The Change-Up

2011 Comedy/Romantic Comedy by director David Dobkin

Description:  Dave, a lawyer by day and a family man, with a wife and 3 kids by night and his long time friend Mitch, slacker/stoner/very small time actor are about to take a ride on the weird roller coaster.  After an evening watching the game at a bar and getting a little drunk Mitch and Dave accidently pee in a fountain while wishing for each other’s lives.  So as is common when simultaneously peeing and wishing in the presence of a statue or fountain or in this case both, they wake up in the other’s body.  Let’s see just how much damage Mitch can do to Dave’s life and how many awkward situations Dave can experience with Mitch’s.

Review: Can I just express my favoritism here for both Jason Bateman & Ryan Reynolds? They are so funny!  But they have totally different styles of humor. Ok, on with it… Out of all the “trading bodies” movies out there, this one definitely just knocked my number 1 down a peg. Although the plot of the story isn’t original, it’s the writing and the delivery that I love. The physical and visual comedies are just hilarious. The character Tatiana is so messed up and Mitch is sick and twisted for actively perusing and just being involved! Watching Ryan & Jason play each other is great, because you get to see through their eyes kind of; body language, facial expressions, verbal character (pitch, whine, assertiveness, etc). Do not miss this movie.

My ratings:
Storyline & Plot – 9
Acting – 10
Comedy – 9.5
Romance – 7.5

My favorite quotes:

ü  “You’d be early too, if all you did all day is eat hummus and masturbate.”

ü  “I’m the mother, its 3 o’clock in the morning! Get the fuck outta the bed right now before I fucking cut you!”

ü  “No way! Phil Neikro is like my number one favorite of all time! Why is my voice so high?”

ü  I’m goin to work today, I’m gonna quit my job. I’m goin to apply to um Kinkos alright? Or maybe Chick-fil-A or Waffle House, huh? Foot Locker….”

Lead cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman, Leslie Mann
Supporting cast: Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, Mircea Monroe

The Amityville Horror (2005)

2005 – Horror/Mystery/Suspense by director Andrew Douglas

Description: Newlywed couple, George and Kathy Lutz, find and buy their dream home.  After moving their family in, strange things start to happen.  Maybe the history in this house plays a bigger part in their story than they think could be possible.  Will the Lutz family survive and if so for how long?  And will they ever get to the bottom of the riddle that is their house?

Review: If you have never read the book or seen any of the dozen previous versions of this movie, then I would tell you that it is a great movie!  It has a little more gore, suspense and more back story on the DeFao family and house pre-DeFao.  Ryan Reynolds does an amazing job with the character of George Lutz, makes him 5 times scarier.

BUT –I do have a few gripes: the real children that lived in this house were Danny, Chris and Missy.  These are Kathy’s children from a previous marriage that George adopted.  Later after the Amityville house George and Kathy had Chelsea.  In the original 1979 movie they changed the children’s names to Matt, Greg & Amy.  In the 2005 movie they changed the names again to Billy, Michael and Chelsea.  Why would they not use the boys but then put the wrong girl in?  Also, they changed the girl’s imaginary friend Jody.  In real life, the book and the original movie Jody is like a demon pig thing and in the 2005 they made Jody into a little girl who supposedly was a member of the DeFao family.

My ratings:
Acting – 8.5
Horror – 7
Suspense – 7
Violence – 6

My favorite quotes:
F   “Your house frightens me, Mrs. Lutz.”
F   “Hi, Lisa. Look what Ronnie did.”
F   “Do I look nuts to you?”
F   “When the body suffers... the spirit flowers.”

Lead cast: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jesse James, Jimmy Bennett, Chloe Grace Moretz
Supporting cast: Philip Baker Hall, Rachel Nichols