“I may be dead, but I ain’t crazy.”

Justin’s rating: Having some fun in the afterlife!

Justin’s review: While I keep thinking that I’ve thoroughly mined the field of 1980s teen comedies and scifi flicks, I keep finding new ones. Obviously, these are going to be the box office losers that may have experienced a revival with a later (cult-loving) audience. And so it is that I came across this 1985 movie that made practically nothing during the same summer that Back to the Future, European Vacation, and re-releases of Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and E.T. dominated multiplexes. This was definitely the summer of the geeky teen, with movies like Explorers, Weird Science, Real Genius, and My Science Project elevating intellectual heroes over athletic ones.

So it would seem that The Heavenly Kid would’ve been in great company, especially as it tried to be both cool and nerdy simultaneously. I’m not here to really shine any analytical light on why it didn’t do better, other than perhaps by sharing an observation that this movie seems to be trying to be too many things without doing any one of them well enough to stand out in that already crowded field. It’s a bit scifi, a bit teen comedy, a bit romance, and a bit of time travel fish-out-of-water.

Honestly? I actually liked it. It was refreshing to find a movie that tried a more high concept approach to the old “dorky kid needs a cool mentor” trope. And while it’s not the funniest movie I’ve ever seen, I did genuinely laugh more than once while becoming pretty engrossed with the story.

The movie starts in the “early 1960s,” when a suave greaser named Bobby (Lewis Smith) dies in a drag racing mishap and leaves his girlfriend behind. Sent into the limbo of “midtown,” Bobby is told that his so-so life needs to be redeemed in order to be granted into “uptown.” The mission? To take a dweeb under his wing and help him gain a little confidence.

The dweeb in question is Lenny (Jason Gendrick of Iron Eagle fame), an ’80s kid who has plenty of book smarts but can’t seem to catch a break from the social crowd. After saving Lenny’s life, Bobby pretty much reveals that he’s a sort-of guardian angel with all sorts of magic powers who is here to help him out. The two bond as Bobby molds Lenny into a modern-day greaser (complete with a ’50s convertible that Bobby puts together with his supernatural powers) and Lenny takes Bobby through the strange new world of the 1980s. One can question the wisdom of heaven making a reckless jock like Bobby anyone’s mentor, especially as his brand of confidence ends up turning Lenny into a sleazy jerk.

As Lenny ignores a more serious romantic prospect right in front of him — his best friend Melissa — Bobby realizes that Lenny’s mother is his old flame Emily (Jane Kaczmarek of Malcolm in the Middle). Forbidden from revealing himself to anyone by his protégé, Lenny decides to break the rules and damn the consequences. Literally.

(Also, spare yourself from the headache that you’ll get trying to reconcile the timeline of this movie in regard to the opening scene and Lenny’s age. It’s very possible that he was put into suspended animation for a decade, OKAY?)

The Heavenly Kid feels like it has about three movies inside of it. Not deep movies, mind you, but sometimes wildly conflicting ones, and that’s where perhaps this falters. Just when it’s getting funny… it gets stone-serious. Just when there’s a fascinating tour of the afterlife… we abruptly cut to 1985 and teen drama. But I do like that both Lenny and Bobby have their own arcs and form a relationship that’s a lot more deep than either realized. Plus, there’s a dressing montage (with guys for once!), more special effects than you’d expect, a kickin’ soundtrack, and a guaranteed feel-good ending. That’s got to count for something, either in this life or the next.