WALK LIKE A MAN

year: 1987

rating: **1/2

Now you'd expect a movie where stand-up comedian/comedic actor turned game-show host Howie Mandel plays a guy named Bobo raised by wolves trying to adjust to life back in civilization to be downright awful and not very entertaining. Well this is both bad and entertaining. Christopher Lloyd is his brother who wants (more like, needs) his new found brother (who luckily doesn't act like a dangerous wolf killing for food but rather a slobbering playful puppy) to sign a paper to give him the inheritance left by their father. The "chemistry" between uptight villainous Lloyd and goofy Mandel is standard odd-couple fare but the real heart comes from Amy Steele (the survivor of "Friday the 13th Part 2" and the "older girl" who took Michael J. Fox's virginity in "Family Ties"... yeah, THAT Amy Steele) who plays a wolf researcher hired by Lloyd to teach Bobo how to write (i.e. sign his name) (she also discovered him in the wild). Steele not only teaches him to write but to speak, hang out in the mall (where the only funny scenes take place), and accidently fall in love... with her. It's all very banal but that's no surprise. It's decent, silly, stupid fun, and not much worse than the comedy blockbusters with Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler or... you name 'em.