The Heavenly Kid

Looking back on my childhood, I know I played outside a lot, but I'm wondering how much my mind has exaggerated those memories, because I know for sure that I came home EVERY DAY and watched TV and movies after school at least from age six until about age ten.  I believe I mentioned I went through these phases where I picked the same movie over and over for a while, with the Goonies lasting probably a year or more.  This was back when it was totally okay to let the TV babysit your kids, not that my own boys haven't seen every single episode of Teen Titans Go! so I can just type for a minute... anyway, one of the first movies I remember was The Heavenly Kid.  A sixties-era greaser named Bobby (Lewis Smith) died while racing his car to win the prize of- now, this is the 60s- his girlfriend.  Ah, the good old days. 

After 15 or so years on some sort of afterlife public transport, Bobby finds that he's got to do some kind of good deed to redeem himself if he wants to catch the train for "Uptown" and not have to go "Downtown" if you catch my drift.  When he comes back to Earth, he finds that his assignment is to help this total nerdy loser named Lenny (Sorry Jason Gedrick.  That's just how they cast you.) with the love of his life.  Cool-guy Bobby turns loser Lenny into a total cool-guy so that he can win over the prettiest girl in school.  It's the 80s now, so expect a lot of side ponytails and V-neck sweaters.  But then he discovers that he doesn't even like her, or even being a cool-guy.  I know that's a pretty big spoiler, but there's another surprise involving Jane Kaczmarek, the mom from Malcolm in the Middle, who is just so great and gorgeous and lovable in this movie.  If you like 80s movies and haven't seen this one, give it a go.  It's so good!