The Change-Up

Two lifelong buddies, a settled family man (Jason Bateman) and a footloose bachelor (Ryan Reynolds), get drunk one night and express their mutual envy, each wishing he had the other’s life—then they wake up the next morning in one another’s bodies, and the supposed fun begins. The Freaky Friday premise is so stale you could make croutons out of it, and neither director David Dobkin nor writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore bring anything new to the party beyond their penchant for low-class raunch. The movie squeaks by (barely) on the talents of the two stars, who manage against all odds to give well-modulated performances (their subtle impersonations of each other show more wit in a moment’s expression than Lucas and Scott’s whole script). Leslie Mann and Olivia Wilde provide thankless feminine decoration.