Tale padre tale figlio

I saw this back in 87 when it came out and have watched it many many times since then. The two main stars, Dudley and Kirk steal the show. There are so many quotable lines from Like Father Like son. I love when Dudley M. as his son, is walking through the hospital with his interns making the rounds and he has no idea what to do. They interns are all following him as he slowly and awkwardly tries to figure out where to go and when he thinks he's finished the task, he looks at the interns and says, "great rounds". So funny. I saw some really bad reviews here about this movie: Why? They must have something against really funny movies with great actors.

The way I see it, this story gave each of the two groups (teenaged students and middle-aged professional people) a better understanding of the trials and tribulations the other experiences on a daily basis. As kids, we think our parents' lives are easy, and as adults, we tend to forget the pressures experienced by highschoolers. I enjoyed this film, and hope others will, too.

I suffered through this film in jaw dropping disbelief.

First of all, who would cast Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron in the same film? Seriously? It's like mixing oil and water and just doesn't work. Especially if your cast Kirk Cameron as Dudley Moore's son. Who thought that would be believable? Hey, let's take two of the worst actors in the world that are complete opposites and cast them as father and son.

Then, to add to the puke factor, there's the 80's hair band background music. As if Cameron as son and Moore as father wasn't enough to induce projectile vomiting they pushed it one step further with the lame soundtrack.

Then there's the story line, the script. Were they taking mind altering drugs when they wrote this? If so, it was something that caused complete stupidity.

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.