The premise of two people switching bodies and living someone else’s life has been done before. We have seen it numerous times so it’s nothing new. However, you get a completely different version of this story when you put the director of Wedding Crashers, the writers of The Hangover, Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, and a hard R rating together. The Change Up has been told before, but never in such a raunchy, profane, and filthy way, and you just can’t help but laugh.
Mitch (Reynolds) and Dave (Bateman) have grown up together and definitely have some stories to tell. But their lives took different paths and they drifted apart. Dave grew up and became a dedicated and overworked lawyer who doesn’t spend as much time with his wife (Leslie Mann) and three kids as he should. There seems to never be enough time in the day. On the other hand, Mitch has more than enough time. He has remained single and is practically unemployed for most of the year. He has refused to grow up.
But they envy each other’s lives. Mitch considers Dave a lucky man. He has a beautiful wife and kids who love him. He has a terrific paying job that has given him the luxury of having nice things and living in comfort. But Dave is jealous of Mitch’s stress-free life and the thought of sleeping in or having sex with a different woman every night seems so foreign to him. The fact Mitch has no responsibility whatsoever makes Dave regret the life he should actually appreciate. All it takes is for them to piss in a magical fountain to find out what it would be like to live each other’s lives and see just how “easy” they have it.
With a movie full of adult humor, The Change Up still comes out with the two main characters learning some life lessons. There is meaning that can be found for two guys who never saw what was right in front of them. They see what they should have been grateful for the entire time. It goes with that classic saying “you don’t know what you got until it’s gone.” Once they wake up in each other’s bodies and realize what both of them have to go through or put up with, they learn the truth about themselves, and how great their lives really are and the changes they need to make.
Bateman and Reynolds have great chemistry and seem like two guys everyone would want to be friends with. For most of the movie, Bateman gets to say whatever he wants and be as crude as possible. And Reynolds ends up being the one who censors himself and sets some limits. It is a sight to see and hear. They are each hilarious in their own way, and watching them get so out-of-hand is pure entertainment.
With movies like The Hangover Part II, Bad Teacher, and Horrible Bosses out this year, The Change-Up makes them all look clean and wholesome. This movie pushes the boundaries and no joke is off limits. There are several parts during which you either will or want to look away, but it’ll only be for a second because you will want to see whatever gross thing happens next. For some reason, you just can’t get enough.
Even though the movie is crazy and funny, all of it would be unnecessary if it didn’t have a message to go along with it. There are a few tender moments that make you put up with all of the chaos that surrounds them. But make no mistake, The Change Up undeniably earns its R-rating. There are times when we hope the previews didn’t show all of the best parts, and you don’t have to worry about that with this one. If you just go by the previews, you haven’t seen anything yet. So be prepared.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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