The Swap

I will admit that I only came to this movie to see Jacob Bertrand and Peyton List, who now star as Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz and Tory Nichols on Cobra Kai.

The two young stars definitely carried the show, and it is plain to see they may have a long run in the showbiz industry. As for the movie, it was another retelling of an oft-told tale of body switching. The big catch here is that the two characters, Jack and Ellie, also switch genders.

I don't think it will go down as a Disney classic, but it is definitely worth a watch for those fans of Cobra Kai.

I have seen a lots of movie similar to this one. In this movie the girl and the boy swap their bodies by wishing to have each other's life. But all the attempt fails to reverse the wish. So till they find a solution, they keep continue to survive in each other's lives. The movie was funny. One of the best Disney channel movies I have seen. The actors were good. I watch my favorite movies over and over till bored, so I will do for this as well.

The latest and the second Disney Channel Original Movie of the year 2016. Based on the children's book of the same name. This is a theme that we are all very familiar with. The body swapping concept and you might say not again. But this was not bad, I mean it all begins with an accident and then follows the struggle to get back normal. While doing that, they have to do certain things and that's what this film is about which narrated according to the current world scenario.

This is the story of two tenth graders, Ellie and Jack. When their lives get complicated, they text each other the same wish and it becomes true. Soon coming to realise their position, they make a deal to comply with each others lives till find a solution to come out of it. The adventure begins, filled with some fun and sometimes sentimental, till the final to reveal whether they return or not.

So I have seen this body swapping thing works with the ancient secret power interference. But this is a simple science fiction, like they used an app to do that. That defines todays trend what the school children upto. Well known concept, but the story was a little different. For the grown ups, it might look an average film, but surely kids would enjoy it.

This is a Halloween season film, but released so early. The vierwership was very bad among the Disney Channel Original Movies like from last one decade. I'm a Disney fan, watch all the feature/theatrical films, but not that into the television. So I don't know these small screen actors, though I think they done good. The good thing is it is not a bad film, overall from all the age group perspective, it is very much an acceptable film. The kids definitely should see this, but the adults can do some research before going for it.

6/10

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 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.