Characters are supposed to change as stories progress. The main character here changed from a selfish pompous dork into a selfish pompous reborn "guru". Nolte evidently has had a lobotomy.
This was a film about wisdom seemingly made by high schoolers who had read a comic book and become "enlightened".
A dash of Karate Kid, a little Rocky and a whole lot of Ishtar.
The best that can be said is that this was a low budget film and not a lot of money was wasted. Unless it was a tongue-in-cheek satire, it was one of the worst films ever made.
You need to run your head into a brick wall a few times before you watch this and, if you like it, you need to return to the wall and hit it much harder.