18 Again! movie review & film summary (1988)

The whole project seems to have been enveloped in a miasma of good intentions and heartwarming sentiments. There’s no edge, no bite and none of the inspired body language that made “Vice Versa” so special.

The movie makes no attempt to really imagine what it would be like to inhabit another body; it just springs the gimmick on us and starts unreeling its sitcom plot.

Although Burns is, of course, a beloved institution, and any opportunity to see him is welcome, he is not given much to do in the movie, and he doesn’t do much with it. His character essentially is recycled from his old material and his patented talk-show gags, We hear him sing his 1980 hit, “I Wish I Were 18 Again!,” of course, and that is fun, but we also have to hear him recite that tired old line about how he would date women his age, if there were women his age. No real effort has been made to find any differences between Burns and the character he plays in this movie.

Burns began the current stage of his long career in 1977, when he was recruited for the lead in “Oh, God!” Convinced he never could play the part, he asked the producers what God was like, and was told: “He’s a lot like George Burns.” The problem is, Burns, God love him, has been getting that answer too often.