{The Change-Up opens Friday August 5th in Seattle area theaters}

How much will you like The Change-Up? Well…it's a safe bet that your level of enjoyment will be in direct correlation to how funny you find scatological and gross-out humor. With bonus points if you chuckle at the idea of babies pooping in people's mouths and people urinating on each other. And yes – there's a mandatory minimum on that calculation. 'Cause if you don't enjoy such shenanigans at least a little bit, all you'll be left with is a rather predictable story arc and a few clever lines. The latter, while occasionally enjoyable in the moment, don't really justify the cost of admission. Though I must say, on some level The Change-Up may have one of the more inspired final lines in comedy history (though running behind the ending of The FP). Or at least in the genre of body-switching films.
 
As it turns out, there are a lot of body switching films out there. Even if you leave television out of the mix.  Because obviously if you count every other episode of Stargate SG-1 that dealt with the topic the examples could number in the hundreds. So I'm assuming most readers know the Freaky Friday-type score. Two people think they want the other person's life. Then through some mix of mystical energy, alcohol, and occasionally alien technology, they wake up in each other's bodies. What transpires is a learning and growth experience for each, at which point after a few near misses they return to their original physical shell wiser and happier with their lot in life. None of that formula is broken here – with an extra boring gold star for movie truisms for pointing out that lots of casual sex is nothing to aspire to.
 
In this case the switchees in question are Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds. The former is a driven lawyer about to make partner but fed up dealing with his highly scheduled life of a father and husband. The latter is a stoner actor whose career stretches the limits of the term "barely getting by." Though somehow in between shooting soft core porn with unattractive women, he manages to have enough money for a fancy apartment and tons of weed. The pair are improbable best friends from grade school. I'd need to look this up but they just don't look the same age to me – which makes their back story a distraction. On a rare night out together they claim to want each other's lives while relieving themselves in a fountain. The next morning they wake up in each each other's beds and hilarity ensues.
 
Though just there when I wrote "hilarity" what I meant to say was EXACTLY WHAT YOU EXPECT TO HAPPEN ensues. I know you know what I'm talking about. If you don't – well let's just say they realize the grass is not always greener – and the women aren't always hotter on the other side of the fence. While the film gets itself an R rating for language, a significant amount of bodily excretions and nudity it pulls back on the pair ever doing something truly not safe. Ethically speaking. The closest they get is a two sentence philosophical inquiry as to who is masturbating whom when they're testing out a new body.
 
Ryan Reynolds is as usual fairly charming. Though he's hampered by alarmingly bad hair and a character largely written as a douchebag. Bateman and his onscreen wife Leslie Mann both do fine within the confines of of the script. But there's really nothing new here, and I never felt much empathy for the characters. With the exception of their daughter Kara who gets to introduce a ballet class bully to the fine art of judo after some questionable parenting advice. Oh, and there is a babies in peril with sharp objects nighttime feeding that evokes the best elements of the Be Careful With That …. trilogy of short films.
 
So it's definitely not all bad – and if you like gross out flicks more than I, this might be up your alley. For me it was moments of solid entertainment floating in a sea of bleh. On a more personal note, if anyone knows anyone in Hollywood, can you please ask them to stop with the pooping in someone's mouth jokes? I for one would be extremely grateful.