Review: 'The Change-Up' Misses Its Target

Last weekend, your choices of new movies at the box office came down to watching apes try to act human in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” and watching grown human men try to act like apes in “The Change-Up.” Actually, some of the behavior these guys wallow in would be an insult to apes, as “The Change-Up” traffics in some of the grossest, laziest, most self-indulgent bad behavior and horrid tastelessness of just about any mainstream film I’ve ever seen – and I’m no prude: “There’s Something About Mary” and “Animal House” are among my top five favorite movies.

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The premise of “The Change-Up” alone seems like a copycat of the slew of body-switching comedies that flooded theaters in the late 1980s (“Big,” “Like Father Like Son,” “18 Again,” “Dream a Little Dream,” and “Vice Versa,” to name a few). And to add to the sense of laziness, it stars Jason Bateman in what’s starting to appear to be his Movie of the Month Club, playing an uptight corporate lawyer who can’t seem to get a promotion — virtually the same character he played just a month ago in “Horrible Bosses.”

Meanwhile, Ryan Reynolds reverts to the crude shenanigans of his breakthrough film “Van Wilder” in playing a constantly stoned slacker whose idea of a big break is landing a role in a soft-core porn flick. One wishes immediately that both they and the filmmakers – who are talented in the R-rated comedy genre, as Jon Lucas and Scott Moore created the first “Hangover” and David Dobkin directed “Wedding Crashers” – had followed their own title and attempted to create a film that relied more on clever writing and reinventing the body-switching subgenre than just attempting to push the envelope until it’s torn wide open and shredded to pieces.

In the flick, Bateman plays Dave, an uptight and married corporate lawyer whose promotion to firm partner rests on his mastering a huge merger. Reynolds, meanwhile, is Mitch, who’s been his best friend since third grade even though his character would be more likely to flush Bateman’s head down a toilet than hang out with him in real life.

Both men, of course, wish that they had the life of the other. Then one night, while simultaneously urinating in a public fountain, they both say “I wish I had your life!” at the same time, and the body-switch is made. The results are disastrous for both characters, and they realize the only way they can change back is by urinating again in the same magic fountain, which has been suddenly uprooted by the city of Atlanta and lost in the shuffle of bureaucratic paperwork.

The guys have to wait a week before finding the statue, meaning Reynolds now has to inhabit Bateman’s body and experience married life, fatherhood, and responsibility. That also means Bateman’s character can finally live out his wildest fantasies while using Reynolds’ body.

For the first half of the film, this scenario results in a tedious series of events and a slew of profanities that push the limits of bad taste. Fortunately, writers Moore and Lucas and director Dobkin pull off a welcome surprise in the film’s second half, during which time the two friends have to learn from their situations and become better men. This is done with much better writing, much less vulgarity, a welcome minimum of sap, and a heightened commitment to the roles played by the leads.

It also helps that in the second half, the main women in their lives (Leslie Mann and Olivia Wilde) are revealed as funny and multidimensional people, not mere shrews or sex objects. Which makes me wonder: if the writers are capable of writing fairly tasteful yet still very funny material in the second half, why not do it all the way through? You offend less people and entertain more, leading to more people showing up in the theater.

This leaves moviegoers who like R-rated comedies with a decision that may have to be decided by a coin flip rather than a change-up. If you are at all easily offended, this movie is not for you. But if you can handle all the raunchy language and behavior leading to the film’s otherwise well-done, witty, and meaningful second half, then perhaps take a swing at “The Change-Up.”