The Buddy System (1984)

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Glenn Jordan's thinly scripted, predictable romance-comedy bears many similarities to the more recent, and much more enjoyable, "Sleepless in Seattle".Tim is a young boy whose father "took a powder" before he was born, leaving his then teenage mother to raise him alone. Now around ten years old, Tim has taken a liking to the security officer at his school, and begins to try and bring he and his mother together. Needless to say, inevitability quickly takes hold.This movie is definitely only for the hopeless romantics, with a one way plot that only entertains on the surface. Wil Wheaton's precocious Tim is annoying, with Richard Dreyfuss and Susan Sarandon providing the only salvation with their reasonably interesting characters and good performances.Glenn Jordan manages some worthwhile comedy but little else, in a film which fails to leave its audience with the 'good' feeling it attempts to.Friday, April 1, 1994 - T.V.

Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfus.This is a mess of a rom/com. The adolescent boy of a single mom makes friends with an adult male school security guard by virtue of being caught attending school in the wrong school district. Upon the discovery, the child offers his mother as a bribe to the officer to prevent the guard reporting the transgression.The premise is creative, to say the least, and the performances by Sarandon and Dreyfus are heartwarming and real. I liked this, but as usual, I'm in the minority. This film is vastly underrated, by virtue of the quality of performance and presentation involved. The dialog between those two is natural and believable.All in all, though it's dated, it's a quirky, cute, heartwarming rom/com. And, while it's not the stuff of Friday/Saturday night viewing, it IS worth making time for.It rates a 7.2/10 from...the Fiend :.

Nicely done warm fuzzy movie. We have single moms with nice kid, Odd guy with warm heart and sexual icon running around, a dominant mother and severalanimals and ducks making us smile. This movie should not be analyzed onlyappreciated. It's like chicken soup and a warm blanket on a cold day, always appreciated.I think the world needs these non-threatening, nonintellectual, fantasies toremind of the magic of movies. Richard Dreyfuss has done a few of these and this ranks high in my favorite Susan Sarandon movies.

I loved The Buddy System. Yes, it was very cheesy and completely predictable. But, if you like slushy romantic dramas, this one is for you. Richard Dreyfuss is brilliant as usual as the wannabe writer. Susan Sarandon plays the potential love interest, and the ever cute Wil Wheaton as her little son. The scene in which Timmy (Wheaton) explains to his mother (Sarandon) about the meaning of "The Buddy System" is like the core of the film - this is where you understand the whole meaning of it. A very cosy movie that leaves you believing there could be happy endings in real life, too.