The Change-Up
Universal Pictures | Release Date: August 5, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
39
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
21
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonAug 2, 2011
Despite all the boobs, The Change-Up is very fair to its female characters-well, at least to Mann and Wilde, who both ring true, even if Wilde is almost too good to be true...It sounds like a trifling detail, but those details are sorely missing from most "date movies," in which even the women laughing in the audience exit feeling like they're the butt of the joke. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderMichael WilmingtonAug 4, 2011
The real summit meeting here may be between the two leads. They're good at their specialties - Reynolds's casual jock studliness and Bateman's nervous white-collar introversion - and they're even better at switching into the other guy's shtick and mannerisms. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 4, 2011
I still think it's a funny movie, but given its genes, it's a bit of a slacker. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisAug 4, 2011
If I must watch two men not be gay together for the 300th time this summer, those men should be Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 3, 2011
Distilled to its basics, it's little more than a sit-com that has been tarted up with scenes of projectile poop, odd sexual fetishes, and knife wielding babies. It all seems a little tired and, more importantly, not as funny as it should be. Read full review
60
Village VoiceKarina LongworthAug 2, 2011
The film's final dialogue exchange reveals The Change-Up to be one long setup to a bromantic joke that, in a roundabout way, maybe comes closer than any previous film to fulfilling that woebegone subgenre's implicit homoerotic endgame. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 5, 2011
You want a change-up? Here's a change-up: How about if Hollywood stops spoon-feeding us this uninspired pablum and comes up with a fresh idea or two? Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickAug 5, 2011
Sporadically hilarious but more often just plain crass and contrived. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie PunterAug 4, 2011
While there's some decent fun to be had in this fantasy world, The Change-Up drags on so long you may need to "visit the fountain" before Dave and Mitch become themselves again. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliAug 4, 2011
The film is often funny and even more frequently vulgar, exploiting every last chance for raunch in the full-chassis exchange of two grown men. The only thing missing: male nudity. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 4, 2011
The Change-Up should have fired on all cylinders. What went wrong here? Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 4, 2011
Instantly forgettable but intermittently funny movie. Read full review
50
TimeMary PolsAug 4, 2011
The Change-Up tries so hard to be scandalous that it's a shame it doesn't do more to change up the formula. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 4, 2011
No matter Bateman and Reynolds make The Change-Up seem a lot better than it is. Each earns a star in my review. The movie would be literally nothing without them. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyAug 4, 2011
Like the kids in detention, The Change-Up wants to offend your sensibilities. It sets new records for scatological humor and profanity. Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreAug 4, 2011
The trouble with The Change-Up is that it doesn't change-up enough of the formula to render this new. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 4, 2011
Some comedies have the knack for affrontery and shock value; The Change-Up, written by the "Hangover" team of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, merely has the will to offend. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumAug 3, 2011
Soon enough it's back to stale jokes about spousal date nights. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineNick SchagerAug 3, 2011
Yet as is so often the case with the frat-boy genre to which this film panders, so many gags feel like desperate, self-conscious attempts to be outrageous that the effect of its abundant cursing and boob shots is more depressing than delirious. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 3, 2011
It's hard not to be disappointed with The Change-Up, which in the end follows the basic conventions of the switched-identity genre, if more profanely, changing up not much at all. Read full review
40
EmpireNick de SemlyenSep 12, 2011
Despite the promise of the title, this a fairly stale offering, plodding through the beats of a well-worn subgenre but failing to add much more than a foul mouth. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 6, 2011
It's occasionally funny and a lot painful. Read full review
40
MovielineMichelle OrangeAug 4, 2011
Tainted by a script (by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore) so risibly broad it makes "Wedding Crashers" look like Bergman in the Hamptons. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 2, 2011
Depending on what you need from this movie, there's slight redemption in its full-on commitment to raunch, both in baby-shit–to-mouth scatology and some choice zingers. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangAug 2, 2011
If "Freaky Friday" had an impudent, foul-mouthed little brother, it would be The Change-Up, an often needlessly crass, bromance-oriented spin on the body-swap comedy. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttAug 2, 2011
The Change-Up bravely attempts to revive the dormant subgenre but it's a lame effort that grows increasingly frantic and foul-mouthed as the realization sets in that the gimmick isn't working. Read full review
38
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 4, 2011
As it is, the audience must content itself with baby poop, naughty words and the female anatomy at its pneumatic extreme, while Bateman and Reynolds's search for transcendence continues. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 3, 2011
One of the dirtiest-minded mainstream releases in history. It has a low opinion of men, a lower opinion of women, and the lowest opinion of the intelligence of its audience. It is obscene, foulmouthed, scatological, creepy and perverted. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinAug 3, 2011
David Dobkin's film has the faults of raucous recent scatological comedies like "Bad Teacher," "Horrible Bosses," and "The Hangover Part II" with none of their redeeming facets. It's scattershot, sexist, and vulgar without being funny. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 4, 2011
The body-swapping premise, which is stale to begin with, isn't explored with any depth, unless you find meaningful Freudian subtext in the movie's relentless anal fixation. But the premise at least sets up a farce that surpasses "The Hangover" in gleeful crudeness and profanity. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedAug 2, 2011
The charm, versatility and charisma of Jason Bateman and the camera-ready good looks of Ryan Reynolds should add up to more than a piece of crummy, amateurish junk called The Change-Up. Read full review
20
SlateDana StevensAug 6, 2011
To call The Change-Up misogynistic would be to shortchange the equal-opportunity disgust this anal-regressive film demonstrates toward men, babies, old people, and corporeal existence in general. Read full review
20
NPRIan BuckwalterAug 5, 2011
The Change-Up's spin on the material transplants the same old house on a crumbled foundation, trying to disguise its creaky familiarity with the gaudiest coat of paint possible. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 4, 2011
Let's give this ghastly studio comedy a Truthiness in Advertising award, if nothing else. Read full review
0
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 4, 2011
The Change-Up is the "Human Centipede" of gag-me comedies. Read full review
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