The Change-Up

Oh Dave and Mitch. To say this story isn't cliche would be a bold face lie. It's been done a dozen times and none better than the original Freaky Friday with a young Jodie Foster. The closest other one would have to be the Judge/Savage vehicle Vice Versa. What has not been done to date in the body switching genre is a graphic hard R rated version featuring two grown ass men. These two men, Dave (Bateman) and Mitch (Reynolds) could not be more different, which is why the switching works for this particular film. If each of these guys were married and both of them had kids, then the switch would basically amount to your everyday wife swap for a few days. However with these two, that couldn't be further from the scenario we are blessed with. Mitch, or Uncle Mitch to Dave's kids is a single, unemployed actor who lives in Atlanta. An actor in Atlanta? Ya, that will get you work. Dave is a work-a-holic attorney trying to make partner at his firm after putting in 18 months on a merger proposal for his company. The switch could not happen at a worst time for either of these guys. What do we really expect from this type of vulgar movie? Apparently critics were let down. Were they really expecting an Oscar worthy film filled with dick jokes? I got exactly what I expected. The only thing that was a little off for me was the nudity, or lack there of. Nudity was present, it just was not the type of nudity we would expect from a guy like Mitch. When they switch, they have to be each other in every aspect of life, so the world does not implode. This means Mitch may have to sleep with Dave's wife, and Dave may have to cheat on his wife, though it's not even his body, he still feels it to be wrong. Dave really has the most to lose. His loser best friend now must understand law and marriage and raising kids...all of which he has never even considered to think about. The attitude changes of these two guys is really what sold it to me. To watch Dave go from over worker and sweet to a total D-Bag is great and of course Mitch goes the opposite. The jokes are good, sometimes great and I have never laughed so hard at babies being computer altered to do funny stuff. It is totally unrealistic and that is what we hoped for. It really shows what beneath the surface of both men in another cliche way, but there is nothing wrong with that. Cliche  can be good and The Change-Up offers up a new way to deliver an old story...with raunch, nudity, diarrhea, an abundance of F-Bombs, and Samurai swords. If you want to watch a comedy with very little thought, you will enjoy it. If you have kids, you will really enjoy it, and if you like Bateman and Reynolds, you can't lose. Rotten Tomatoes dogged it with a 24%. I think it should have at least been double that hitting 50% which is where I rate it. Right in the middle.

NBM rates The Change-Up - Awesome