Latest Red-band Trailer For THE CHANGE-UP!
All I see is two talented actors Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman very badly doing imitations of each other and both failing to capture anything of the others nuances.
Universal's body-switching comedy The Change-Up opens in the U.S. on Friday (not until September 16th in the U.K.) and the reviews coming in aren't entirely flattering and I can't say I'm too too surprised. What makes body-switching comedies work is a) the humour, which all of the trailers, including this latest extended red-band trailer desperately lacks and b) the inability of the actors to capture the essence of their counterparts. One of the best body switching movies I've ever seen is Face/Off as both Nicolas Cage and John Travolta were talented enough and had clearly studied and dedicated each other's craft to a level where they could convincingly play the other person. When I watch Face/Off, miraculously, I watch it in the way the screenwriter/director intended in that I see John Travolta's character through Nicolas Cages' performance and vice versa. Speaking of Vice Versa, there's another body-switching movie that works and it does so because the transformation of a man becoming a child and a child becoming a man brings with it a more interesting thematic dynamic. When I watch the trailer for The Change-Up, all I see is two talented actors very badly doing imitations of each other and they are both failing to capture anything of the others nuances. Add to that... both of their characters feel so boring that I lost interest and forget/don't particularly care that one is playing the other. Here's the latest red-band trailer; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3W7SIrMMaQ Leslie Mann, Alan Arkin and Olivia Wilde support from a script by Ghosts of Girlfriends Past writers Jon Lucas & Scott Moore (they also wrote an early draft of The Hangover that was changed substantially by Todd Phillips for screen). The Wedding Crashes helmer David Dobkin directs and looks to be on autopilot.