(Review originally written at 15 August 2007)
"South Park" once perfectly spoofed Rob Schneider's career, by putting fake trailers for movies, of which in one he turned into a carrot. An obvious reference to this movie. It showed how he and all of his movies were always the same and often relied on just one simple comedy aspect. This movie is like that. It relies on just one big comedy joke; a popular hot girl and a dirty dumb old criminal accidentally swap bodies.
The humor and comedy is so simple and weak that at times you just can't help laughing at it. The sort of 'Austin Power's' effect, I would call it. So dumb, silly and predictable that it becomes hilarious at the same time . Such as the whole Biance plot line and rivalry, the story with the parents and so on. There really are some missed opportunities here and thats sort of weird since normally these type of movies are overfull with different often overly developed plot lines. Now everything remains mainly underdeveloped, which also doesn't make this the movie interesting or hilarious movie to watch. After a while the movie even starts to reuse some of its earlier jokes. Never a good sign when a comedy start to recycle its own jokes.
Rob Schneider is mostly overacting obviously but I think that's also one of the reasons why the movie still works out as a fun one. I also think he did a fairly good job at playing a girl who's suddenly in a man's body. It provides the movie with some good moments, the one more subtle than the other. The movie also has some good supporting actors but in much too small roles such as Robert Davi and Rachel McAdams before her days of fame. Adam Sandler unfortunately makes a totally unfunny appearance in the movie. There are some potentially fun characters in the movie but those remain mostly underused.
Of course the story also has some morals and messages in it. In my opinion it's a real shame that Hollywood comedies from this decade always feel the need to do this. But having said that, in this particular movie it isn't really distracting or anything but its still obviously present, especially toward the ending of course.
Obviously not a lot of things really make sense into the story but this is not just due to the ridicules concept but also some bad writing. For instance it doesn't get explained exactly why the school-losers and outcasts suddenly teamed up and get accepted by the 'hot chicks'.
In all fairness this is not a bad movie and it's certainly a watchable one. It's however also very simple, predictable and underdeveloped. That's why I just can't rate it any higher. But nevertheless I consider this a watchable movie. I guess it's especially hilarious with a couple of friends and A LOT of booze.
5/10
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