The Change-Up [MA]

Growing up, Mitch and Dave were inseparable best friends. But as the years have passed, they have slowly drifted apart. That is until one fateful night when the two catch up for a few drinks. To Dave, Mitch’s life of being semi-employed, attractive, and single is a dream come true. To Mitch, Dave has it all: a beautiful wife, a fantastic house, and loads of money that comes from his high-paying job of being a lawyer. Whilst drunk and taking a piss in a fountain, the two simultaneously wish for each other’s life and then wake up to discover that their wish has come true. 

There are times when the changing-bodies trick works and then there are times when it doesn’t. For The Change-Up the body-changing thing not only didn’t work, it completely malfunctioned. At the end of an hour and a half, the film only slightly redeemed itself with the warm speech by Mitch in the last two seconds. And that was the only highlight of the film. 

Growing up, Mitch and Dave were inseparable best friends. But as the years have passed, they have slowly drifted apart. That is until one fateful night when the two catch up for a few drinks. To Dave, Mitch’s life of being semi-employed, single, and attractive is a dream come true. To Mitch, Dave has it all: a gorgeous wife, a fantastic house, and loads of money that comes from his high-paying job of being a lawyer. Whilst drunk and taking a piss in a fountain, the two simultaneously wish that they had each other’s life and then they wake up the following morning to discover that their wish has come true. 

For me, all this film was was really gross and crude sexual humour blended with physical gross-out sequences, most of which involved projectile excrement. The story has legs, and the few moments of heartfelt self-discovery that managed to crawl forth from the cesspool of crude humour did provide the audience with a quick breath of fresher air, but ultimately I found that this film just did not work… at all. 

The humour of a body-change story has really only worked when it’s between an adult and a teen, or a girl and a boy. In order for the humour of the body-change story to really work in this film, there would have needed to have been a lot more time establishing the characters of Dave and Mitch. We were only briefly introduced to them and so when Jason and Ryan are pretending to be one another, it really can’t be believed. 

Starring Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Mann, Mircea Monroe, and Alan Arkin, The Change-Up was a gross, crude, and stupid movie that I have no desires to watch again any time soon. Filled with crying, babies, screaming, sex, crude humour, and one or two heart-warming bits, you could really spend the time doing something more productive.