Having only seen one trailer before I got to the theater, I can’t say I was looking forward to seeing The Change-Up but, as the credits started rolling, I was so damn happy I decided to go. This Jason Bateman/Ryan Reynolds vehicle easily makes up for the mess that was The Hangover Part II, and delivers the hysterical, raunchy goods with a bit of heart thrown into the mix.
The Change-Up is essentially the raunchy R-rated version of Freaky Friday that seems like it was made for men, which is why it starred men. In the movie, Dave Lockwood (Jason Bateman) is a successful workaholic lawyer who is about to make partner at his firm. He is married to Jamie (Leslie Mann) and together they have three children, two of which are crazy babies. Suffice to say the guy has no free time. Mitch Planko (Ryan Reynolds), his best friend, is the exact opposite. He’s a free spirited, pot smoking ‘ladies man’ and wannabe actor. He tends to embarrass Dave quite often and is known for being somewhat of a quitter/d-bag. One night the two best friends go out, end up taking a drunken piss in a water fountain and wish for each other’s lives since one wants freedom and one wants stability. When the next morning rolls around they’ve switched bodies and hilarity continues to ensue.
The film is directed by David Dobkin, who helmed Wedding Crashers, and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the duo behind the original Hangover, and together they created a very weird yet fun trading places film. At times it seemed like they were trying to outdo everything they had done in the past in order to garner shock laughs from the audience. It worked for about half of us in the theater, I included form ost of the time, and for the kind of stuff people found weird, like a baby smashing his head against his crib, I found to be hilarious.
There are so many shocking and ridiculous scenes throughout the film that even during the heartfelt dramatic scenes, Bateman and Reynolds still managed to squeeze a joke in to break up the cliché tension. It was something that I continuously welcomed. A few examples of some socking moments include one of the most disgusting openings I’ve ever seen in a movie. It is poop related so I don’t think I need to say more. Additionally, Leslie Mann is nude in the film but, after talking with some peers, it appears her naked body had been 
digitally replaced by another woman’s, which is a shame because I was going to say well done to both her and Mr. Apatow. You also get to see a side of the very attractive Olivia Wilde that you rarely get to see in her films. I enjoyed her comedic and sexual deviant perfromance with open arms and thought she did a great job transitioning from Cowboys & Aliens to this. Lastly, there are some very funny and wrong quotes in this film. One of the d-bag things that Mitch says is “I’d strap you to my face and say the alphabet” which I thought was a very classy line for any gentleman to say.
The performances by the leads were very entertaining. I feel like the last time I saw Ryan Reynolds act this raw and deliver very funny lines was back in 2002’s Van Wilder, the film which launched him to stardom. Jason Bateman was also rather entertaining and I thought his performance in this film was much better than it was in Horrible Bosses mostly because half the time in this film he had to play a complete asshole which we normally don’t see him portray. While many of the supporting performances were basically one dimensional, they still provided enough comic relief that it didn’t really matter to me.
Even though the concept isn’t original, I still really enjoyed the R rated change of pace to this Freaky Friday storyline. It’s safe to say that this is the second raunchiest comedy of the year, so if raunchy isn’t your thing, you should probably skip The Change-Up. It’s a consistently funny film that is made even better by the solid comedic performances by the leads. If I took this film seriously, I would say this movie was made for horny teenagers who could care less what goes on in the movie as long as it makes them laugh (boobs couldn’t hurt either). With that being said, I think if everyone lets their immature side takeover then you can get over the stupidity of the film and just have a good time, I know I did.
Rating: A Raunchy, rambunctious, and immature film that’s chock full of laughs (6.3/10)
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