moonspinner55 Review of The Spirit of '76

The Spirit of '76 (1990)

Energetic but unfunny comedy from second-generations talents...

[3/10 · 18 November 2017]

In 2176, futuristic America needs to "Rebuild!" after a magnetic storm. Unfortunately, they have no idea what liberty is or 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. Carl Reiner's son Lucas Reiner directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Roman Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola's son, but the shallow sense of humor displayed here is strictly bush league. "Spirit" is amateurish in conception, design and handling, though the cast (including David Cassidy, Olivia d'Abo, Jeff and Steve McDonald of the band Redd Kross, Moon Zappa, and Leif Garrett) is game. The prologue with an aged Carl Reiner reciting part of the US Constitution is probably the film's brightest moment--after that, the movie's nostalgia conceit swiftly runs out of Have a Nice Day sunshine. *1/2 from ****