Delayed Reaction: Like Father, Like Son

What I Guessed It Was About: A father and a son, switch places or something.

How I Came Into It: I'm not sure why, but I really thought this had John Ritter in it, not Dudley Moore. Perhaps the bubble gum in the poster obscured my view. Regardless, the fact that I didn't even know one of the top billed stars should tell you how much I knew going in.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron are both decidedly winning. I can see why they were cast. Moore got an Oscar nomination for playing a man-child. Cameron got two Golden Globe nominations for playing a mature immature kid on Growing Pains (both happened after this movie, but that's beside the point). I'm intrigued by the decision to make this a PG-13 movie. By all means, it should be PG at most, but it likes swearing a little bit. One of my favorite games in any PG-13 movie that's trying to be edgy is tracking one "fuck" they are allowed to use. This was quite an excellent one coming from Sean Astin after the initial body switch. I also really appreciated the simplicity of the body swap. It's a serum. It wears off after a bit. Bam! High concept. Simple execution. Very simple mythology. It doesn't need to be that hard.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I know it's farce. I really do get that. It still frustrates me to see how no one in this movie responds to the situation in an authentic way. There's no way in hell the son shows up at work in Moore's body. Which, by the way, Moore's interpretation of how a teenager really acts is borderline offensive in how broad it is. The opposite goes for Cameron's situation. I don't care how out of it the dad is, he's going to keep a low profile at school. Because it's the nature of the movie, I can't call these serious gripes. However, they are certainly the things that prevented me from finding it funny or all that enjoyable.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend