Which is precisely why it is up to the IMDb reviewers to offer these commentaries.
The Disney "machine" is unstoppable. It will outlive anyone reading this review right this moment, no matter how old or young you may be. I guarantee there will be another Disney flick about "body-switching" in the early 2020s and yet another in the decade just after. And so on. And so on.
When your grandkids see their version of this tale, they too will think it is very cool
Which brings us back to the starting point. The "gold standard" for these stories is now, and may (possibly) always be, Freaky Friday (2003). Not only did FF have a killer script but Curtis and Lohan were arguably at, or near, the peaks of their A-list careers.
Again, let's look at energy. Before writing this review, I borrowed a DVD of Freaky Friday and watched it.
In the Curtis-Lohan version, the energy level in the dual performances literally explodes onto the screen within the first 9 minutes, and amazingly maintains that hi level almost right to the end. That is impressive.
In The Swap, the energy starts very slow and builds. It never quite hits any of the highs of FF, but it never lags in holding interest either.
List and Bertrand do a yeoman job with the material they have to work with. The script by Charlie Shahnaian and Shari Simpson is bit of letdown however.
In FF, the two characters set out their respective missions off the top of the story and things escalate. In The Swap, nothing in the story seems to escalate at all, stuff just sort of happens almost randomly.
So, at the end of the day, we are left with two movies that compete based on story but on little else. One is a firecracker and one is slow burner.
My advice? If you have not seen Freaky Friday, see it AFTER you see The Swap. It will be more fun that way.
The Disney "machine" is unstoppable. It will outlive anyone reading this review right this moment, no matter how old or young you may be. I guarantee there will be another Disney flick about "body-switching" in the early 2020s and yet another in the decade just after. And so on. And so on.
When your grandkids see their version of this tale, they too will think it is very cool
Which brings us back to the starting point. The "gold standard" for these stories is now, and may (possibly) always be, Freaky Friday (2003). Not only did FF have a killer script but Curtis and Lohan were arguably at, or near, the peaks of their A-list careers.
Again, let's look at energy. Before writing this review, I borrowed a DVD of Freaky Friday and watched it.
In the Curtis-Lohan version, the energy level in the dual performances literally explodes onto the screen within the first 9 minutes, and amazingly maintains that hi level almost right to the end. That is impressive.
In The Swap, the energy starts very slow and builds. It never quite hits any of the highs of FF, but it never lags in holding interest either.
List and Bertrand do a yeoman job with the material they have to work with. The script by Charlie Shahnaian and Shari Simpson is bit of letdown however.
In FF, the two characters set out their respective missions off the top of the story and things escalate. In The Swap, nothing in the story seems to escalate at all, stuff just sort of happens almost randomly.
So, at the end of the day, we are left with two movies that compete based on story but on little else. One is a firecracker and one is slow burner.
My advice? If you have not seen Freaky Friday, see it AFTER you see The Swap. It will be more fun that way.