L'héritier à quatre pattes

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.

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

As a kid, I remember this movie as being hilarious. Back then we didn't need the high-tech special stuff movies have today that are so common. However, I do think the problems with this movie can be laid squarely on inadequate direction, not the acting or the actors and actresses themselves. The producer also has part of the blame, here. Ultimately, actors and actresses can only do as much as they can do--it is the director who is responsible for getting the whole team to get it together, the editors are supposed to catch the errors and screw-ups. All in all, this is a great movie for just a fun time, It's a trigger for some good memories for a whole generation, and the people who have an issue with this movie should be looking at the captains, not the team members individually, for dropping the ball repeatedly on this one. It is STILL hilarious, and it made my child laugh a great deal--and there is no better sound in the world than hearing the ones you love have fun with an old movie you remember from childhood. My advice? Lighten up, laugh more, and let things be what they are.

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 :.

"Walk Like A Man" has a special place in my heart, but not because it's a great (or even good, really) piece of cinema. It's just one of those films that you grow up seeing on HBO as a child every afternoon and, to a fat kid that didn't get out much, that's great entertainment. It's silly, sappy and, like most proper 80's flicks, would probably only be about 45 minutes long if you took out all of the "musical montages". I am not even going to bother with a plot summary-you wouldn't be reading this if you have not already seen the film. But I will say this: while watching it again recently as an adult who has graduated to the more sophisticated likes of Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman, I was shocked by how much I still enjoyed it! The cast is very funny and entertaining and they gamely tackle the silly material they are given. I especially liked the underrated Christopher Lloyd as the evil older brother and Colleen Camp as his lush of a wife. I don't know, maybe it's just the connotation of the film and the fond childhood memories of watching it that come with it, but continental tastes be damned-I like this lousy little film!