Monday, August 8, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 'The Change-Up' can't vary stale jokes. By PHILIP CONKLIN Daily Arts Writer The first scene of "The Change- Up" is a good indication of the tenor of the movie. Dave, played by Jason Bateman ("The Switch"), wakes to the sound of his crying twin The Change- babies. While Dave changes Up their diapers, At Quality16 these babiesa wreak havoc and Rave on their bed- Universal room, spraying baby powder on Dave's face and knocking over diaper boxes. Then, in the midst of changing the second twin, Dave leans over to pick up a diaper and his baby projectile-poops into his open mouth. In a way, it's a kind gesture on the part of the filmmakers; they're letting the audience know what's coming. The film defecates into the mouth of the audience for two hours. "The Change-Up," directed by David Dobkin ("Fred Claus"), fol- lows the classic body-switching comedy formula. Bateman plays an overachieving lawyer with three kids and a beautiful wife (Leslie Mann, "Funny People"), living the American middle-class dream. Best friend Mitch, played by Ryan Reyn- olds ("Green Lantern"), is a playboy man-child - a mostly unemployed actor in commercials and soft-core pornography. After a night of drink- ing, the two get to talking about their lives, each expressing envy at the other's situation. Then, while peeing into a fountain, the two say in unison "I wish I had your life," magically transporting their souls into each other's body. All sorts of high jinks ensue, the details of which are trivial and would be even more dull, a seem- ingly impossible feat, in print than on the screen. Eventually they each discover that (spoiler alert!) maybe their lives aren't so bad after all, 4 COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL "Don't tell me what to do, devil baby!" and mayl fromspe er's shoe Fe m be you can learn something minutes than the movie needs to nding alittle time in anoth- convey its "story" and tell all of its S. jokes, the grand majority of which are scatological, racist or penile in nature while others involve vio- lence toward or by infants and are ces do not a ...notfunny. "The Change-Up," instead of tell- lovie m ake. ing a story, seems content to stack up an increasingly repetitive series of convoluted plot complications, interspersed with lifeless, pointless s, ostensibly, the premise montages. And the film is largely me of every body-switch- just a collection of cliches: Dave , but the movie drags on is working on a merger at his law asting an interminable 112 firm that he hopes will make him This is about 109 more partner; Dave and Mitch have been "best buds" since the third grade; slacker Mitch has a wealthy, disap- pointed dad (Alan Arkin, "Little Miss Sunshine") and every sopho- moric joke about nut sacks and pubes sounds like something from a bad Judd Apatow movie. Even the roles they play have become cliches for these actors: Bateman, the earnest, sensible, hap- less good guy; Reynolds, the hand- some asshole; Mann, the bitchy, volatile, neglected wife. But to even call them characters is a misnomer. These are not individuals with con- sistent personalities, with whom we can sympathize, just things to throw feces at and hear vulgarity from. If there's one thing that can be said about this movie, it's that it's consistent in its tone. Every pathet- ic attempt at pathos or real feeling isundercutby another juvenile,vul- gar, derivative joke and only serves to further alienate its audience. How this movie was ever made is a mystery. We can only assume that every person involved switched bodies with a seventh grade boy, because that is the only explanation for the immaturity, crudeness and complete lack of wit or insight evi- dent in this abhorrent film. This i and then ing film, and on, l minutes. More fun than expected in'30 Minutes or Less' By DAVID TAO Daily Film Editor It's hard to describe "30 Minutes or Less." It's inspired by real events, but lacks the forced "ripped-from- the-headlines" drama that Life- ***I': time channel and Dick Wolf try to 30 MinuLeS stuff down our O. L throats. It's kind of a buddy movie, At Quaity16 except the bud- and Rave dies are neitherC .b cops nor broman- Colambia tic Judd Apatow or Will Ferrell-style douchebags. It's kind of a heist movie, but it's one of the most comically inept heists ever put on film. Whatever it is, the result is a delightful piece of crowd pleasing fun. The plot centers around Nick (Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Net- work"), a pizza delivery guy who stumbles upon Dwayne (Danny McBride, TV's "Eastbound and Down") and Travis (Nick Sward- son, "You Don't Mess with the Zohan"), a pair of rednecks who're paying Chango (Michael Pefia, "The Lincoln Lawyer") to kill Dwayne's dad so Dwayne can get his million dollar inheritance. First, they have to get Chango's money, so they kidnap Nick, strap a bomb vest to his chest and give him 10 hours to get them a hundred grand, or he explodes into itty bitty pieces. Nick, in a fit of desperation, calls his ex-best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari, TV's "Parks and Recre- ation") for assistance, and they're off to rob a bank and avoid a fiery end. After earning an Oscar nomi- nation for "The Social Network," Eisenberg goes back to his dorky roots as the awkward man-boy, this time tempered with some campy, comical fear - fear of exploding, fear of cops, fear of prison. It's Ansari, however, who steals the show with his hilariously frantic, nasally expressions of shock, his ridiculous suggestions delivered in perfect deadpan and his excep- tional comedic timing. News that Nick had sex with his twin sister is received with comic outrage. He consults the bomb-making experts at Wikipedia in an attempt to defuse the bomb and, when all else fails, suggests that Nick cut off his arms and wiggle out. And his little song-and-dance number before injecting short bursts of suspense the robbery will have audiences in to keep the audience on its toes. stitches. Fleischer has little to no eye for action - the film's car chases seem static, crashes are surprisingly dull and explosions look cheap - but Jesse and Aziz these moments are mercifullyshort comedy kings. and easilyforgotten. C~me y ingS* It's McBride and his hillbilly shtick that really drag down the film. The script doesn't give him or Swardson much to do beyond Director Ruben Fleischer ("Zom- sit around and act like rednecks, bieland") shapes all this into a lean, and to their credit, they do this fast-paced movie that effectively relatively well. But uneducated- guides its audience through its and-proud-of-it, borderline rac- bizarre, the-writers-were-super- ist rednecks are nobody's favorite high premise. Though the movie kind of people, and the joke gets lacks some of the "Zombieland" stale very, very fast. Fortunately, visual pizazz, Fleischer neverthe- it's not enough to torpedo the film, less manages to maintain a comic which remains one of the best feel- atmosphere throughout the film, good movies of the summer.