Like Father Like Son (1987)

disgusting, overrated, pointless

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

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.

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.

The jokes did not quite take off in the first half of the film. I was appalled by how bad the dialogue was, and how un-funny the lines that are supposed to be funny are. Chris' best friend is perhaps THE most annoying person in the first half; his lines are retarded, and so is he. Chris (Kirk Cameron) is also very annoying, and so is his dad. After they switched brains though, the film got a whole lot better. It's a riot to see Dr. Hammond in Chris' body going to school and being a smart ass. It's even funnier to see Chris in his father's body going to work. This movie is basically something to entertain you for a couple of hours. It's not over-the-top-ly funny, and it's very stupid, but it's all in the name of entertainment. Great acting from Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron. Can't say much for the rest of the cast 'cause I don't really remember what the heck they did. A rather interesting plot as well, if you're not in the mood to think.To sum it up, "Like Father, Like Son" is stupid...but it's fun.

Upon watching this film in the TBS Sunday movie context, dully and without vision for the 27th time, as if by exquisite divine intervention, it came to me. This movie is quite brilliant in its stupidity. Let's look at the average B 8o's switcheroo flick as if it were a slice of swiss cheese - the holes are meant to be there. It wouldn't be the cheese without it. One may not look any further than the montage of running sneakers and joyous looks of dumb amazement coming down the stairs at you to realize that what we have here is a little slice of heaven. I also particularly like the fact that the Chief of Staff's middle-aged wife is trolling around the singles bars on Sunset Blvd by herself on a random week night - where she just happens upon Dr. Hammond and his son's friend, Trigger (as in hung like). The fact that said bar seems to consist solely of single, attractive women doesn't strike anyone odd? The brilliance here is less subdued - this is obviously how Chris Hammond SEES the bar through his inexperienced, sheltered eyes. This is yet another scene where we get to see Dudley Moore dumbfounded and looking agog. As he surveys the scene, the camera again treats us with super-fast editing so that we can see his expression not once, but several times. I could wax on and on about the adventures of the Hammond's however, I often frighten myself.