'The Change-Up' Showed Us How Not To Make An R-Rated Comedy

This Ryan Reynolds/Jason Bateman comedy bombed because it believed it's R-rating alone would make it the "next Wedding Crashers" to the genre

Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman in 'The Change-Up' (CREDIT: Universal)

                         by Jack Linsdell

On this week in August 2011, David Dobkin's body-swap, adult comedy The Change-Up was released in North America. On paper, it was primed for box office success. The Universal Pictures release was directed by the guy who made The Wedding Crashers ($288 million), penned by the writers of The Hangover ($469 million) and starring that hot guy from The Proposal ($317 million) and that dude from Arrested Development. Yet a poor $13 million opening weekend, an even worse $37 million domestic total, and a catastrophic $75 million worldwide cume (on a $52 million budget), not to forget negative reviews, made The Change-Up a big box office bomb. Nine years later and it's fair to say if it wasn't for it's recent debut on Netflix, the film would largely be forgotten about. 

The movie saw Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman star as best friends Mitch (a playboy) and Dave (a married lawyer), who envy each other's lives. When their bodies are swapped after relieving themselves in a public fountain, they realise that life on the other side of the fence is not as rosy as they'd imagined. The movie is the very definition of "fine, I guess", providing a few entertaining comedic moments in what amounts to a poorly paced and overly long movie. It's only in an excellent and poignant third act that it really finds it's rhythm both as a fulfilling comedy and a relatable character study, to the point that the finale brought me to tears in a most unexpected way. Its messaging and thematic content is excellent but is not explored until the very end which is a shame. As a body-swap flick, it's not as good as the likes of 18 Again! and as an R-rated comedy it's far from the quality of the many Vince Vaughn vehicles and the likes of We're The Millers and Blockers. But, it's okay as the sort of film you watch whilst doing other things. 

The Change-Up was hoping to captilise on the recent emergence and popularity of the R-rated, adult comedy, a sub-genre that had put stars like Jim Carrey out of business. When Dobkin's The Wedding Crashers came out in 2005, it was widely regarded as reviving (and making popular) adult-orientated, R-rated comedies. These films prioritised crude humour over kid-friendly gags and featured often graphic nudity, sex and very strong language. When it's done well (see Vaughn's career or even Bateman's Horrible Bosses also released in 2011), the R-rating allows movies to provide original, hilarious and unapologetically relatable comedic sequences. However, when the humour gets too crude or on the nose, like for a lot of The Change-Up, that R-rating becomes the biggest obstacle to getting audiences into theatres.

When you're adult rated, you can't rely on younger kids and families to bail you out if the movie isn't very good, which is a big reason why The Change-Up bombed. Also, the Jason Bateman/Ryan Reynolds flick became too distracted with providing R-rated gags and humour during it's first half that it negates the poignant character arcs and relatable drama it has in store for it's final act. It also wastes a talented cast of Leslie Mann and Olivia Wilde (amongst others) who are too busy having to perform often unfunny and frankly bland extended scenes of comedy (except for a couple of exceptions) that they are unable to properly establish their characters early on. That's not a criticism of them as it's mainly the problem with Jon Lucas and Scott Moore's screenplay. 

Anyway, The Change-Up became a missed opportunity, clearly too weighed down by the expectation that it would become the next Wedding Crashers. It didn't, mostly because unlike that movie that used it's R-rating to supplement its loveable characters, nuanced drama and hilarious set pieces, The Change-Up gets too distracted trying to emulate it's success. Just because it was R-rated and contained humour of a similar style to the likes of The Hangover, was never going to turn it into a box office hit. And, that's because that's not what made The Wedding Crashers or The Hangover hits. They had big stars as loveable characters, following poignant arcs and performing relatable comic set pieces that happened to be R-rated in content. The Change-Up just gave us adult-rated humour and then wasted a good story and solid cast believing that would make it the "next Wedding Crashers" alone. 

There are far better R-rated comedies out there (both before and after it's 2011 release), which is ironic considering The Change-Up was positioned as being the definitive one. If the movie was as good (and funny) as it's third act, we'd be having a different conversation. But, back when you could watch the much better The Wedding Crashers, The Hangover or Reynolds' superb Just Friends at home, why in 2011 would you flock to a theatre to see The Change-Up? And, it's the answer to that question, on this day nine years ago, why The Change-Up never change anything for the comedy genre.