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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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The Change Up (Film)

by Joshua Blackman | September 06, 2011 10:16 | Edited September 08, 2011 12:15

Rehashing old jokes and plotlines, this doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but the cast are in top form and there’s a surprising earnestness to the story.

Doing nothing that we haven't seen before in a thousand other gross-out comedies, The Change-Up redeems itself from a miserable first half - filled with poop jokes and crass humour - with a sentimental last act that effectively ties together the outstanding plot threads. As John Debney's luscious music swells, it's easy to be sucked in to the tempestuous bromance between Ryan Reynolds' Mitch Planko and Jason Bateman's Dave Lockwood, even though the story follows the rom-com formula to a tee. The cynic might wonder whether the film was conceived after a late night brainstorming session mining high-concept ideas buried not-so-deep in the Hollywood vault.

 

The Change-Up is a body-swap comedy in the mould of Freaky Friday, except that it's best buds Dave, a lawyer, and Mitch, a pot-smoking slacker, who do the switch. Dave is married to the beautiful Jamie (Leslie Mann), and has three young children, but feels that he's missed out on the adventure and experimentation that he was supposed to have in his twenties. Reynolds' - who sweats charisma from his pores - has the most fun as the foul-mouthed underachiever, and later finds himself struggling - in Dave's body - with things like work, responsibility, and general hygiene. Dave, meanwhile, takes the opportunity to indulge his long standing crush with a too-good-to-be-true colleague played by Olivia Wilde (House).  

 

The arc of the story should be groan worthy, but there's an admirable earnestness on screen, and the actors sell it, especially when Mann finds herself agonising over the state of her marriage. The humour is hit and miss - outside of a few verbal zingers, the gross jokes are simply that - gross. Despite the best efforts of its over-talented cast (including Alan Arkin in a nothing cameo as Mitch's estranged, womanising father), the film is still a Judd Apatow-clone, without any of the same touch or authenticity.