Tag Archives: Body Swap

Like Father Like Son Review

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It’s time for a classic body swap comedy. There aren’t a ton of films with this kind of premise but they usually turn out to be pretty fun. Who hasn’t thought about stepping into someone else’s shoes for a few minutes right? I don’t think the film ends up being quite as good as it could have been though and could have used more likable characters. As always the kid can definitely be annoying but the father can also be a little slow on the uptake at times.

The movie starts with some intense music as a guy runs through the dessert and is badly injured. He is treated by a nearby tribe and temporarily switches bodies with someone before going to normal. Pretty interesting “science” they got over there. We then cut to the actual main characters Chris and his father Jack. Jack is a very serious guy who works hard and is nearing a big promotion. He wishes his son could take things a little more seriously. Chris is still going through his teenager journey of crushing hard on a girl and flunking on his classes. Well, that’s when his friend Trigger’s uncle shows up with the body swap serum. Trigger messes around and through a series of comedic shenanigans, ends up switching Chris and Jack. Can the two characters get through a full day or two without completely wrecking each other’s lives?

You’re mainly going to be feeling bad for Jack here because he was actually doing well with his life. He was nearing that promotion and skillfully swerving the advances being made to him by the wife of his boss. Jack is not planning on messing around and he is well respected within the industry. His main flaw is presented by the fact that he follows the rules really closely so he doesn’t make exceptions when people don’t have money or insurance to pay for the treatment.

Perhaps he is a bit cold about all of this but at the same time, he is just following company policy. The other doctor brings this up a lot at the board meetings and keep shutting this down. So it’s not like it’s just Jack. Where Jack falters is in not closing out the deal on the big race. He really needed to stay focused and also should have been preparing a lot harder a few days in advance. No way that race should have even been getting close at the ending there. I know the guy is oblivious, but it’s also a bit much that he acts as if he’s never really been to school before. He rambles and acts like the teacher but I guess maybe he was just the class jerk back in the day.

As for Chris, well he acts a lot like the immature stereotype of every teen. He’s completely girl crazy and the first thing he thinks to do when becoming an adult is to go flirt and drink as much as possible. The amount of damage he’s done to his father’s reputation is crazy and so it’s hard to sympathize with him at all. He just looks so immature the whole time and has never heard the phrase of great power comes with great responsibility.

I know it’s part of the point of his character arc but I’d argue he never really learns that much of a lesson. Now at least the movie is consistent with how immature he is since the guy can’t even manage to talk to a girl without making himself look like a fool but it all boils down to you wishing the whole film could have been about the father instead. Even when Jack would make a mistake, he consistently looked better than Chris.

His friend Trigger tends to be more entertaining. Now, technically he’s probably about as immature as Chris but maybe since he’s in the side character role it doesn’t hit as hard. He also has the toughest job of playing advisor to Jack when he’s at school and keeping both parties from making huge mistakes. So maybe in a way he’s at least smarter than Chris.

The heroine Lori doesn’t look that good as the whole thing with her is that she’s not a very serious person. Likewise the bully Rick is super determined to prove that he’s better than Chris when he should probably just be leaving Lori to find someone who wants to be with him. He absolutely crushed Chris in their fight though so he definitely takes his fighting skills seriously.

So while I have a lot of issues with the characters here, the film does have its share of funny gags. I did like the walk-throughs at the hospital. Both the one that was taken seriously and then the parody one after the body swap where Chris didn’t know what was going on. It worked as a solid contrast and of course it’s generally fun to see each character messing up each other’s lives. I dare say it would just be a bit funnier if it took itself more seriously.

That may sound paradoxical but think of it this way. If both characters were a little better at living each other’s lives, then the mistakes they make would be funnier. It would be more of a rare error in judgment as opposed to getting major things wrong. You could also see if there were any ways where they made each other’s lives better thanks to their different approaches. These films always have a lot of potential but this one mainly stuck to going for the obvious gags.

Overall, The film was fun enough but is definitely lacking in some replay value. It’s fairly short so at a little over 90 minutes it’ll go by quickly. The romance scenes for both characters tend to be the most cringe worthy moments although there is a lot of cringe to go around. If you like body swap films then you should check this one out but there’s a reason why it’s not super well known and you will definitely learn that the hard way before you’re done. A remake could really improve on this one.

Overall 5/10

Vice Versa (1948) Review

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It hasn’t been too long since I saw the newer Vice Versa so it was time to see how this one stacked up. It’s certainly a lot older but it has a very sophisticated feel to it with the script. The movie has a lot of fun with all of the characters using big words to the point where I’m fairly confident it was to parody the very nature of this to an extent.

The movie starts with Dick getting ready to go to school, only he doesn’t want to this time. He doesn’t really explain the reasons to his father Paul much so he just cries a lot and makes a scene. It’s certainly not the most effective way to get your point across, that’s for sure. Paul explains to Dick that school is a blast and he should enjoy it more. So Paul wishes on his magic stone that he could be a boy again while Dick does the opposite. Now that they have flipped roles, Dick forces Paul to go to school. Can Paul handle these tough kids? Will Dick be able to manage his father’s affairs? Also, what is that magical stone that I just mentioned?

Well, going back a bit, the corrupt Marmaduke got a hold of this magical stone. He then learned it was corrupt so naturally he brought it over to Paul so he could throw the bad luck at him instead. He didn’t realize it was a magical stone though. Unlike other versions of the movie, you only get 1 wish for each person this time. So no just wishing yourself back to normal right away.

From the two plots, Paul’s is a lot more interesting. On Dick’s side you have him flirting with the maid the whole time which gets old fast. You’d think he would be using his newfound power to do something a little more useful instead of just messing around. He’s rather sloppy as well and doesn’t help his father’s reputation in the slightest.

There’s one subplot where he has a duel with Marmaduke and it’s the only part of the movie that really dragged on. The duel just keeps on going and going and going. The joke was well played out by this point as everyone chased each other around the castle the whole time. We even got a court scene thrown in. That was at least the silver lining moment of this subplot since those scenes are always fun. We even got to have the audience all come together with music.

Now with Paul’s plot, we got to see him go up against Grimstone which was fun. Grimstone is a particularly tough teacher/principal who makes sure his students are not slacking. He doesn’t even allow them to have candy or anything like that. When they play soccer, they have to let him win or they’ll go into detention. Grimstone is without a doubt the best character in the film. He also has the most sophisticated vocabulary among the whole group. He is always talking like a rather regal figure.

He doesn’t exactly teach by the book but I also wouldn’t say he is too exaggerated. He makes for a much more interesting villain than Marmaduke. Marmaduke has big plans but at the end of the day he got outsmarted by Paul when he was still a kid and probably should have been more careful when talking about his big plan. He was practically begging to be defeated.

Then you have Fanny who is definitely playing the field the whole time. You’re not actually meant to like her either way since she’s another antagonist but why couldn’t they all be as solid as Grimstone? As for Paul, he’s a pretty enjoyable main character. He certainly did like school back in the day although he seems to have grown out of several aspects of it at this point. He complains a lot and gets the other children in trouble. He probably should have thought about that a little more before getting on their bad sides.

That’s one thing you will notice right away here. Paul and Dick keep forgetting they have switched bodies for the entirety of the film. Even right through the final scenes they keep on mixing up what’s going on and talking to people as if they know them. There’s no way you can forget that you’re in a different body considering that the way you see the world is so different. The height difference is absolutely crazy on that front. So part of you wants to think that this is just the film trying for some more parody moments but it’s hard to really get on board with that idea.

The movie doesn’t play this as a gag after all but totally straight. It’s a comedic scene of course as they both keep getting turned away but it doesn’t seem crazy that they forget nor is it addressed. It’s rather surreal and the only explanation here is that both characters really aren’t smart at all. I can’t think of any other reasons in-universe on how they could keep on doing that.

While that part may be questionable, the actual writing in the film is still excellent. All of the dialogue will keep your full attention. That old school way of talking is always a blast and really gets you psyched. It’s just something you don’t see a lot of outside of that. It also makes the film flow by pretty quickly aside from the duel. In general Dick’s subplot was on the annoying side and you can’t possibly like the kid since the power went to his head immediately. If I’m Paul I’m definitely punishing him now that the adventure is over.

Overall, Vice Versa is a pretty good film. It makes for an enjoyable experience and you get to see what would happen if things were switched up like this. The whole magic stone plot was also pretty intense although the villain should have held onto it. I certainly wouldn’t just hand it off to someone without running some experiments. Imagine if it ended up making Paul rich instead? Marmaduke would regret it for the rest of his life.

Overall 7/10

Vice Versa Review

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Vice Versa is a classic body swapping film so you can expect a lot of hijinks to ensue. I always like the idea of body swapping because it can make for a lot of interesting scenarios. The very premise of living a life in someone else’s shoes for example has always been a blast. I would say right off the gate the film does make one mistake here though. Nobody wants to live another day as a kid…..it would have been more interesting if the main guy was swapping lives for a day with his girlfriend or maybe a rival at the workplace. Still, this is the plot here so lets tackle it now.

Marshall is a rather successful businessman but it has come at the expense of time with his son Charlie. This weekend he gets to have Charlie since he seems to alternate weeks with Charlie’s mother. It’s going to be a grand ole time. The only damper is that the vase Marshall ordered for a work exhibition didn’t arrive because instead he got a haunted skull. The villainous Lilian calls to offer to trade the items (Which got misplaced according to her plan to fool customs) and Marshall agrees. The issue is that before this can happen he and Charlie wish they could switch places. The wish becomes true so they swap bodies. Can each character successfully live in the other person’s shoes or will they wreck everything?

Low key the scariest thing about body swapping would be seeing how the other person wrecks your life. Make no mistake, there is a whole lot of damage you can do to a person’s reputation in a day. It’s not quite something that can be easily reversed either. Both characters do a number on each other but for sure Charlie does more damage than Marshall. Not only does Charlie just generally act like a doofus most of the time with his mouth always open but he doesn’t know anything about business. Fortunately things tend to work out in his favor but that’s not for lack of trying.

Charlie wasn’t ready for this and I can’t say that I was really a fan of his. Kids tend to be a little on the annoying side in these films and even once he got an adult body I wouldn’t say Charlie fully got away from that. He continually messes up and he makes a rather significant move towards the end of the film involving a proposal that was out of line. It could have easily gone sideways and it’s hard to come back from that.

Meanwhile Marshall is the one carrying the film. Honestly I wouldn’t have minded a whole film about him at the firm because it seemed fairly interesting. As a kid he didn’t quite have the same level of intrigue and I was a little iffy about him not being able to take on the bullies at all. The whole time I was waiting for the moment where he confronts them but it never happened. That was a big missed opportunity if you ask me. The actual payoff wasn’t very satisfying since it was Charlie in an adult’s body so there wasn’t much the bullies can do.

Sam is a main supporting character as Marshall’s girlfriend but I wouldn’t say she looks great either. It’s nice that watching the metal show helped her get closer to Marshall I suppose but he was acting rather crazy the whole time so you’d think she would notice something’s up. Now, part of this is due to the fact that it is a comedy so we shouldn’t think too hard on it but I dunno. Also, she has one questionable scene with Marshall considering that he’s still a kid at this point in time and any scene with Charlie is also iffy. She’s partially a victim of circumstance I guess but she never got to be all that good. Also, relationships within the workplace always seem tricky at best.

As for the two villains Lilian & Turk, they’re okay but almost feel like they don’t belong in the film. They’re effectively the villains from Home Alone and get wrecked throughout the film. There is a pretty fun scene where they get ready to abduct Marshall only for Charlie to throw him in a car first. It looked like they were beat to the punch by other kidnappers which was a fun gag. I also liked when the coworkers confronted the about the gun.

Again, the whole film taking place at the workplace would have really worked quite well. The villains don’t leave much of an impression beyond this but I guess they added a layer of danger if they managed to take the skull away. The heroes not figuring out that they both had to be holding onto the skull seemed a bit lazy though. Why would they not try that?

The writing here is decent but there is still just something keeping it from the next level. I get the impression they didn’t really take the premise as far as it could go. When the main plot from before the switch is more interesting than the actual switch you know that you have a problem. It all boils down to the fact that throwing a kid into the mix was a bit of a mistake. There is less you can do with that since Charlie isn’t all that smart as it is. He can’t even bluff his way through scenarios as he just has his mouth open in shock the whole time. Definitely the most annoying part of his character.

Overall, Vice Versa won’t be anyone’s pick as the most influential body swap film. It’s not bad though but I guess what’s almost as important is that it’s not very interesting. It’s a very subdued film that goes through the motions but doesn’t do anything super memorable. Charlie is established as a rather unlikable character the instant he decides to stop listening to Marshall now that he’s all grown up. There was potential to be found here but it never happened. As a result I would say the film is perfectly in the middle. It’s not bad but it’s not all that good either. You’ll walk away from it without a strong opinion one way or the other. So if you want a quick way to spend some time relaxing then you can pop this one in. Otherwise you can probably find some stronger options.

Overall 5/10

Your Name Review

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It’s time to take a look at the manga version of a film I watched a long while ago. It’s definitely a very straight adaption so if you liked the movie then you would definitely like the manga and vice versa. If you haven’t actually checked this one out in any form before then I’m confident you will still like it. The story here is pretty good and I always like the body swapping plot. Of course you have to handle it with care but if done right then it opens up a lot of possibilties of what you can do. The premise here is also pretty original in how the two main characters switch bodies every few days as opposed to it being permanent for a while.

The manga starts with a teenage girl named Mitsuha remarking that her small town is rather boring. She wishes she were a guy in a big Tokyo city where more interesting things happen. One day she wakes up as a guy and has one of the best days of her life. She figures it was a dream but then Mitsuha starts to notice signs that this wasn’t. Writing in her notebook and people commenting that she was odd the other day. She also has no memory of the days in which she “acted off”. We then meet the other main character named Taki and his situation is really the same as hers. He wakes up one day as a girl and then this continues to happen. After some experimenting they find out that they exchange bodies every 2 days and this goes on for weeks. They try and give each other signs so they don’t mess up each other’s life but something’s bound to go wrong. Will they ever discover why this is happening?

A lot of the fun naturally comes from seeing the characters operate outside of their element. Who handles the other situation better? Well, it’s hard to say since both of them improve the life of the other but I’d have to say that Mitsuha ends up being the MVP here. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each. Mitsuha managed to score Taki a date, she made his father the best chopped potatoes ever, improved Taki’s job performance, and even got people into thinking he was a nice guy. The main con is that she had a bad habit of spending all of his money. While that may sound dismissive, it is a pretty big deal. He ends up being fine with it but imagine if he was saving up for something. That would have been pretty disappointing for sure.

Then you have Taki. Well, for the positives he got the bullies to stop messing with Mitsuha and made her a popular star among all of the sport teams. He even got a bunch of people asking her out. On the other hand, he doesn’t even try to act like a normal girl and puts Mitsuha in a bunch of embarrassing situations. Additionally, he definitely oversteps his bounds quite a bit by taking advantage of the fact that he’s a girl. While it’s played off as a comedic subplot that he is always acting rather pervy, it really makes you lose respect for the guy. They’re supposed to be friends and yet he keeps pulling this off and even at the end of the series in an emotional moment he lies to her face about this. Taki’s just not a great guy no matter how much the film tries to play him off as a good guy. Nah, I’m not buying it.

I also have to dock some more points for Taki not bothering to write his name down so she would remember him. The whole plan was to write their names in each other’s hands and he broke that on a whim. Yeah, Taki can be pretty selfish and a lot more petty than Mitsuha. In case you haven’t guessed, I thought she was the much better character. She really did her best to improve his life and I also thought she was ore sympathetic. The manga goes out of its way to show that she’s really not happy in her town while Taki was having a pretty fun time in his. Even if they hadn’t switched bodies things were going pretty well for him when you think about it.

The ending’s not very good but of course I can’t go into details on this. All I’ll say is that it’s just not very satisfying. Even if things turn out well in the long run, it’ll never really be the same without the history behind it. The ending could have been far worse though like if Your Name had opted to go for the whole destiny can’t be changed thing. I never bought into that so it always makes for a pretty bad ending. You just can’t let that happen and fortunately this series did not.

I’d say part of why the adventure works is because it’s always easy to think of what it would be like to experience a day in someone else’s life. New scenery, new experiences, etc. Of course a whole month is a bit much though, halfway through you may be wishing to go back to your own life. The risk of having someone else in your body during all that time would add an extra layer of stress as well. Who knows how your social reputation may be by the end of that right? There’s no going back depending on how some of the actions go down. It’s definitely something you’d probably say no to in real life although if it’s a magic comet then that’s another story.

The technology being wiped towards the end felt like a bit much though. The characters were pretty rational in how they planned for things to work out. Usually I’d critique the characters for not thinking of something but they actually did which is the worst part. Everything vanishing was just messed up. Of course this is all fantasy but that part didn’t really make sense. I suppose we needed that to be a part of the drama of course. A lot of these choices just come down to me writing things a little differently if I was directing the story but it’s still a solid adventure through and through. Take away some of Taki’s dicier moments and this is a pretty great story. We need more solid body swapping titles like this.


Overall, Your Name is a pretty fun adventure. I’m still not a big fan of the ending though and the first part of the adventure is the best bit. It’s still hard to believe that even though the whole premise of the adventure is the body swapping, it only really happens a lot during the first volume or two. Then the big plot starts and this quickly begins to fade as Taki tries to uncover the truth behind this. I think they could have focused more on the first bit and also switched up the ending, but either way this is a solid adventure. The character cast is small but pretty focused. If you haven’t seen this yet then you should check it out. Since the experience is about the same you can check out either the manga or the movie. As they say, you never get the first experience back so choose carefully on which version will be more emotional for you.

Overall 7/10