The Change-Up
User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 93 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 57 out of 93
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 93
  3. Negative: 18 out of 93

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  1. Shiira
    Sep 7, 2011
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. "The Change-Up", more so than prior body-swapping movies(three of them in 1987 alone), makes it perfectly clear that this comedy subgenre overlaps into horror territory, an encompassing that works as a reimagining of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", but played for laughs. While alien dopplegangers exhibit the same contrastive behavior as people caught in the throes of demonic possession, the latter malady discomfits the notion of genre fluidity, because the tell-tale signs of somebody afflicted by the devil would be overtly self-evident(running the gamut from an altered voice to vomiting), thereby making easy ingratiation within the subtext too difficult. On the other hand, if the person is being replaced by a pod replicant, it normally takes the skeptic a longer time to accept this absence of the self, as reported by loved ones who know that their mother, uncle, and love interest(from the 1956 original) are impostors. In 1978, Phillip Kaufman remade the sci-fi classic, and picked up where Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter left off(in that cave of Dr. Bennett's discontent), by focusing, again, on a man and woman, but this time remaking the couple as husband and wife, because who better than a spouse to recognize the perceptible change in what has now become a quasi-sentinent being. Soon after Elizabeth shares with Geoffrey her news about the strange plant she discovered in the Bay Area terra firma, the husband stops acting like his usual self. Now he's cold and secretive, Elizabeth confides to her friend Matthew, and most startling of all, Geoffrey, a basketball fan, had given away their tickets to a Warriors game. That's definitely not her husband. She feels it in her bones. Although "The Body Snatcher" movies have a secure place in two film canons, perhaps sci-fi is the movie series' alpha genre, since in horror flicks, the characters, especially the female ones, are monumentally stupid. Elizabeth is smart. She knows right away that "Geoffrey isn't Geoffrey anymore," whereas Jamie takes forever to detect the "po[t] person" inhabiting her typically dependable husband. The mediated content belonging to horror and sci-fi productions are often amalgamable because within the diegesis of both simulacra worlds, the physical laws which govern their corporeal duplicate are broken in the same fantastical manner. Whereas Elizabeth diagnoses the change in Geoffrey after a single post-transformation encounter, Jamie, even after being told about the "change-up", and having witnessed Dave's brusque way with Cara over dinner, Mann plays a variation of the dumb blond by not catching on to the switch. Her surprising nudity, albeit common to the modern sex comedy, also has a longstanding alliance with the slasher flick . Despite being sexually active, Jamie survives, undermining a time-honored trope that only virgins are spared the wrath of patriarchy, but perhaps connubial sex is allowed to go unpunished. While it's a fallacy to purport that Jaime could die in a comedy as broad as "The Change-Up", theoretically, her amulet(a wedding band), which makes sexual intercourse filmically permissible without any violent repercussions, could have potentially lost its special powers, if not for her exotic gastronomic predilections, which as luck would have it, works as a preventive measure against sex with Mitch, therefore averting the retributional hazards that comes with the territory of being "the bad girl", or in this case, the adulterer. To the lothario, Jamie's loose bowel movements signifies the devil's work, since the film itself establishes fecal matter as owning a connotative value, when during a diaper change, Dave is on the receiving end of some projectile defecating, which recalls the green bile that ends up on the young priest's face in "The Exorcist". The filmmaker thinks like Mitch: women and babies are devils. The anomalous conduct of the baby, albeit mounted as slapstick comedy, nevertheless encompasses a comportment that hews close to horror, especially in a later scene, where another baby throws a cleaver in Mitch's direction, as if with the intent to kill like one of those mutant infants in "It's Alive". This womanizer is worse than Alfie, the mod playboy of swinging London in the 1966 film starring Michael Caine. He's like the dog-man(a human head affixed to a boxer's body) who makes Elizabeth scream in the Kaufman film. Unlike Alfie, who eventually befriends the dog that brackets the movie(therefore separating himself from the canine metaphor of his dastardly way with women), Mitch appears to be the end-result of a merger between man and animal. The paternal agony, upon seeing his son with another father redeems Alfie, who breaks the fourth wall with silence instead of his usual glib remarks. Mitch, on the other hand, doesn't respect Dave's family or job, and has no such redeemable moment. His horror is a human one; he loves nobody, not even himself.… Expand
  2. Akkhar
    Nov 24, 2011
    4
    Good actors , good acting worst script , unfunny story makes The Changed Up kinda boring . Many film uses this kind of plot and this is clearly the worst .When In Rome (2010 film with kinda same plot) was far more good and funny then this one . The only thing enjoy in this film is Olivia's smile and cute face .They could make it a simple funny movie without Those language and Fake Scenes .
  3. Kadeemluvmusic
    Aug 13, 2011
    2
    Not a good year for Ryan Reynolds and that's why "The Change-Up" was a big flop. I think this is one of the worst raunchy R-rated comedy of 2011. Sorry Ryan, if you want to make a mere good ol' comedy, try hooking up with Sandra Bullock or Milla Kunis.
  4. filmtrashreview
    Aug 18, 2011
    4
    Let me make this as clear as possible, this movie was about as good as...it wasn't I can't even say it was good. It was horrible and on my list this is the worst comedy I have seen this year. Still I will give it four points because we do get to see Leslie Mann's **** Seriously even if I was a women this would be the best part of the film. It was that bad. Why? Lets just say the actors forgot that they were suppose to switch bodies. Oops!!!… Expand
  5. DarkCritic
    Aug 19, 2011
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie was so nasty that it didn't bring to my intention to laugh. Let me explain for what this movie is trying to put some bad parts that the R-Rated got failed. I know that I love R-Rated comedies that work to be entertaining of funny people and some wild stuff that every movies done, but it has to be a reason for it. Here's my problem for this mean spirited movie: 1. Why this guy is so idiot that he's acts like a fool to his best friend and the entire family? 2. Why there's CGI baby hitting his head too many times and the baby pumps out in his butt? I'm liking, what??? 3. There's a porn scene where this guy is doing a nasty stuff for letting this woman to suck inside her butt? WHY??? That's not FUNNY!!! 4. Why this guy is calling his switcha best friend to help him to fix those two babies, while one of those babies are making hazard things into a threat dangerous stuff? If you're doing to make babies to come themselves, and why were you doing talking on the phone while those babies make them dangerous stuff! I mean WHAT IS THIS??? I have no idea what this movie is trying to be funny or not. For me, I don't think this movie will bring more intentions to be nasty and too much stupidity of every two best friends are the worst written guys ever! I really hate this movie to be so raunchy, too wild, and too idiot at the same time, and it fails that I would rather smack my head that drops down on my giggling sense. So I written down on my spoiler, so you know what I just told on my review. Bottom line, The Chane-Up is stupid and more STUPID!!!… Expand
  6. CincinnatiDave
    Sep 21, 2011
    3
    Boobs and bathroom humor occupy most of the so called "plot" in this bomb. I would have given it a zero, or a one, except for a few VERY funny gags that my inner pubescent side couldn't resist. Bateman had a decent year in 2011, but The Change-up knocked him down a few pegs. This film suffered from the same syndrome that Bridesmaids did, with writers and directors trying to FORCE something to be funny by being as raunchy, gross, and disgusting as possible.… Expand
  7. Melcher
    Sep 24, 2011
    3
    Sub par. The movie has some funny moments, and although Bateman is as type-cast as ever, he does get a chance to play the non-straight guy after the 'change-up'. That said, this movie is formulaic and derivative. The first half sees the comedy and gags aimed at those around the 12-15 year old age category, pandering to the teenage humor of feces and breasts. Don't get me wrong, I love a good cack joke as much as the next guy, and this isn't too low brow for me, it's just that it feels forced. Oddly the second half of the movie tries to get a little deeper after the story reaches its arc.

    All in all there are a few laughs here, but probably not worth the price of admission, and ultimately a big let down.    … Expand
  8. RowenaB
    Aug 12, 2011
    0
    I was looking forward to seeing The Change Up. I am now boycotting it because of the use of the words Retarded and Downsy to refer to the twin boys in it.. A great comedy does not have to rely on hurtful and degrading comments about personâs with Intellectual DIsabilities to be funny.
  9. bjean
    Nov 13, 2011
    0
    Terrible movie.....I watched about 5 minutes of it and found it so disgusting......so surprised that such good actors would chose such a movie to appear in!
  10. jannypanny
    Dec 27, 2011
    0
    This poor taste movie deserves BELOW a 0 but there isn't one. Awful movie, poor taste and actors should have never done this down-right horrible and filthy movie. We rented for a dollar and we want our dollar back! Couldn't even finish the horrible thing! If this is want Hollywood thinks about society, then we are in real trouble! This movie IS a porno and should have been rates as such!

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
39 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 35 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 35
  3. Negative: 9 out of 35
  1. Empire
    Reviewed by: Nick de Semlyen
    Sep 12, 2011
    40
    Despite the promise of the title, this a fairly stale offering, plodding through the beats of a well-worn subgenre but failing to add much more than a foul mouth.
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  2. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    Aug 6, 2011
    20
    To call The Change-Up misogynistic would be to shortchange the equal-opportunity disgust this anal-regressive film demonstrates toward men, babies, old people, and corporeal existence in general.
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  3. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    Aug 6, 2011
    40
    It's occasionally funny and a lot painful.
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