Movie Review The Change Up

The Change Up (2011) 

Directed by David Dobkin 

Written by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

Starring Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Mann, Olivia Wilde

Release Date August 5th, 2011

Published August 5th, 2011 

Body switching comedies were all the rage in the 1980's. Back then George Burns became Charlie Schlatter, Judge Reinhold became Fred Savage and Dudley Moore became Kirk Cameron. Why anyone would think they could improve out on that genre gold is beyond me and yet, we have The Change Up in which Ryan Reynolds become Jason Bateman and vice versa.

Dave (Bateman) is a family man who's grown tired of his routine of diaper changes and no sex with his beautiful wife Jamie (Leslie Mann). Mitch (Reynolds) is an overgrown child who sleeps with any woman who looks at him and spends his days getting high when he isn't acting in softcore porn movies.

When the two life long friends get together for a beer and a game they end up confessing how they envy each other's lives. Unfortunately, they happen to be urinating in a magic fountain when they make their mutual confessions and the next morning they wake up with their bodies switched.

Now, Dave has to pray Mitch can go do his job at his law firm well enough to secure his promotion to partner while not neglecting his life at home with Jamie and their three kids including twin babies. Mitch, meanwhile, has nothing whatsoever at stake for Dave to screw up save for his regular Tuesday night sex-fest which Dave refuses to honor for reasons that you must experience for yourself.

The Change Up was directed by David Dobkin the director of The Wedding Crashers, a film that brought a little bit of heart to a very R-rated premise. Dobkin attempts to bring the same amount of heart and low brow humor to The Change Up but it simply doesn't work; Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds lack the magical chemistry of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.

The problem is the character of Mitch who is such an unredeemable dirtbag he makes it impossible to care about his story arc. We are invited to empathize with him but we are never given a good reason to actually offer that empathy. It's hard to feel sorry for a guy whose biggest problem is a bad relationship with his father; played by Alan Arkin, a bad relationship that is clearly his own fault.

The R-Rated gags of The Change Up are kind of funny here and there; especially funny is Reynolds who finds himself in the worst possible situations with women. After the body switch poor Dave has to avoid cheating on his wife with one of Mitch's women and has to fight off sex with Olivia Wilde, which is a Herculean task.

I'm not going to tell you that The Change Up isn't funny; there are a number of big laughs spread throughout the film. The problem is a story that requires you to sympathize with a character, Mitch, who is not sympathetic and who, when played by Bateman, is an idiot and a jerk without being a funny idiot jerk.

Movie Review: Fred Claus

Fred Claus (2007) 

Directed by David Dobkin

Written by Dan Fogelman

Starring Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Rachel Weisz, Miranda Richardson, Elizabeth Banks

Release Date November 9th, 2007 

Published November 9th, 2007

Holiday movies are low art to begin with. Hacky, cheap to produce garbage rendered as cash machines by hungry cable networks desperate for products to plaster on the screen throughout the month of December. The latest holiday film to chum the water is Fred Claus starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti. The story of Santa's bitter, misanthropic older brother, Fred Claus actually had some potential.

That potential was undone, as so often happens in Hollywood, by commercial concerns. A vain attempt to attract the family audience to what was an edgy Bad Santa-esque comedy, turned out a rather dull PG comedy that manages only minor laughs from its irrepressible star.

Sometime in the 1700's Fred Claus watched from the rafters as his little brother Nick was born. Though Fred vowed to be the best big brother ever things changed as they grew up. Nick's unending generosity and the constant adoration the little guy received turned Fred bitter and jealous. When Nick became the patron saint of gift giving, a divination that offered the whole family spouses included life without death, things became even more strained.

While Nick went off to the North Pole, Fred moved to Chicago. While Nick gave gifts, Fred became a repo-man and began taking things. Christmas became the happiest time of the year because of Nick, and Fred came to hate the season. Despite his overall bitterness, Fred still had a girlfriend (Rachel Weisz) and in order to keep her he needs to finally come through on a get rich quick scheme. Needing money, Fred calls Nick and a trip to the north pole is arranged.

If you guessed that all sorts of wackiness ensues when Fred arrives in Santa's village then congratulations you have basic cognitive abilities. If wackiness did not ensue that would be surprising. Fred hates being in the north pole, especially having to work for the money his brother is loaning him and that leads to Fred disrupting toy production, upsetting his visiting parents, and even drawing Saint Nick into a fight, an actual fight.

Is any of this all that funny? No, not really. The situations are rote and predictable. There are a few laughs in these scenes because Vince Vaughn is far too talented not to trip over a laugh here and there. Most of his humor however comes from rye observation and not from anything relating the undercooked plot of Fred Claus.

The major failing of Fred Claus is the many changes in tone that were necessary to make this a PG rated family flick. Raging beneath the family safe dialogue and slapstick is a story and a group of characters desperate to be the kind of adults that made Bad Santa such a gem. The moments wear Vince Vaughn looks to break out of the family flick constraints are edited painfully to avoid the fun we know he and the movie wants to have.

As a fan of Wedding Crashers and the work of director David Dobkin in that classic comedy, I know that what is on the screen in Fred Claus is not the movie he intended to make. I sense an honest attempt to make a different kind of holiday film, one that could straddle the line between families and older teens with smart, edgy humor.

Sadly, they came too close to the edge and when the studio saw that the film might not play it safe enough for the limp family audience, the clippers came out and much of the good stuff, the truth to these characters' stuff was lost. Maybe I'm giving David Dobkin to much credit, but watching the movie you really sense those missing scenes and the many unfinished ideas that seem like they must have existed in another edit of this movie.

I'm not saying that Fred Claus is some kind of holiday movie version of Blade Runner. Rather, I strongly feel that this talented group of performers had a different and far better film in mind when they started this. Maybe that is just my glass half full side.

Why do I feel that Vince Vaughn, David Dobkin and Paul Giamatti, amongst other talented performers and craftsmen in and around Fred Claus have more integrity than so many others who have used the holiday picture to line their pockets with residuals? Because, I saw the movie and I truly sensed a more interesting idea that was lingering somewhere in the editing.

I can't point specifically to one place in the film that proves my theory but I know it's there. Of course, that is reviewing the film that Fred Claus is not. The film that is actually on the screen is a trite, predictable little movie that will haunt these performers and creators for years to come thanks to the holiday setting.

Movie Review Shanghai Knights

Shanghai Knights (2003) 

Directed by David Dobkin 

Written by Alfred Gough, Miles Milar 

Starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Fann Wong, Donnie Yen, Aidan Gillen 

Release Date February 7th, 2003 

Published February 7th, 2003 

I was not a fan of Shanghai Noon, the first teaming of Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. That film was a dull amalgam of Western cliches and Chan's usual kung-fu histrionics leavened slightly by Wilson's surfer dude charm. So I must admit I wasn't looking forward to the sequel, Shanghai Knights, which transplants the Western duo from Nevada to Britain.

It's 1887 and Britain and China are attempting to avoid a war. The peace process is not helped however by the theft of China's Great Seal, which is the symbol of power in China. The man charged with the protection of the seal is killed and he happens to be the father of Chon Wang (Chan). The seal was stolen by a British aristocrat who was supposed to be heading the peace process. The bad guy is tracked to Britain by Lin Wang, Chon's sister (smokin hot Fan Wong).

After receiving word from his sister, Chon leaves his post as a Nevada Sheriff for New York City so that he can hook up with his old friend Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) to retrieve his portion of the treasure they collected in the first film. Not surprisingly, Roy has blown through the entire treasure printing a book about their first adventure that paints himself as the hero. With debtors and cops chasing him, Roy joins Chon on his trip to Britain.

Once in Britain our heroes join up with a Scotland Yard detective, whose full name is one of the film's many strained-in jokes, to find Chon's sister and track the man who stole the Great Seal. Standing in their way is not only the British villain Rathbone, but a Chinese villain Wu Yip, played by Donnie Yen. Another complication is Roy's attraction to Chon's sister, which Chon attempts to discourage but will no doubt be forced to accept.

The film of course features Chan's typical kung-fu stuff, but it seems fresher than usual here with a slightly more rehearsed feel that makes it more fluid and witty. There is a terrific sequence that takes place with Chan and some police officers in a revolving door that combines Keystone cops, Charlie Chaplin and Bruce Lee. Another sensational sequence honors silent screen superstar Harold Lloyd as Chan and Wilson hang precariously from a clock face.

Why does Shanghai Knights succeed where the first film failed? I'd say the change in location helped but also the chemistry between Wilson and Chan is the biggest improvement. In their first teaming, the two never seemed to be on the same page, with Wilson's laid back charm exposing Chan's weakness with the language. The stunts in Shanghai Knights seem fresher and better choreographed than most of Chan's recent work, especially in the dreadful Tuxedo.

Director David Dobkin infuses the film with a stronger wit and more consistent pace than the first film's helmer, who too often relied on Chan's fighting skills and forgot to make the film funny. Shanghai Knights has those typical buddy movie moments and can't help getting caught up in genre cliche but its wit and energy carries it over the rough spot and makes for an entertaining little fluff piece. A great popcorn film.