Like Father Like Son (1987)

In 1976 there was Freaky Friday. This movie came out in 1987 and Vice Versa in 1988. I liked both of those better than this.

If you haven't guessed the plot by now then let me apprise you. It is a body swap film. Dr. Jack Hammond (Dudley Moore) accidentally drinks a brain swap serum and ends up trading bodies with his son Chris (Kirk Cameron). Neither of them even try to pretend to be the other as they carry on in different bodies, in different environments, but with the exact same behavior.

The monumental difference between this movie and Vice Versa (starring Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage) is that in Vice Versa the son was a 10-year-old-boy. It's actually funnier, and in some ways adorable, to see a kid that young attempting to be an adult. Even if he's tries his best he's going to fail.

In this movie, the son is seventeen so he has an inkling of what it takes to be an adult, or he can at least fake it. Chris not only doesn't try to be adult for the sake of his father, he actually regresses. I mean that he was acting more immature in his adult body than he did in his teenage body. I find nothing funny about a seventeen-year-old acting like he's ten.

Fmovies: I could fill pages on why this film is such a pathetic attempt at the "kid/parent" switch comedies of the 80's but let me just give you a quick summary.

This film completely fails to portray how people put into this situation would behave. The best (worst) example of this is the scene when Dudley Moore, playing an 18 year old in a 40 something body, is staying at home alone. He's supposed to be a senior in High School and yet when left at home for 5 minutes he behaves like a 6 year old....playing loud music and jumping on the furniture. Obviously the director just couldn't resist having Dudley Moore jump around like an idiot for a few minutes.

Had the writer and director spent 30 seconds thinking about how people might really try to act in this situation it might have been entertaining...but then again this movie was made about 5 times in the space of 18 months in the late 80's anyway so I think the best idea would have been to get an original idea and not waste everybody's time.

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".

Like Father Like Son fmovies. 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.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON was the first of many mind-swapping comedies. This one stars Dudley Moore and `Growing Pains' star Kirk Cameron as father and son who switch bodies after Moore accidentally drinks from a strange Indian potion. For a first timer, this one is absolutely pathetic. Cameron is an okay actor, but he ain't box-office material, and Moore is as wasted as ever and the humor isn't there. Even the concert sequence is dreary. Thankfully, the many imitations that followed fared somewhat better, the best one being BIG. LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON is the worst, with a pointless story and all those cliches that turkeys like this are made of. Sleazy and stupid.

0 out of 5

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.