THE CHANGE-UP

THE CHANGE-UP (A solid R for everything exploited by all other so-called comedies):  We could go as far back as a 30s film based on a James Thurber comedy to find that body swaps make for good movie laughs, and if this film wasn't so downright nasty at times, and peppered with an unhealthy amount of profanity, it has the makings of another successful body swap comedy.

Mitch (Ryan Reynolds), a lounge lizard & relaxed slacker, has been friends with Dave (Jason Bateman), a driven lawyer with all the responsibilities of a family man, have a drunken night together and while they're relieving themselves in what proves to be a magic fountain, switch bodies just as they wished - each envying the other for the grass on the other side.  After112-minutes are almost used up in mean-spirited, gross-out jokes about swearing at children, objectifying women and - in one scene - permitting babies to play with knives & put their fingers in a blender, the laughs turns sour.  Then the moral about being content with one's own life & envying no otherŠby this time, an admirable conclusion but hard to swallow by this time.

Nor does the bathroom humor or bodily function jokes add to the humor.  There were few chuckles, not even among the teens, in my audience.  Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore, and directed by David Dobkin, the ugliness is mixed consistently with what the team supposed to be funny.  It wasn't.  (Grade:  D+)