Spending Time as Dad
Dr. Jack Hammond (Dudley Moore) is one of the leading neurosurgeons in the country and he hopes his son Chris (Kirk Cameron) will follow suit even though the laid back Chris really can't stand biology and has to close his eyes during class when they have to dissect a frog. After a busy day slicing into patients and talking down to medical students who tower over him Jack heads home and mixes himself a drink but instead of using Tabasco accidentally picks up an ancient Indian mind transference serum which Chris's friend's uncle brought back from one of his archaeology expeditions. Before they know the father and son have switched places with Jack's brain in Chris's body and vice versa, a freaky experience for the father and son although Chris in his father's body suddenly realises he can have fun with his dad's credit cards as well as getting served in bars. But spending time in each others bodies might not be a bad thing for them in the long run.
3 things are what "Like Father Like Son" trades on; one is the humour of a father and son switching bodies, another is the humour of Dudley Moore and the third is Kirk Cameron. Now on the first one, the whole body swap idea, maybe back in 1987 it worked but since then we have had other movies do the same thing and all it means is that from a basic point of view "Like Father Like Son" is familiar, offering up nothing new other than the typical comedy and confusion as well as understanding when a father and son switches bodies.
Then there is Kirk Cameron who alongside Sean Astin give the movie its youthful side with both playing typical easy going 80s teens with the usual issues of bad grades and girls to chase. Of course we have Kirk having to do the act as a grown up in a teenagers body when the body/ mind switch thing goes on but it isn't great just average with scenes of him basically telling off his father for getting drunk and grounding him.
What that really means if that "Like Father Like Son" is really a vehicle for Dudley Moore with him being allowed to run wild with acting like a teenager, dressing badly, listening to cool music and so on. The thing is that again it is such a familiar concept that Moore could have delivered one of his best comedy performances and it would have only ever been kind of amusing. As it is this isn't Moore at his best anyway and it is a case of for all his trying only 50% of the jokes working.
What this all boils down to is that "Like Father Like Son" ends up just another one of those comedies where a grown up and teenager switch bodies and offers up little which makes it any different to those other movies. It is the sort of movie that if it was the first body swap movie you saw would most likely be your favourite.
