Hilarious and Sometimes Sniper-Sharp, Though Even a Child Knows How It Will End.
A strong-willed careerist (Bateman) and a womanizing slacker (Reynolds) have been friends since school. Both are unhappy: the first is fed up with his kids constantly banging their heads against the wall, the second is bored to death with loneliness, despite the perks of occasionally visited pregnant nymphomaniacs. After getting properly loaded at a bar, they confess their mutual envy, simultaneously pee in the same fountain, and wake up the next morning in each other’s shoes.
Screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who previously wrote “The Hangover” (2009), really know how to properly laugh at marriage, children, and men in general as a biological species. And this skill allows them to tackle even a thankless and age-old plot, where the slightest wrong move guarantees a complete “Freaky Friday” (2003) outcome. Instead of rushing to invent some new body-swap mechanic, the authors reasonably push the unnecessary magic into a far corner and, with a clear conscience, get down to their signature scenes from the series “a wild man tries to feed infants” or “a faithful married man shares a couch with Olivia Wilde.” It’s a pity there was no room for Mike Tyson.