Dave (Bateman) and Mitch (Reynolds) envy each other's lives. To Mitch, Dave leads a successful and contented life, working at a prestigious law firm and surrounded by a loving family. To Dave, Mitch is living the dream: a stress and commitment-free joyride full of drugs, booze, and strange new women. After the childhood friends reunite at a bar, they decide to pee into a fountain while simultaneously wishing for the other's life. Naturally, the act causes them to magically switch bodies the next morning. It then becomes a race against time to find the same fountain and reverse the effects before their respective lives are ruined for good. However, as the hunt continues, Dave and Mitch discover that even though the other's life is not as dreamy as they had initially imagined, seeing things from a new perspective reveals what they had overlooked in their own.
So after a drunken night, a couple of men wake up to a disaster and "proceed to freak the ---- out". Sound familiar? Yes, The Change-up features the same writers as from The Hangover, and like its spiritual predecessor, gleefully abuses its right to a hard R-rating. The movie jumps at every chance to spew out foul language and full frontal nudity. But around every corner comes the awful toilet humor. (Literally.) Without fail each joke is followed up by a string of curse words or disgusting crude humor. Clearly, The Change-Up relies heavily on shock value to produce some cheap laughs, but this is to be expected of The Hangover's creative minds. Unfortunately, what worked for The Hangover does not always work here. This kind of humor fit The Hangover perfectly simply because the movie had a persisting theme of ridiculousness and never took itself too seriously. On the other hand, in its latter half The Change-Up tends to lean toward its dramatic side and realizes too late that crude jokes have begun to feel out of place.
Even so, none of the comedic parts of this film would fly without the talent of its lead actors. The weight of the movie relies on Reynolds and Bateman's ability to portray "each other", and without drawing attention to the fact; they deliver quite nicely. The personality swap between professional lawyer and immature jock is seamless and remains successfully low-key for the duration of the film. Since the switched personalities represent the most interesting parts, though, the movie lags immensely in the beginning and end. Olivia Wilde and Leslie Mann are fine playing the tempting secretary/wife, but regrettably do not serve much more of a purpose in the movie after their clothes come off.
The Change-Up is a raunchy comedy that follows in the footsteps of the more worthy 'The Hangover'. Complete with wildly annoying infants, incidents involving diarrhea, and adventures in the 'lorn' industry, it is a shock-and-show roller-coaster. Entertaining, perhaps but just be aware of what you're walking in to. 6/10
So after a drunken night, a couple of men wake up to a disaster and "proceed to freak the ---- out". Sound familiar? Yes, The Change-up features the same writers as from The Hangover, and like its spiritual predecessor, gleefully abuses its right to a hard R-rating. The movie jumps at every chance to spew out foul language and full frontal nudity. But around every corner comes the awful toilet humor. (Literally.) Without fail each joke is followed up by a string of curse words or disgusting crude humor. Clearly, The Change-Up relies heavily on shock value to produce some cheap laughs, but this is to be expected of The Hangover's creative minds. Unfortunately, what worked for The Hangover does not always work here. This kind of humor fit The Hangover perfectly simply because the movie had a persisting theme of ridiculousness and never took itself too seriously. On the other hand, in its latter half The Change-Up tends to lean toward its dramatic side and realizes too late that crude jokes have begun to feel out of place.
Even so, none of the comedic parts of this film would fly without the talent of its lead actors. The weight of the movie relies on Reynolds and Bateman's ability to portray "each other", and without drawing attention to the fact; they deliver quite nicely. The personality swap between professional lawyer and immature jock is seamless and remains successfully low-key for the duration of the film. Since the switched personalities represent the most interesting parts, though, the movie lags immensely in the beginning and end. Olivia Wilde and Leslie Mann are fine playing the tempting secretary/wife, but regrettably do not serve much more of a purpose in the movie after their clothes come off.
The Change-Up is a raunchy comedy that follows in the footsteps of the more worthy 'The Hangover'. Complete with wildly annoying infants, incidents involving diarrhea, and adventures in the 'lorn' industry, it is a shock-and-show roller-coaster. Entertaining, perhaps but just be aware of what you're walking in to. 6/10