Wie der Vater, so der Sohn

Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I think this movie's great. There's lots of hilarious (and clean) sight gags, slapstick and laugh-out-loud situations.

Dudley Moore, obviously the far more superior comedian, is fantastic as a teenager stuck in an adult's body. He has many funny scenes and milks them for all they're worth, my favourite being the chewing gum/cigarette incident. The looks on his co-stars' faces is priceless. Watch also for Moore's date with Margaret Colin (that goes really badly) and when he does the rounds at the hospital.

Unfortunately, there are a few flaws. There's a bit of swearing and sexual reference (which would make it an otherwise very suitable film for kids). It wastes the talent of Catherine Hicks in a surprisingly pointless and unnecessary role and Sean Astin is super-annoying (as always) as the "wacky" best friend/sidekick. The film also resorts to schmaltz at the end when it goes for a warm and fuzzy finale.

Otherwise, a great film that's lots and lots of fun. Funky soundtrack and wonderful flashback to the delightfully tacky fashions and hairstyles of the '80s.

I think I have seen every example of the "body switch" genre, at least all of those that have been made in the past 40 years or so, and "Like Father Like Son" is the worst of them. The first 20 minutes or so are painless mediocrity, but then soon after the movie collapses. What's the problem? I think the main problem is that the characters are stupid. If I was in their situation, I know I would be terrified and trying my best to not raise suspicion. If the movie had done that, it could have been funny seeing these people trying to do their best but making mistakes. But the movie's two main characters seem to be trying their best to blow the charade - not realistic. And the movie's sense of humor is really bad - we have such stuff as audiences falling asleep during lectures, a gag that's done TWICE. If you want to see a good example of this genre, see "Freaky Friday" (the original or the remake) or "Vice Versa".

Someone must have thought that all this movie needed to succeed was Kirk Cameron to pull in the teenage girls and Dudley Moore to pull in their parents. Somehow they forgot that Kirk is incapable of pulling off anything in the way of depth in his acting and Dudley in a role like this would get carried away with its silliness.

The premise was old, the dialogue poor, the situations strained, and the acting cartoonish. The result is a bad movie with a fading teen heartthrob and a fifty-something actor playing his Arthur character at the age of ten. If anyone finds this in a 'sale' bin for used videos, try to bury it farther down where it can be avoided and forgotten.

Dudley Moore is hilarious. This terrified and later excited teen in a middle aged man's body gets into so many wild situations. But he is very creative when he has to be and quite a schemer.

Sean Astin is great as the best friend, and why wouldn't he be? Look who his parents are. Well, that doesn't always mean success, but he has gone on to have quite a career, and here we can see why.

Kirk Cameron isn't that highly regarded, and he's no Mike Seaver here. If he has talent, that's the role where he showed it. Here, he's kind of ordinary, but he gets the job done. In the scene with the baby being born he really shines. There is also another kind of stereotypical scene where he goes beyond the usual, As a genius who has trouble with social interaction, he's no Iain Armitage, who is the master.

Cloud Dancing from "Dr. Quinn" is the one who picks up Earl and carries him to the Navajo medicine man. I didn't know this until the closing credits. He was not known for being funny, but now that I know who it was, it was nice to see him with a sense of humor.

Earl is given something to drink and immediately it becomes clear what has happened. The Navajo is horrified to look at the white man and see himself. The white man, apparently speaking the Navajo language, obviously feels the same way.

Some questions I have. Chris has an appointment soon with a Northwestern recruiter. Not sure why Northwestern, because they are driving distance from Death Valley. Oh, well. We also don't know why Jack is British but living in the United States. By the way, this stuff that causes the body switching is clear, so why is Jack going to use that bottle by mistake, rather than the one full of red stuff?

And one last adventure does not involve a car chase. It is just one car, driven recklessly, causing damage to itself and everything else as we must endure a band that put the heavy in metal, one that makes Autograph (which we and Jack had to endure earlier) look like The Eagles. The editing is interesting because we keep going Jack and forth between two locations, and each time we see the car again, the "music" continues from where it left off.

It's not a kids' movie. Some curse words were obviously changed for TV. Who says "dorkhead"? And there is one scene of a sexual nature which, if you remember this man is actually a teenager, is actually in terrible taste, but doesn't go overboard.

But cleaned up for TV as I saw it, I wouldn't say all kids should avoid it. It's pretty childish.

Yes, we've seen this sort of thing before? So what. They're all unique, if you really think about it.

And I had fun.

Like Father Like Son was made at the height of Kirk Cameron's bubblegum popularity as teen idol, courtesy of his television series Growing Pains which was dominating the ratings in 1987. Cameron was just getting into his fundamentalist religion kick so the script couldn't be too naughty.

As it is it's a mildly amusing comedy of the Freaky Friday vein, only this time it's a father and son, Kirk's father in this case being Dudley Moore. Kirk's your typical teenage kid, just looking for a good time and not too serious. Moore is a very serious and respected surgeon who would like to be the new chief of staff at his hospital to replace Patrick O'Neal's whose recommendation on a replacement will probably make or break a candidate.

Kirk's got some troubles of his own in the form of shapely Camille Cooper who's hitting on him. She's the girl friend of jock Micah Grant who hates Kirk and his friend Sean Astin.

In fact Astin's archaeologist uncle is the cause of all the problems that Moore and Cameron face. The uncle Bill Morrison has come back from a dig at the Navajo reservation with a body transference medicine that Astin thinks would be worth a few laughs, even experimenting with a dog and cat on it. But when the maid thinks it's a condiment and Moore and Cameron use it on the spaghetti, strange things happen.

Each lives about 36 hours in the other's bodies and the other's lives and generally make a mess of it. If you've seen both versions of Freaky Friday you've got a general idea of what's going to happen.

The film did reasonably well at the box office though it failed to make Cameron a movie star. That didn't happen until Kirk started playing on the Christian film circuit. Moore and Cameron and Astin work well together and it's still mildly amusing.