What a waste of my time!!!

Please don't spend money on this.

Good concept, poorly executed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

In the late 1980s there were several body swap teen comedies that emerged in a short space of time. Tom Hanks in Big was the big one and the others were judged against it.Like Father Like Son is a likable comedy but drastically lacks a plot, wastes some of its actors and seems to be a series of sketches.Kirk Cameron plays a high school teenager who with the aid of a Native Indian portion mixes his mind with his brilliant surgeon father, Dudley Moore.Now its Moore who acts as the kid and Cameron goes to school with his adult know how which irritates the other students and his best friend, Sean Astin.They both have to get used to their new bodies, Moore has to navigate a promotion but upsets his hospital boss by siding with a colleague to offer medicine to those without insurance and fooling around with his wife.Moore is in his element when he is having fun as a teenager and Cameron is very good as the more uptight one after the body swap, maybe he was just being himself!Patrick O'Neal and Catherine Hicks are rather wasted in this very 1980s comedy. Its sporadically funny and mildly enjoyable.

At the time (1987) this film was one of a spate of body transference films on offer. Hollywood had found a new theme to play with. If Rod Daniel's flick is any indication, none of the projects were very successful.Chris (Kirk Cameron) and his doctor dad (Dudley Moore) inadvertently swap bodies after a mishap with an American Indian potion. Comedy from here on in is strictly 'fish-out-of-water', as Chris and his pa must learn to cope and adapt to the other's life.A few of the resulting situations bring a laugh, some just a smile. Mostly however, this is your average situation comedy. Lorne Cameron's story makes that common but dreadful mistake of going for a sentimental finale, which of course falls flat on its face.It was films like this that abruptly ended Kirk Cameron's movie career; and this is probably one of his best. Dudley Moore has been infinitely better. Miles Goodman provides a bouncy score.Monday, February 1, 1999 - Video

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.

Im not too sure about what the last reviewer was expecting to see...Citizen Kane? This was a great lighthearted comedy from the time I was graduating high school that anyone born in the late 60s-early 70's will enjoy. You will love the cornball fashion from the big 80's as well as the big hair. I thought they put a interesting plot in the freaky Friday theme using the brain transference juice. Also, Dudley Moore did an excellent job right after the switch acting like a freaked out 17 year old in a 47 year old's body. And of course, the comedy ensues as both struggle to jump into the others life, one in high school and the other at the hospital as chief surgeon. So if you want to come home and have a drink and relax and watch a lighthearted comedy from when you were in high school and remember the old days, this is definitely the movie for you.