because some people will go crazy with power and the way to stop that is to bully them? Or if you aren't nice to people they won't act correctly socially and therefore if a dynamic changes for them where they act like jerks? Something.
Stephanie tells Virgil the news she's getting into her dream college. But she needs a cheerleading scholarship. (Hmm wonder how that will play in) Charlie then admits the news that he took files from NASA. Which is a little not good. Charlie says they have to not use the machine for a while but, Stephanie has hurt her leg and Virgil wants to change time. Charlie agrees of course, because that's how things have been this entire movie.
Her LEG / Copyright Disney
Now, do like how Eugene, one of the boys they helped, plays into the part of Stephanie getting hurt in the first place. Showing a sight chain-reaction. It's kind of funny to see Chester bully his bullies and oh Charlie stole my chain-reaction phrase. Things are little off kilter. Stephanie figures out that Virgil and the other two are Minute Men. But Virgil slips that it was time travel, she thought they had ESPN. (joke) ( I mean ESP, just in case, someone didn't get it)
In speaking of ESPN, football, the school football team loses. Apparently, Stephanie told Derek about the time travel stuff and two of them want Charlie, Zeke, and him to stop Chester from distracting the game. The thing this movie has been showing is the Derek is kind of scummy, especially showing smiling and winking at other girls when he's dating Stephanie. Derek tells Virgil that he did try to stop those guys during the incident, this is after he said there's something off about the geeks , like Chester, and they should know their place. Well done characterization for him.
It also plays into Virgil wanting to fix things from the past, and wanting popularity. Charlie still says no, but again he's convinced to fix this. Derek invites Virgil to a party and yeah he decides to go because of course. Stephanie talks to Virgil about how she's tired of going to every function with Derek. Virgil did forget to tell Charlie he wasn't going to spend time with him. (Rude)
This two guys, a girl, and pizza place remake is odd/ Copyright Disney
The movie does a good job at character dynamic and characterization. Charlie tires to stand firm, but folds. Virgil wants to do right, but sometimes gets distracted by wanting to be better socially or something. This movie is well done for that.
Stephanie calls Virgil and he comes over (leaving Charlie on the phone) anyway she saw Derek kissing another girl and she's going to break up with him. There's also black hole showing up because of the time travel, the spying guys notice it's coming from the high school.
Don't mind me, I'm a vortex of death/ Copyright Disney
Derek decides to talk to Virgil to see if he could convince Stephanie to unbreak up with him. The FBI shows up. (eek) They've grabbed Virgil, Zeke, and Charlie, but they are able to walk away. Uhh third act break up time. Charlie and Zeke get mad at Virgil because of how he's been acting for awhile.
Back to Derek's needing help, well Virgil decides to agree because yes. The wormhole/ black hole thing shows up again, as Charle has figured it out. The end of the world is coming. (finally) Oh there's a dance Virgil has come with Stephanie and they've become king and queen of the dance. Derek grabs Virgil to talk to him and the others think there's a fight that's going to happen. Virgil says he's not going to help Derek. Charlie tells Virgil they have to save the world. Also the FBI, CIA joke is funny.
The black hole shows up and it is ready to do what it wants to do. Zeke, Charlie, and Virgil have to go in the time machine to hopefully fix things. Well now everyone knows they are minute men. They land in the past the first day of school that started the film. (This movie in Utah wanting me to think it's California is funny that they want me to think it's CA) Virgil runs to correct the day where that incident happened, Charlie tells him that he loves this day because it's the day they became friends. Zeke also gives his own shorter speech. (he hasn't known them long enough) They walk away, and Virgil notices something, there's Derek he didn't try to stop the football players from making them wear cheerleader uniforms and be hung from a statue , infact, he's the one that suggested the lipstick. Because he's a spineless coward.
The next computer/Copyright Disney
Virgil got the car from earlier and just in time since the portal is closing and they have to get back or be stuck in the past. They do make it! Things have gone back normal and they made it to the day they found time travel in the first place. Virgil talks to Stephanie and says that he likes her and thinks she's great. Charlie wants to sequel bait the movie, but they drag him away.
You know what? This is a good movie, I remember liking it, but haven't seen it in sometime, there' s more catch than I thought I would. The movie does time travel well, it keeps it simple and fun, I like how it wants to show little changes causing chain-reactions and could change things unknowingly. The start of the movie being 3 years in the past and that past looming with Virgil was a good tie in for this time travel movie. He was clinging to the past and what he thought was supposed to be, Virgil wanted popularity, and got self-centered, but the movie did a good job of also showing him to stand up for what is right and would do the right things when needed.
There's some good layers to this movie and you see what the characters' motives and agendas are. I liked the main 3 boys they were a fun set and all brought something to the table. The message of course was don't cling to the past, but be happy with a present the results might be better than what could have been. They showed that Derek was slightly scummy and that was good to show the reveal of what happened that day during the incident. Derek did something simple, he wanted to be popular and was going to do what he needed to do, Virgil chose to help Charlie and their paths diverged. Derek wanted to force Stephanie to be with him again, and was willing to use Virgil to do it, Virgil saw that she was happy without him and also has his own feelings, but that wasn't what drove him to say no to Dere
The high school social order thing was a little odd for a Disney Channel movie, but there are people who believe in social orders being a way of status quo balance and don't want shake ups, that was interesting to get from this movie. It doesn't feel like the movie is forcing a message and that's a good thing. The comedy is alright, my favorite parts are anything with Zeke and that FBI/CIA/ guys showing up joke.
This is a good movie, give it watch if you haven't. That's it from us for now, tune in next time when we travel in time and stop you from reading this post.
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