Tal Pai, Tal Filho

Doctor Dudley Moore and his teenage son Kirk Cameron end up becoming each other in this terrible little film. A brain transference formula is the cause here. The typical misunderstandings and forced-comedic situations then occur. Moore continued to struggle with roles after his crowning achievement in "Arthur" six years earlier. Cameron, thought to be the biggest star of television's "Growing Pains", was trying to become a bankable movie star. That plan fell flat as well. 2 stars out of 5.

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 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.

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.