{"id":13847,"date":"2026-01-19T21:19:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=13847"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:19:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:19:28","slug":"jimmy-the-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/01\/19\/jimmy-the-kid\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy the Kid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jimmy the Kid<\/strong> (1982)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, comical violence, mild crude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gary Nelson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Sam Bobrick\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Cameron\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dennis Dalzell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 12, 1982 (US)\u00a0 \u00a0 Cast: Gary Coleman, Paul Le Mat, Ruth Gordon, Dee Wallace, Walter Olkewicz, Cleavon Little, Fay Hauser, Pat Morita, Avery Schreiber, Don Adams.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I must have watched Jimmy the Kid<\/strong> about 20 times on HBO in summer 1983. It seemed to be on every afternoon. I didn\u2019t get to see it at the movies because it only played in a few theaters when it opened in Philadelphia (circa March \u201983) where it played on a double bill with The Sword and the Sorcerer. It premiered on cable TV a few months later and earned itself a fan in 15YO Movie Guy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I would never have admitted this to any of my classmates at the time, but I kind of liked Gary Coleman. I watched his sitcom Diff\u2019rent Strokes (1978-86) practically every week. I really liked his other theatrical foray On the Right Track (1981) as well as his many made-for-TV movies (Scout\u2019s Honor, The Kid with the Broken Halo and The Kid with the 200 I.Q.). He passed away in 2010 at 42, but his catchphrase \u201cWhat\u2019choo talkin\u2019 \u2018bout, Willis?\u201d will forever echo in the minds of anybody who came of age in the early 80s.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Anyway, I got the chance to revisit Jimmy the Kid<\/strong> this past weekend. I popped my old VHS copy into the player and sat back to ride the oncoming wave of movie nostalgia. Ah yes, a small piece of my teen years recovered! Many people relive their teen years through the popular music of the time; I relive mine through the movies of the time. That\u2019s right, I had NO social life! No big deal, it gave me more time to pursue my interest in movies. I\u2019m pleased to report that I still like Jimmy the Kid<\/strong>. It\u2019s funny and has a great supporting cast. I also learned that it\u2019s based on a novel by best-selling author Donald E. Westlake (it\u2019s part of the Dortmunder series). I\u2019m not sure he envisioned his book as a vehicle for Coleman, but it works for this movie geek. It\u2019s a hell of a lot better than What\u2019s the Worst That Could Happen?, the 2001 movie featuring Martin Lawrence as the Dortmunder character. Yikes, please!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jimmy (Coleman) is an unusual kid in that he doesn\u2019t feel like a kid. He doesn\u2019t feel like he\u2019s having any fun. He wears suits, reads self-help books and visits his psychiatrist (Schreiber, Galaxina) three times a week. Poor deprived kid, he\u2019s never even been to the circus. His wealthy parents, Herb (Little, Blazing Saddles) and Nina (Hauser, Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling), are in show business and aren\u2019t home a lot of the time. They\u2019re a popular singing group called (appropriately enough) Herb & Nina. She dotes on her son, calling him enough sugary pet names to send a diabetic into a coma, while Herb buys into almost every business venture (like a chain of Greek restaurants in Kansas City) his accountant offers him. The most reliable adult in Jimmy\u2019s life appears to be his extremely near-sighted chauffeur Maurice (Morita, The Karate Kid).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, four bumbling criminals are plotting to kidnap Jimmy for $500,000 ransom. Kelp (Olkewicz, Making the Grade) got the idea from a how-to book about kidnapping and convinces his friend, unsuccessful burglar John Dortmunder (Le Mat, American Graffiti), to take part in the crime. Rounding out the gang are Kelp\u2019s feisty mother Bernice (Gordon, Harold and Maude) and John\u2019s ditsy girlfriend May (Wallace, E.T.). The kidnappers manage to grab Jimmy and get him to their hideout even though they have no idea what they\u2019re doing. His parents bring in an equally unqualified private detective (Adams, Get Smart) to get their son back. None of this fazes Jimmy in the least as he starts to bond with his abductors. It\u2019s the most fun he\u2019s ever had in his twelve years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jimmy the Kid<\/strong> is the kind of movie made to play exclusively at matinee showings since it\u2019s highly unlikely any adult would see it by choice. Despite some bad language, it\u2019s a perfect movie to show the kidlets on a rainy day. It\u2019s unlikely that they\u2019ll know who Coleman is unless they watch reruns of Diff\u2019rent Strokes (currently running on Antenna TV). Still, I think they might get a kick out of this movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for me, I find it difficult exactly why I defend such an inconsequential movie. As an adult, I know it\u2019s strictly kiddie matinee rubbish. The humor is definitely unsophisticated (Adams dressing in drag, Maurice\u2019s bad driving, Kelp\u2019s pratfalls), but I still laugh. How can I not laugh? It\u2019s just so damn silly and stupid that I have to. The obvious running joke in Jimmy the Kid<\/strong> is the fact that Jimmy is far more intelligent than any of the adults around him including his psychiatrist who apparently has issues of his own. In a movie like this, we already know that the so-called bad guys will turn out to be a bunch of incompetent buffoons. It doesn\u2019t matter, it\u2019s still pretty funny.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What makes the movie work so well is the talented supporting cast, many of whom are no longer with us (Gordon, Olkewicz, Little, Morita, Adams, Schreiber). Adams basically reprises his Maxwell Smart character from his TV series Get Smart (1965-70) even using one of his old catchphrases (\u201cWould you believe\u2026. ?\u201d). Gordon always plays the same feisty little old lady and it\u2019s always funny. Here, the larcenous octogenarian constantly dotes over her jailbird son Sonny (we never see him) and even orders bourbon at McDonald\u2019s. It\u2019s a shame (but not surprising) that Jimmy the Kid<\/strong> wasn\u2019t a box office success; it might have inspired a line of McBourbon shakes as a way of luring adults into the joint.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s the deal, Jimmy the Kid<\/strong> is an enjoyable little movie if taken on its own terms. It\u2019s good, almost-clean, silly fun that doesn\u2019t demand too much from one\u2019s intellect. I like this movie very much and I\u2019ll go to my grave defending it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy the Kid (1982)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, comical violence, mild crude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gary Nelson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Sam Bobrick\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Cameron\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dennis Dalzell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 12, 1982 (US)\u00a0 \u00a0 Cast: Gary Coleman, Paul Le Mat, Ruth Gordon, Dee Wallace, Walter Olkewicz, Cleavon Little, Fay Hauser, Pat Morita, Avery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Jimmy-the-Kid-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13847"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13912,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13847\/revisions\/13912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}