Walk Like a Man

Written by Robert Klane

Directed by Melvin Frank

At the USA Beacon Hill

"IF SOMETHING is funny, it remains funny," Howie Mandel said in a recent interview. This dubious idea seems to be the philosophy behind Mandel's new movie, Walk Like a Man. This slapstick comedy repeats the same sight gags over and over, assuming that they will be funny each time. Actually, the movie is just one extended joke that is supposed to be funny for a full 90 minutes.

That joke is the idea of a man who thinks he is a dog. During a North woods blizzard, jealous Reggie Shand (Christopher Lloyd) literally left his infant brother Robert to the wolves. Now, 30 years later, Penny (Amy Steel), a pretty young scientist, discovers "Bobo" (Mandel), whom the wolves have raised as one of their own. She returns Bobo to the Shand household, thwarting Reggie's plan to appropriate his brother's inheritance, now that he has squandered his own. Penny spends the rest of the movie trying to teach Bobo to act like a person, while Reggie tries to think of ways to steal Bobo's money.

This one joke seems a rather flimsy premise for an entire movie. Mandel does make a convincing dog, though he is more a playful puppy than an adult wolf. He runs around on all fours, barks and growls, licks people's faces, chases fire trucks and cats, and eats without using his paws--er, his hands. These often disgusting canine antics are funny at first but become tedious quickly. Mandel's performance is physically impressive but only occasionally funny.

There is not much to be said for the other performances, since the other characters are all types, one-note foils for Mandel to play off of. Besides the aforementioned Evil Brother and Idealistic Scientist, there is the Boozing Wife, the Senile Cat Lady, the Crusty Backwoodsman, the Angry Neighbor, the Venal Lawyer, and the Stuck-up In-laws. Walk is basically Mandel's showpiece, and no one is allowed to upstage him.

Still, the pathetic Shands, who demonstrate their faded wealth by wearing wonderfully out-of-date clothes, get to shine comically more than the other bit-players. As Bobo's brother, Lloyd is a hapless straightman, demonstrating his own talent for physical comedy by being a complete klutz. He is at the mercy of both Bobo and his loopy mother (Cloris Leachman). With her deadpan delivery of some of Walk's funniest lines, Leachman almost steals the limelight from Mandel.

But these clever and original lines are isolated moments in a movie that recycles the same gags for as long as possible. Lloyd's cigarette falling out of its holder, Mandel romping through the neighbor's newly poured driveway, or Lloyd shivering so forcefully that he drops his teacup are all funny the first time and less funny each succeeding time.

The movie realizes its potential only when it breaks away from these tired gags and tries something new. The sequence in which Steel loses Mandel in a shopping mall, for instance, is very funny because of the strangeness of the environment and the newness of the situation. Otherwise, the movie hounds the same meager jokes to death. As a result, Walk Like a Man gradually loses its bite.