While the story is pretty much by-the-numbers (only the nerd can see ghost; nerd is in love with hot chick even though his female friend is hotter and has a heart of gold; nerd-to-cool transformation montage; nerd bags hot chick and defeats bullies; nerd becomes arrogant but then learns his lesson) it's still an amusing watch. No surprises, no risks taken just a simple story about a dork and his guardian angel.
For some unknown reason when I sat down to watch THE HEAVENLY KID I was expecting it to be a light-hearted sex comedy, but outside of a few humorous moments during the high school segments it's actually a fairly serious film. Zero naked broads, mostly unfunny jokes including a lot about Heaven and Hell, lessons learned, forgiveness, very limited swearing, hell THE HEAVENLY KID is almost a Christian movie!
Worth watching, I guess, but you're not missing much if you decide to skip it.
Out of curiosity I looked up THK's box office run to see if it made any money at all (it didn't...$3.8m total) and it's easy to see why it flopped. During it's first week it went up against: BACK TO THEFUTURE, E.T., RAMBO 2, EUROPEAN VACATION, MAD MAX 3, COCOON, SILVERADO, PALE RIDER, ST. ELMO'S FIRE and THE GOONIES!!! Then the next weekend FRIGHT NIGHT, WEIRD SCIENCE and FOLLOW THAT BIRD showed up and THE HEAVENLY KID isn't even on the chart anymore! My God, the summer of 1985 must have been the best summer for going to the theater ever!!!
Why is there a wedding cake in the high school cafeteria?
