My 20 yo son and I had a blast watching several "body swap" films: 13 Going on 30, 18 Again, Freaky Friday (2003), Freaky Friday (1976), and The Shaggy D. A.
So when I saw that George Burns had made 18 Again!, I put it on hoping we'd have a blast watching a classic star in a film set up we like. I knew going into it that it likely hadn't aged well. It's a comedy from 1988, and a lot that passed for comedy then is really just gross- but I was willing to give it a watch, understanding it's a comedy of its time, and hoping the payoff of genuine laughs would be worth the tradeoff of the uncomfortably gross moments. Nope! This one just doesn't hold up.
We only watched the first 30-40 minutes. But in that short time, we saw:
* Grandpa's voluptuous companion strongly hitting on Grandson * A male professor lecherously offering to "help" a female student and putting his hand on her shoulder * Grandpa flirting shamelessly with a young waitress and her giggling with "delight" (yeah, right; in the director's dreams) * An art class scene with a nude model includes lingering scenes with full frontal and full rear nudity.
What a disappointment. We'd disliked several scenes, but kept watching hoping it would get better. It didn't, so we turned it off.
It was nice to see a young Pauly Shore in a supporting role before his BioDome/Encino Man Era, and I'm giving it two stars because I did really enjoy seeing George Burns wax nostalgic while singing a song.
So when I saw that George Burns had made 18 Again!, I put it on hoping we'd have a blast watching a classic star in a film set up we like. I knew going into it that it likely hadn't aged well. It's a comedy from 1988, and a lot that passed for comedy then is really just gross- but I was willing to give it a watch, understanding it's a comedy of its time, and hoping the payoff of genuine laughs would be worth the tradeoff of the uncomfortably gross moments. Nope! This one just doesn't hold up.
We only watched the first 30-40 minutes. But in that short time, we saw:
* Grandpa's voluptuous companion strongly hitting on Grandson * A male professor lecherously offering to "help" a female student and putting his hand on her shoulder * Grandpa flirting shamelessly with a young waitress and her giggling with "delight" (yeah, right; in the director's dreams) * An art class scene with a nude model includes lingering scenes with full frontal and full rear nudity.
What a disappointment. We'd disliked several scenes, but kept watching hoping it would get better. It didn't, so we turned it off.
It was nice to see a young Pauly Shore in a supporting role before his BioDome/Encino Man Era, and I'm giving it two stars because I did really enjoy seeing George Burns wax nostalgic while singing a song.