The Film
The body-switching genre is certainly nothing new. In fact, there have been so many of these "I wish I had your life" movies, that yes, it's actually a genre. There are some good ones (Freaky Friday) and some bad (Like Father, Like Son). Rob Schneider is no longer placed on a pedestal for one of the worst (The Hot Chick). Instead, he's thanking his lucky stars for The Change-Up.
Holy crap -- with an emphasis on crap. Someone must have backed up the Brinks truck to get stars like Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman, Leslie Mann and Alan Arkin to appear in this one. Within the first 10 minutes, Bateman gets projectile baby poop right in the mouth. That's probably the best thing that happens to him in the entire movie.
He plays is a tight-ass lawyer, with a loving wife (Mann) and three adorable kids. Reynolds is Van Wilder: The Later Years, whose main responsibility seems to be remembering to occasionally change his bong water. The two envy each other's lives, piss in a magical fountain (without crossing streams), and voila. Yeah, it's not exactly Big, is it?
Well, it's not supposed to be. Instead, it's crude, rude, and not really all that funny. Apparently, sell lines like "from the director of Wedding Crashers" and "the writers of The Hangover" don't carry the clout they once did. That said, if you're looking for a lot of pointless nudity and constant F-bombs, consider The Change-Up to be a roaring success.
Want to see another opinion of this movie? Change things up by reading Karen Dahlstrom's theatrical review of The Change-Up.
The Picture
The Change-Up may not be much to look at content-wise, but it offers a smorgasbord in the image department. Yes, it opens with a shot of baby poop in the mouth, and that looks painfully realistic in this 2.40:1 transfer. Some of the other "special" effects (sorry to disappoint, but the knife-wielding baby was not real) don't look as lifelike, but at least they are clear with a good color palette. As with a lot of new titles, this one is pretty stellar, from a video standpoint. It's clean and offers up excellent black levels and detail. Bateman's freckles, the baby powder, and Reynolds' finely coifed hairdo in the porn scene; it all looks great here.
The Sound
The Change-Up is (supposed to be) a comedy, so the film is more about what's being said than anything else. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track certainly does it justice, with crystal-clear dialogue and a nice display of inflection on the various voices. However, the film manages to elevate its audio from the typical comedy. The actual "changing" incidents offer up a nice punch, there are plenty atmospheric noises during indoor and outdoor scenes, and the film's various wacky moments provide nice directional movement across the soundfield.
The Extras
As much as we want to know why director David Dobkin felt the need to subject audiences to this film, we did not subject ourselves to his feature commentary. It's there, if you want to have at it. Other than that, there's an extra scene, a gag reel, and a short about the babies in the movie. There's also a promotional short where multiple actors claim The Change-Up script to be the funniest they'd ever read , with Ryan Reynolds saying he "cried from laughing." He should be crying that he was in this movie.
Final Thoughts
A much better tagline for The Change-Up would have been "when good actors have bad agents." Leads like Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman and Leslie Mann are the only thing that make this film worth watching -- if you enjoy watching people's careers crumble right before your eyes. The Change-Up is too unoriginal, too long, and too crass. All of that would be fine, too, if it were funny. Nope. Sorry. If you're going to bother, know that at least this is one pleasant AV experience.
Product Details
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