Most people would rather eat squirming worms than go back in time and repeat any of their high school years--especially the unpopular kids, for whom those four years seemed like boot camp times two, just something to endure and get beyond. That's because kids can be cruel, and Darwinism is in fullest flower when the participants have pimples. This Disney Channel Original Movie even has a vice principal who refuses to punish the offenders because it's the natural social order: cool and popular kids pick on dorks. That's just the way it is.
But in this "Revenge of the Nerds" fantasy, the dorks actually become heroes, taste popularity, and get to cross "unrequited" off their love list. What's more, they help other nerds avoid those life-defining moments of embarrassment that doom them to dorkhood for the rest of their high school lives.
How does this happen? Well, let's go back in time to see what starts it all in motion. We're introduced to three friends, the good-looking jock Derek (Steven R. McQueen), the equally good-looking cheerleader Stephanie (Chelsea Staub), and the awkward but funny dork-to-be Virgil (Jason Dolley, "Cory in the House"). As a nine-year-old genius who's entered high school early loses control of a rocket car he's built and tears through football and cheerleading practice, struggling quarterback Derek plunks him with his only good toss and the players surround him and start to maul him. Virgil, being the resident good guy, tries to stop them . . . and he's pushed around, forever linked to the dork. Fast forward to senior year and he's still sitting at the dork table, surrounded by the school's uncool while Derek and Stephanie are an item.
Everything changes when Summerton High's pint-sized Einstein, Charlie (Luke Benward, "Because of Winn-Dixie"), enlists Virgil's help in building a time machine. Because they need motorcycle parts for their machine and that requires an expert on cycles, they also recruit brooding-and-scary loner Zeke Thompson (Nicholas Braun, "Sky High"). As different as they are, what these three have in common, of course, is that they're all unpopular, all "dorks."
Surprisingly, it's a little slow going early on in the film. It takes awhile for writer John Killoran to introduce us to the concept and characters. Everyone gets a token intro, and we get the picture (albeit a confusing one) when we see a "dork" inside a vending machine. As Vice Principal Tolkan (J.P. Manoux) tries to get a snack with no change (and doesn't seem phased by the boy in the machine), for four quarters that Virgil tempts him with he decides to reverse his decision and grant the boys full access to "Room 77," which we're to understand hasn't been used since it was an underground bomb shelter in the Fifties. Even my 10-year-old son balked at the idea that three kids and the girl (Kara Crane) who has a crush on Charlie would have exclusive come-and-go access to this room, with not even a custodian passing through.
There also isn't much of an attempt to explain how it is that these guys could have created a black hole because of their frequent time travel, or how fixing the black hole could be both easy and difficult. From a parent's perspective, I'm not sure what kind of message it sends that a kid like Charlie can hack into the NASA main frame and download their stalled plans for a time machine without any repercussions. Then again, who's going to repercuss? As Disney has often disturbingly done in recent years, the adults are just a bunch of addle-brained losers who are even lower on the social ladder than dorks. The scientists from NASA are chip-eating, basement-dwelling losers who can't outcalculate or outthink a 13-year-old genius. And when a crisis looms, they all just stand back and watch while these three in their white ski suits approach the problem like Ghostbusters.
Most people would rather eat squirming worms than go back in time and repeat any of their high school years--especially the unpopular kids, for whom those four years seemed like boot camp times two, just something to endure and get beyond. That's because kids can be cruel, and Darwinism is in fullest flower when the participants have pimples. This Disney Channel Original Movie even has a vice principal who refuses to punish the offenders because it's the natural social order: cool and popular kids pick on dorks. That's just the way it is.
But in this "Revenge of the Nerds" fantasy, the dorks actually become heroes, taste popularity, and get to cross "unrequited" off their love list. What's more, they help other nerds avoid those life-defining moments of embarrassment that doom them to dorkhood for the rest of their high school lives.
How does this happen? Well, let's go back in time to see what starts it all in motion. We're introduced to three friends, the good-looking jock Derek (Steven R. McQueen), the equally good-looking cheerleader Stephanie (Chelsea Staub), and the awkward but funny dork-to-be Virgil (Jason Dolley, "Cory in the House"). As a nine-year-old genius who's entered high school early loses control of a rocket car he's built and tears through football and cheerleading practice, struggling quarterback Derek plunks him with his only good toss and the players surround him and start to maul him. Virgil, being the resident good guy, tries to stop them . . . and he's pushed around, forever linked to the dork. Fast forward to senior year and he's still sitting at the dork table, surrounded by the school's uncool while Derek and Stephanie are an item.
Everything changes when Summerton High's pint-sized Einstein, Charlie (Luke Benward, "Because of Winn-Dixie"), enlists Virgil's help in building a time machine. Because they need motorcycle parts for their machine and that requires an expert on cycles, they also recruit brooding-and-scary loner Zeke Thompson (Nicholas Braun, "Sky High"). As different as they are, what these three have in common, of course, is that they're all unpopular, all "dorks."
Surprisingly, it's a little slow going early on in the film. It takes awhile for writer John Killoran to introduce us to the concept and characters. Everyone gets a token intro, and we get the picture (albeit a confusing one) when we see a "dork" inside a vending machine. As Vice Principal Tolkan (J.P. Manoux) tries to get a snack with no change (and doesn't seem phased by the boy in the machine), for four quarters that Virgil tempts him with he decides to reverse his decision and grant the boys full access to "Room 77," which we're to understand hasn't been used since it was an underground bomb shelter in the Fifties. Even my 10-year-old son balked at the idea that three kids and the girl (Kara Crane) who has a crush on Charlie would have exclusive come-and-go access to this room, with not even a custodian passing through.
There also isn't much of an attempt to explain how it is that these guys could have created a black hole because of their frequent time travel, or how fixing the black hole could be both easy and difficult. From a parent's perspective, I'm not sure what kind of message it sends that a kid like Charlie can hack into the NASA main frame and download their stalled plans for a time machine without any repercussions. Then again, who's going to repercuss? As Disney has often disturbingly done in recent years, the adults are just a bunch of addle-brained losers who are even lower on the social ladder than dorks. The scientists from NASA are chip-eating, basement-dwelling losers who can't outcalculate or outthink a 13-year-old genius. And when a crisis looms, they all just stand back and watch while these three in their white ski suits approach the problem like Ghostbusters.
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