Movie Review: The Change-Up

Sep 28 2011 by Ian Bunting, Airdrie & Coatbridge

THE Change-Up is a comedy starring Jason Bateman as married father Dave and Ryan Reynolds as the single, responsibility-free Mitch.

After a drunken night out together, the pair wake up in each others bodies which leads to a series of wild complications.

Ah, the body-switch comedy. From the good (Big, 13 Going on 30) and the bad (The Hot Chick) through It’s a Boy Girl Thing (bizarre!), the genre has lived a varied and often-repeated life.

The Change-Up plays like the sexed-up, non-PC ‘Big’ brother of previous efforts and focuses more on offending as many demographics as possible than offering up a heavy dose of laughs.

David Dobkin directed one of my favourite comedies ever, Wedding Crashers, but he’s on more juvenile, charm-free territory here.

The film starts with the most gross piece of toilet humour I’ve ever seen, which sets the tone for everything else.

The Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore are on the script so the comedy pedigree behind the production makes The Change-Up even more of a disappointment.

The latest craze in many modern comedies is the potty-mouthed dialogue which, in itself, isn’t a problem (well, for those with non-sensitive ears).

But Lucas and Moore cut things very close to the bone during several cutting lines of script.

There’s pot-shots at Jews, Africa and ill-health (the ‘cancer list’) but all of those pale in comparison to the film’s treatment of children.

Let’s just say you wouldn’t let Lucas and Moore babysit your wee ones.

Mitch as Dave tells the latter’s daughter “always solve your problems with violence” and there’s an unbelievable kitchen scene involving cleaver-throwing toddlers that ranks among the dumbest I’ve ever seen.

However, it would be churlish to say The Change-Up is never funny.

Reynolds and Bateman are fine in the lead roles, especially after they switch bodies, with the latter playing against type as an anything-goes, foul-mouthed man-child.

There’s a very amusing merger meeting scene just after Mitch has occupied Dave’s body and a fun date between Dave (as Mitch) and Sabrina (Olivia Wilde) is the closest the movie gets to charming.

It’s definitely one for the lads, though. The film’s view of women won’t go down too well with many and the normally hilarious Leslie Mann (Dave’s wife Jamie) is wasted in a weepy role.

The last 20 minutes venture into sappy territory that feels more like a live-action Disney movie (with added cursing and urinating).

Tonally, it doesn’t fit with the rest of the film but makes for a much more comfortable watch.

The Change-Up is too nasty for its own good and the titbits of quality aren’t enough to pull it into the company of classic body-swap comedies of the past.

Rating - 5 out of 10.