Like Father, Like Son (1987) TriStar/Comedy RT: 96 minutes Rated PG-13 (language) Director: Rod Daniel Screenplay: Steve Bloom, Lorne Cameron and David Hoselton Music: Miles Goodman Cinematography: Jack N. Green Release date: October 2, 1987 (US) Cast: Dudley Moore, Kirk Cameron, Margaret Colin, Catherine Hicks, Patrick O’Neal, Sean Astin, Camille Cooper, Micah Grant, Bill Morrison, Skeeter Vaughan. Box Office: $34.4M (US)
Rating: *
Lightning might not strike twice in the same place, but it can certainly hit its target on the second try if it misses the first time. Look at the body switch comedy Vice Versa. It succeeds in every way Like Father, Like Son fails. It was the first of the “Invasion of the Body Switchers” titles to land in theaters in fall ’87. It’s also the worst. It goes horribly wrong in so many ways, it would be simpler to write up a checklist than an actual review. But where’s the fun in that?
Dudley Moore (Arthur) and Kirk Cameron (TV’s Growing Pains) star as the father and son who just can’t connect. Jack Hammond, a gifted surgeon vying for a promotion to chief of staff at his hospital, spends a lot of time at work. When he’s home, he’s usually bugging his teenage son Chris about his grades and an upcoming interview to get into medical school. The high school senior doesn’t want to be a doctor, but Dad doesn’t want to hear it.
It’s not really important how the Hammonds come to possess a magical Native American potion called “Brain Transference Serum” or how Jack comes to put it in his Bloody Mary. All that’s important is that Chris is the first person he looks in the eye after consuming it. BAM! Jack is now Chris and Chris is now Jack. Oh, you know how these things work!
The usual post-switch hijinks ensue. Jack/Chris grabs Dad’s gold Amex card and goes for an expensive night on the town with best friend Trigger (Astin, The Goonies). Chris/Jack goes to school and proceeds to turn his son into a social outcast in only a few short hours. Jack/Chris goes to the hospital, makes friends with Dad’s interns and supports a colleague (Hicks, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) who wants to the private hospital to treat patients with no insurance. Chris/Jack botches a date with a pretty girl (Cooper, Shocker) his son likes. Jack/Chris nearly allows himself to be seduced by the amorous wife (Colin, Three Men and a Baby) of his father’s boss (O’Neal, Under Siege). There’s also some business about an important relay race, a class bully terrorizing Chris, Trigger’s dotty uncle and a lot of Native American mumbo jumbo. Do I really need to continue?
Moore flails, stumbles and generally makes a fool of himself in a desperate attempt to recreate the magic of his brilliant comic performance in Arthur. He fails miserably. It’s hard to say which point is the lowest for him. That’s like asking which is more painful, root canal or tooth extraction. They both hurt. Moore figures prominently in many painful scenes in Like Father, Like Son like Jack/Chris’ assignation with the boss’ wife that climaxes with him setting the couch on fire and an important work meeting where he tries to chew gum and smoke a cigarette at the same time. If I had to choose, it would probably be the latter. Like everything else in this wretched excuse for a comedy, it’s not funny.
This is Kirk Cameron before he became a sanctimonious little s***. I’m sure it was his status as a teen idol that led to him being cast opposite Moore. It certainly wasn’t resemblance, chemistry or talent. Looks notwithstanding, I never understood Kirk’s appeal outside of Growing Pains. He has zero acting ability. His stiff performance in Like Father, Like Son weighs it down like a one-ton weight. He’s never funny, not even by accident. If I was casting the role, I would’ve gone with Astin. He’s a decent actor who could easily pass as Moore’s son given their vertical limitations- i.e. they’re both short. Also, he has better chemistry with Moore than Cameron does. He’s the movie’s only bright spot albeit the low wattage kind.
The thing that makes Vice Versa work so well is the body language of its two leads. You really believe it when Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage trade places. It’s in the different ways they carry themselves before and after the switch. Reinhold becomes a big kid and Savage becomes a little adult. The change is as physical as it is mental. That’s one of the main areas where Like Father, Like Son drops the ball. In this body-switch universe, becoming a teen means indulging in juvenile behaviors like chewing gum while making rounds, watching MTV and dancing around the house while the “parent” is at work while being an adult entails always acting formal and not smiling. I wasn’t convinced.
Maybe it’s good that Like Father, Like Son was first out of the gate with the Body Switcher comedies. There was no place to go but up for the others that followed. Of course, it doesn’t take much to be better than this loser of a movie, a real career nadir for Moore and director Rod Daniel (Teen Wolf). His comic timing is way off here. It makes anything else he’s ever done look like comic gold by comparison. Like Father, Like Son is like torture only more painful.
