The Swap (2016)

Pretty Good

Let's be realistic.

How sad is this?

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is another mind/body swap film. This one involves high school sophomore students of the opposite sex. The cell phones are the device that magically causes the swap. Jack Malloy (Jacob Bertrand) is attempting to make the varsity hockey team. He is a borderline player under a lot of pressure. Ellie O'Brian (Peyton List) is in a dance group filled with young girls with Miley Cyrus ears (Disney really needs to diversify.) She is having issues with the new girl taking her spot with her BFF. After the swap, they see how tough the opposite sex has life while attempting to make their lives better.This has the Disney happy ending. The film avoided the teen curiosity one would expect from such a swap, making it safe for the whole family. A fun film with some teen drama.

What did "The Swap" bring to the table that other movies in the same category didn't already bring before it? Nothing much. Well, aside from it being a newer movie and appealing to the young audience of today. But aside from that, then "The Swap" really didn't offer that much.Storywise, well it can be summarized very easily: Ellie and Jack make a wish to switch lives, and fate happens to cash in on that wish.There, easily done. Yeah, there is little more to the story actually. Well, except for scenes where the guy has to perform gymnastics and pretend to be a girl, and vice versa with the girl having to play ice hockey and pretend to be a boy. But wait, didn't we already seen scenes like this in, say, "Freaky Friday"? To name a single classic of the role swapping genre."The Swap" is definitely a movie aimed at a younger audience, and I did feel quite out of the target audience. I just had a hard time fully committing to the movie and get into it. Perhaps because I already knew exactly what would happen and how the movie would end? Yeah, it was that predictable. And if you have seen one movie in this particular role swapping genre, then you have already seen "The Swap".It should be said that the cast in the movie were doing good jobs with their given roles and characters. And the two lead talents, Peyton List and Jacob Bertrand, did carry the movie quite nicely. However, in my opinion, then it was James Godfrey (playing Porter Gibbs) who was the most memorable in the movie, given his odd and quirky character.I am sure that this movie will be quite funny and appealing to a younger audience of this day and age. But for us mature people, this was sort of a swing and a miss. As such, I am rating this a five out of ten stars. Yeah, I found it to be a mediocre movie, because it had all been seen before.

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 coolWhich 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.

I love this movie!I've was so disappointed with Disney with Best Friends Whenever.But this I give this movie an A plus!For comedy and life lessons.You can watch it with the whole family because it is okay for teens.Watch this It has all your favorite Disney show stars!And even a Netflix star from the series some assembly required.It has Peyton List form very popular Disney series Jessie and Bunk'd and even 2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies!And Jacob Bertrad from popular Disney XD series,Kirby Buckets.And Koltan Stewart from Some Assembly Required.So if you are a fans of any of those shows or actors,You need to watch this movie.It even has a little bit of a romantic scene at the end! n e e d t o w a t c h