Walk Like a Man (1987)

Director:

Melvin Frank

Writer:

Robert Klane (writer)

Release Date:

March 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Boy raised by wolves is reunited as an adult with his real family.

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Cast

Howie Mandel	...	Bobo Shand
Christopher Lloyd	...	Reggie Shand / Henry Shand
Cloris Leachman	...	Margaret Shand
Colleen Camp	...	Rhonda Shand
Amy Steel	...	Penny
Stephen Elliott	...	Walter Welmont
George DiCenzo	...	Bob (Bub) Downs
John McLiam	...	H.P. Truman
Earl Boen	...	Jack Mollins
Howard Platt	...	Fred Land
Millie Slavin	...	Essie Welmont
William Bogert	...	A.J. (Al) Brown
Isabel Cooley	...	Judge / Bystander
Asa Lorre	...	Bobby Shand
Jeremy Gosch	...	Young Reggie

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:PG | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Quotes:

Customer: Are you a homo?
Bobo Shand: No. I'm a Bobo.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "ER: Walk Like a Man (#9.4)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Walk Like A Man

Makes Plan 9 From Outer Space look like Citizen Kane

Plan 9 From Outer Space by the notorious filmmaker Ed Wood was so bad it was good, a laugh a-minute because it was intended to be serious. Sure, the acting was atrocious, and some of the sets were hysterical, but that's what makes it so unbelievably hilarious even today. "Walk Like a Man" can't hold a candle to the film-making wizardry that is Plan 9 From Outer Space. The wannabe comedic antics appear like they were written by a seven-year-old who overdosed on Ovalteen or a college freshman who took one too many hits of Metamucil on a Saturday night! The result is a movie that is supposed to be comedy that instead of making you laugh makes you cringe as every pathetic line that tries to be funny is outdone by an even more pathetic line. I mean, just when you think the movie can't get any worse, it passes all expectation by becoming even more unbelievably stupid by the minute.

The relatively impressive cast of Christopher Lloyd and Cloris Leachman. cannot save this bottom of the barrel embarrassment masquerading as a movie. I've seen first graders write stuff more clever than this. The "lines" of dialog, which seem more akin to banter at a college fraternity party than a written script are just about as bad as they come. The writers must have worked very hard to come up with the worst jokes and cliché lines that Hollywood has ever attempted.

The only thing more ridiculous than the movie itself is the premise. A family strikes it rich in the gold country, and as they are driving their sled through the snow back to civilization, they "accidentally" lose their youngest son! Well, it looks like he's pushed off the sled by his older brother so he can have more of the gold they discovered! Twenty-eight years later, the brother, nicknamed Bobo, is discovered by an animal scientist among a pack of wolves, but he doesn't act as much like a wolf as the filmmakers want you to believe. Actually wolves have a certain reserved dignity about them. The guy who thinks he's a wolf really isn't acting like a wolf at all, more like a deranged bull dog who scratches himself in funny parts of his body, if he's not licking new acquaintances on their chins. I don't buy that the wolves would have accepted this guy either! I think the wolves took one look at him and went, "Get this creep out of here!"

Christopher Lloyd plays, or maybe barely animates, the brother (the one who pushed him off the sled 28 years earlier) who is a cross between Scrooge and Atilla the Hun. He has tons of money from the inheritance of the gold, we presume, and this slothful impetuous monster is hated by everyone. He makes Bertie Wooster (of Jeeves and Wooster) appear like an intellectual saint. Not even his mother, Cloris Leachman, shows much love but rather appears to be on the verge of either slipping into a coma, or becoming a cat, a fate not unlike her "wolfish" grandchild! Instead of taking care of herself, she dotes on her kitties! The plot revolves around whether or not the "canine" brother can inherit his part of the money, or else stay like a, er, "wolf", I guess. Or is he more like a dog who thinks he's a wolf? Or is it the other way around?

When Bobo finally "comes home" and starts licking Christopher Lloyd's face off, it became clear to me that the projector lights may be on but nobody's home. Or maybe this "movie" is a few screwballs short of a funny farm. On "Sneak Previews", the original show featuring film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, they always had a "dog of the week", usually a film so outrageously embarrassing that it earned a quick loving remark at the end of the show. This movie gets my vote for the dog of the century, in more ways than one.