In 2176, futuristic America needs to "Rebuild!" after a magnetic storm. Unfortunately, they have no idea what liberty is, what freedom is, so three time-travelers are chosen to go back to the year 1776 to retrieve the nation's heritage--with only 12 hours on the clock. Even more unfortunately, they don't go back far enough due to a malfunction with the time machine's digital clock, and unknowingly find themselves in groovy 1976 instead. Talents from second-generation Hollywood were involved (including Carl Reiner's son Lucas Reiner acting as director and Roman Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola's son, co-writing the script with Reiner), but the shallow sense of humor displayed here is strictly bush league. Results are amateurish in conception, design and handling, though the cast has some game players. The prologue with an aged Carl Reiner reciting part of the U.S. Constitution is probably the film's brightest moment--after that, this totally obvious movie conceit runs out of have-a-nice-day sunshine. *1/2 from ****
Review of The Spirit of '76
