Movie Review: The Change-Up

WARNING: Do not see The Change-Up if you are easily offended by anything. This is a R rated movie and they truly earned the rating based on the content of the film.


While there were three movie screenings in my area  on the same night, I choose to attend The Change-Up. When I first arrived at the screening of The Change-Up, I immediately knew that this movie was going to be offensive and vulgar. It was the first screening I attended where parents that insisted on bring children to the movie were required to sign a waiver.

The Change-Up is the new comedy starring Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds. In a Freaky Friday type situation, the two main characters switch bodies and lives after a drunken wish. Jason Bateman's character is a family man who hopes to become a partner in his law firm while Ryan Reynolds plays an unemployed actor with a different girl for each night. Best friends since childhood, they have stayed friends even though their lives went in different directions and that is part of what makes their switch interesting.

From the start, this had to be one of the most offensive movies I have seen in a long time. While I found myself laughing, I also found myself feeling slightly guilty for finding some things funny. There were a few nasty scenes that made the entire crowd give a collective sound of disgust with a few random laughs thrown in. I just hope that some of the stunts preformed by the infants were done with CGI because if they truly had babies licking electrical outlets then something is wrong.

While The Change-Up has many raunchy scenes, I did find the story itself to be interesting. Yes I know most people don’t expect much of an actual story in this type of movie, but there was still a moral. As expected from a body switching movie, the characters did learn and change through the movie. I’m not positive about the actual timeline of the movie, but I believe the events took place between a week and a month. They switched bodies long enough for it to impact both characters, but it didn’t seem like “a year in the life” so it couldn’t have been too long.

My personal opinion of this film is that it was funny and you will find yourself laughing even while extremely grossed out. There were a few parts where I covered my eyes out of disgust but I was still laughing. The Change-Up was written in the same style as The Hangover, so if you enjoy that type of comedy you will enjoy The Change-Up.

The Change-Up will be released nation wide on August 5, 2011. Yahoo! Movies is still running their free popcorn promotion on Facebook so make sure you grab a text before heading out.

Movie Rating for The Change-Up

The passes for this pre-screening were through Universal. Check out my information post for more information about free movie screenings.