Just You and Me, Kid

Bill Grant (George Burns) is a retired lovable vaudeville star. He discovers a young naked Kate (Brooke Shields) hiding in his car truck. She's a runaway foster kid hiding from drug dealer John Demesta. His daughter Shirl wants him to sign over his finances before he gives it all away to his old vaudeville down-on-their-luck friends including his catatonic best friend Max. He's got nosy neighbors Stan and Sue. Kate tries to take off and twists her ankle. Shirl calls the cops but his poker buddies pull an old trick.

I love George Burns doing his lovable old performer character. Brooke Shields was a good child star who develops great chemistry with the old-timer. I don't know why she has to be naked or pretend to be naked in almost movie. The biggest problem is the weirdly dangerous clunky drug story in between the funny bits. The tone is all over the place. The movie is definitely trying to be funny but the drug story is so cheesy dark that it screws the movie up.

No matter how innocent the movie makes itself out to be this has an uncomfortable creepy quality to it. Brooke Shields at just 12 plays a girl on the run from a Pimp and neglected but all this is played for comedy in a light hearted tone and PG rating which just doesn't fit with the subject matter. It has the look and feel of a made for TV movie, it mostly takes place in 1 house, and it's just the same basic thing for over an hour. I also thought the father daughter relationship wasn't handled at all well, On Golden Pond is a much better film about an Eccentric father, a resentful daughter and a teenager. Here characters have no real development, some if the acting and dubbing is off, the music is painfully dated, Brooke Shiekds at 12 is introduced half naked, it's meant to be funny.

I'd much rather recommend About a Boy infrastructure, a far better more intelligent movie.

There's a few funny lines here, and I don't really blame the cast who are doing their best, it just doesn't work as a movie.

On the run from an abusive drug dealer, foster kid Brooke Shields hides out with ex-vaudeville entertainer George Burns. There are little side-plots here and there (the drug dealer tracking Brooke down, George's daughter trying to get her hands on his money, best friend Burl Ives stuck in an institution), but the bulk of the movie centers on the relationship between the sassy teen and the octogenarian. The script is structured pretty much like a play, with the banter going back and forth between the two principles, yet some wonderful bits surface, as when Burns attempts to distract his nosy neighbors from the teenage girl he has in the house, or a terrific sequence where George's poker buddies--Ray Bolger and Keye Luke among them--show up for their usual game and Brooke is displeased ("Too many people come to this house!" she scowls). George is sweet and tender here; say what you will about his shuffle-along acting style, I felt he was really in character and genuinely cared for Shields, who is stiff and self-conscious at first but warms up midway. Some of the dialogue is surprisingly crass (Burns playing tailor and Brooke calling him a 'fag'), but for cynical 1979 it is sunnier and friendlier than most. One of the few major studio movies of this era not to be released to the home-video market in the 1980s and '90s. **1/2 from ****

I've never understood why this movie has not made it to VHS or DVD. Would it be contractual problems, maybe? Carl Ballentine, Key Luke, Burl Ives..never mind the obvious; that all of George Burns needs to be available. Nothing deep, just light and entertaining. Brooke Shields was good, and so was everyone else. I'd like to have Bill's alarm clock too. The car and the pylons, the breaking pencils, the grocery store carry-out boy, and George Burns typical, poised response are the little things that add up to make us keep chuckling. Too many movies aim for "zany" or "wacky" or "hilarious" and fall flat. Sometimes chuckling is all we need. Bring on the DVD.

"Just You and Me, Kid" was never issued on VHS or (as of this date) DVD despite starring Brooke Shields and George Burns. Watching the movie, it's pretty clear why no one at Columbia Pictures thinks this movie has a potential audience. The main reason for this movie's failure is its sorry script. Although it aims to be a warm-hearted comedy, it succeeds at neither of those things. It's hard to get involved with Shields' character, who is written to be not very likable, and made worse by Shields' inadequate performance, which generates zero chemistry with Burns despite his valiant effort. There are no laughs to be found, partially due to the fact that the movie for a great deal of time tries to be serious, but also due that the few attempts at humor are lame and without energy. The rest of the movie is also directed in a lacklustre fashion; as other user comments here have noted, apart from some fleeting nudity and some mild language the movie feels like it was made for television. To sum up, this movie was a waste of time for its stars as well as its audience.