I agree with Roger Ebert on a lot of this movie. First, I agree that Dudly Moore has one good scene and Kirk Cameron has none. Well, Dudly has two I think. Second, I agree that the acting of the movie characters is way off.
This is another of the body swap comedies that came out in 1987-1988. This is the worst one of them. Dudly Moore and Kirk Cameron swap bodies when Kirk's friend Sean Austin sneaks some "mind transfer" serum into Dudley's drink. Then the two of them swap minds. At first of course, they're shocked and upset. After that, the way each one of them acts in each other's body is so way off, unconvincing, and very annoying. Neither of them act even remotely funny and amusing except for Dudly twice at the hospital. Once with the funny way he decides to play with a machine next to a patient's bed, and once, as Ebert mentioned, when he smokes a cigarette while chewing gum at the board meeting. Every, and I mean everything else from both of them was stupid.
Examples of stupid acting while Dudly's mind was in Kirk: the way he arrogantly patronizes his classrooms rubbing his "older education" in everyone's face causing the other kids to really not like him, his loudly snitching on the bully in class right after he throws a wet gob of paper at the blackboard, the way he arrogantly talks to the bully while parking his car while being very unaware of how much he is further angering him (the bully was already getting annoyed with him earlier in the film during track practice), him running in the relay at the track meet and then the way he completely dove into the air like that too short of the finish line (what the hell was that?) and that weird loud breathing when he hit the ground, him on a date with the hot girl at a rock concert and complaining about the loud music, leaving early, then stupidly patronizing her while driving her home. Can you blame her for getting out of his car so turned off? Can you blame the bully for then beating the crap out of him (with what I mentioned he did with the bully earlier, plus him being out with the girl he's interested in)?
Examples of stupid acting while Kirk's mind was in Dudly: his sissy little temper tantrum to Dudly's mind in Kirk while trying to drive to school. His dancing and yelling to loud rock music in the house. His painting the town red with Sean. His overly forced irritating yelling such as the way he was yelling/singing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" after being dropped off at home by his interns at the hospital, his yelling "I wanna be a doctor! I wanna be a doctor!" at the hospital for no particular reason near the end of the movie, as if he was just finding out for the first time what he was. And what I mentioned before about his yelling and running after his "son" in the car trying to drive to his school.
Then for the supporting characters: the high school kids (the bully, the hot girl, the other cliques that wouldn't except Kirk) were just tired retreads of other 80s high school movies. The seducing woman from the hospital was so snobby, the way she talked to Sean while with Kirk's mind in Dudly at the bar. And when he caught his sofa on fire her reaction was snobby, but he was acting pretty stupid there too so he probably deserved it. The chief executive boss at the hospital was a one dimensional jerk. Dudly did act pretty stupid and annoying, but should a boss completely write off a great surgeon who's been a valuable asset to the hospital for years just for one time speaking out of line at a board meeting ("screw the insurance")?
This is another of the body swap comedies that came out in 1987-1988. This is the worst one of them. Dudly Moore and Kirk Cameron swap bodies when Kirk's friend Sean Austin sneaks some "mind transfer" serum into Dudley's drink. Then the two of them swap minds. At first of course, they're shocked and upset. After that, the way each one of them acts in each other's body is so way off, unconvincing, and very annoying. Neither of them act even remotely funny and amusing except for Dudly twice at the hospital. Once with the funny way he decides to play with a machine next to a patient's bed, and once, as Ebert mentioned, when he smokes a cigarette while chewing gum at the board meeting. Every, and I mean everything else from both of them was stupid.
Examples of stupid acting while Dudly's mind was in Kirk: the way he arrogantly patronizes his classrooms rubbing his "older education" in everyone's face causing the other kids to really not like him, his loudly snitching on the bully in class right after he throws a wet gob of paper at the blackboard, the way he arrogantly talks to the bully while parking his car while being very unaware of how much he is further angering him (the bully was already getting annoyed with him earlier in the film during track practice), him running in the relay at the track meet and then the way he completely dove into the air like that too short of the finish line (what the hell was that?) and that weird loud breathing when he hit the ground, him on a date with the hot girl at a rock concert and complaining about the loud music, leaving early, then stupidly patronizing her while driving her home. Can you blame her for getting out of his car so turned off? Can you blame the bully for then beating the crap out of him (with what I mentioned he did with the bully earlier, plus him being out with the girl he's interested in)?
Examples of stupid acting while Kirk's mind was in Dudly: his sissy little temper tantrum to Dudly's mind in Kirk while trying to drive to school. His dancing and yelling to loud rock music in the house. His painting the town red with Sean. His overly forced irritating yelling such as the way he was yelling/singing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" after being dropped off at home by his interns at the hospital, his yelling "I wanna be a doctor! I wanna be a doctor!" at the hospital for no particular reason near the end of the movie, as if he was just finding out for the first time what he was. And what I mentioned before about his yelling and running after his "son" in the car trying to drive to his school.
Then for the supporting characters: the high school kids (the bully, the hot girl, the other cliques that wouldn't except Kirk) were just tired retreads of other 80s high school movies. The seducing woman from the hospital was so snobby, the way she talked to Sean while with Kirk's mind in Dudly at the bar. And when he caught his sofa on fire her reaction was snobby, but he was acting pretty stupid there too so he probably deserved it. The chief executive boss at the hospital was a one dimensional jerk. Dudly did act pretty stupid and annoying, but should a boss completely write off a great surgeon who's been a valuable asset to the hospital for years just for one time speaking out of line at a board meeting ("screw the insurance")?