L'héritier à quatre pattes

If there was a more annoying performer in the 1980s than Howie Mandel I sure do not remember him. This time Mandel is a young man who has been raised by a pack of wolves after he was accidentally left behind during a camping trip when he was a very young boy. He is found by animal researcher Amy Steel and she tries to teach him the ways of humans that he has been away from. Naturally he reunites with his mother (Cloris Leachman) and his demented older brother (Christopher Lloyd). Lloyd tries and tries to keep Mandel from getting half of his elderly mother's inheritance while Mandel is totally oblivious to what is going on and what is expected of him. Soon Lloyd decides it will be easier to skip all the legalities and just have Mandel killed instead. Comedy that is just not funny here. Mandel tries to dominate the action, and does, but the movie is a smelly dog from top to bottom. This is a total waste of film and effort (what little was put in). One of the many downers of the mid-1980s. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

Seriously. This movie was absolutely horrible. I knew I was in for a real treat (yes, that's extreme sarcasm) when I started rolling my eyes 2 minutes after it started and the young Bobo whines, "Have a heart, Pa, it's cold!" Yes. Because when I was 5, I always walked around telling my parents to "have a heart."

The dialogue, the situations the characters get themselves into, and, of course, the unrelentingly terrible plot are all beyond clichéd and very ridiculous. Don't even get me started on the acting. I see that Howie Mandel's shilling for Boston Pizza now. I can't decide where his acting is worse, in that or in this.

Bah. I don't even want to review this anymore, it's just making me relive a painful two hours that I just want to forget.

I'm going to go scrub my eyes with soap now.

Don't even watch this if it's on T.V., check out something more intellectually and visually stimulating. Like an infomercial.

Reading over the other comments for "Walk like a man," almost every positive comment is associated with childhood memories of this film. I never saw it as a child. I just watch it recently (on TV). This is a predictable, sappy and tiresome movie, with bland slap-stick humour and simple jokes. It wouldn't surprise me if children enjoyed this movie giving rise to fond memories, but adults wont come away with anything positive.

"Walk like a man" is a comedy about a man, named Bobo (Howie Mandel), who, raised by wolves for 28 years, is found and brought back to live with his brother, Reggie (Christopher Lloyd). Bobo is trained to be more civilized by a scientist named Penny, the woman who found him, while his brother plots a method to get at Bobo's half of their father's inheritance. Bobo acts like a wolf for most of the picture and causes mayhem pretty well everywhere he goes which quickly gets boring. Bobo goes to the country club. Will he cause trouble? Bobo goes to the lawyer. Will he cause trouble? Bobo attends a dinner party. Will he cause trouble? The movie even starts to play on its own predictable routine.

There wasn't a moment in this film where I laughed. I couldn't get passed the boring routine and how everything happens for predictable laughs. Despite being a satire on "Tarzan," that lack of any laughs made the unrealistic events stand out where a good comedy should've let me look beyond them. The subplots, such as Bobo constantly ruining the neighbours cement driveway and a love story between Bobo and Penny, just aren't funny, nor touching, nor interesting. "Walk like a man" is a dull comedy worth skipping (even on TV).

Most movie goers who have bothered to rate this, express their chronic dislike of this work due to Howie Mandell's presence herein; however, I must say that he is no more a harbinger of death to this film than anyone else.

The performances found within this film are all adequate, with some better than others, but none were lacking such as to lessen the worth of this production. The dialog delivery was also adequate, but the dialog itself was trite, contrived, and slapstick in its execution. Mandell suffers more from poor direction than a lack of talent. Yes, he was an annoying element of his hey day, but he never outright bombed until this work. Christopher Lloyd is better than adequate, but his usual curmudgeonly charm is lost here. Cloris Leachman's performance is the only contributing factor which elevates this work, but she could not save it, alone.

The story had a good basis which could have netted a great film, but the National Lampoonesque take on the whole premise is the leading contributing factor to this film's demise. The story was watered down and sentimentalized to the point of generating schlock instead of entertainment. There isn't one aspect herein which isn't contrived to suit the story line, including the domestication of the lead character and the time line wherein said domestication takes place.

A young boy is abandoned by his bratling brother and left alone in the wilderness to be raised by wolves. After his rescue, his brother (still a brat) decides Bobo must learn to read and write...immediately! Intrigue ensues.

Had this been treated with more care and a bit more seriously in the right places, this could have been a great comedy, but as is, this one fails on all levels: It does not teach, it does not ponder, and it does not entertain. As it stands, this work does show some serious moments, but they are in the wrong places; the timing is all wrong, and even those with no sense of cinematic timing can feel that the pace is out of step.

All in all? This is nothing but sentimental, contrived schlock, which fails on all levels...though it DOES have heart.

It rates a 3.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.

Funny story and great roles. I like to recommend it a lot