Movie Review: The Change-Up

It’s been a pretty decent year for Jason Bateman. A very good year, considering the man has been continually in the acting game since 1981 for crying out loud. After having finally found success with the cancelled but brilliant Arrested Development, he’s essentially steered clear of TV. And after having not being in any films since 2009, it’s evident now that the man has stayed busy. This weekend now sees the release of his fourth film this year, The Change-Up, after having also headlined or was featured in Paul, Horrible Bosses, and The Switch.

Since the release of director David Dobkin’s first film (Clay Pigeons) his resume has been far more hit than miss. While he may have last issued us the atrocious Fred Claus, he also managed to squeeze in two very successful Hollywood films you may have heard of, Shanghai Knights and a little something called Wedding Crashers. Knights was a great sequel and one of Jackie Chan’s last fun American productions and we all know that Crashers is one of the biggest R-rated comedies of all time. Lightning could strike twice here for more than just Dobkin as The Change-Up happens to come from the sick and twisted minds of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the duo behind the first Hangover.

In The Change-Up we meet best friends Mitch Planko (Ryan Reynolds) and Dave Lockwood (Bateman). They’ve been friends since they were 3-years-old(?). Dave has worked his ass off to get through college, marry the love of his life Jamie (Leslie Mann), and has a big house full of kids including a new set of fraternal twins and Cara (Sydney Rouviere). Meanwhile, Mitch flunked out of college to pursue an acting career which means he just wants to work one week a year spending the rest of his time getting high and scoring lots of women.

Dave’s life is of course very busy between work and home but manages to squeeze in one night to hit the bar with Mitch to watch a Marlins/Braves game. After Mitch drunkenly brags about all of his one night stands and various flings, Dave admits to how jealous he is and wishes he could so much as take a peaceful dump or simply learn how to rollerblade. After taking a piss in a fountain and simultaneously wishing for each others lives, a rolling black out occurs and the next morning they wake to find each other having swapped bodies. Wackiness ensues featuring all the requisite misadventures even if they try to explain the situation to Jamie who thinks the two are just up to a new level of dork-shenanigans.

Article Author: Cinenerd

A Utah based writer, born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT for better and worse. Cinenerd has had an obsession with film his entire life, finally able to write about them since 2009, and the only thing he loves more are his wife and their two wiener dogs (Beatrix Kiddo and Pixar Animation). …

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