Wednesday, November 28, 2007

I Hate Age Switching Movies


With the exception of Big, I have disliked any film that offers as its premise someone switching their age. I understand many of you probably liked the Jennifer Garner film 10 going on 100 or whatever it was called. I didn't see it, will never see it, but do understand it was supposed to be good. I don't care. It could win every Academy Award and I still wouldn't see it.

In 1976 was the original Freaky Friday. I saw it, but didn't really like it. I didn't really like the book either. Remaking it for Lindsay Lohan was unnecessary, but again, it doesn't matter because I didn't see it.

The whole problem began in 1987 and 1988. Word had begun to filter around Hollywood about this film in production called Big. It was going to be huge and so every studio wanted to make their own version of it. Similar things happened during the great volcano madness of 1997, and the everyone go to space to fix a damn problem or the earth will explode epidemic in 1998.

The switching bodies sickness comes from the release of Like Father Like Son which somehow tries to convince us that Dudley Moore could play the father of Kirk Cameron. It goes downhill from there. Slightly more funny, but no less damaging to the psyche was the film Vice Versa which at least had some decent actors, and good casting. Then came Big and it all became too much. I actually saw all three of the films, and since then, have not watched any film having anything to do with body switching. I haven't even watched Big since its initial release.
Hollywood did trick me back in 2002 with The Hot Chick. I thought it was going to be porn, and instead it was Rob Schneider switching bodies with a hot chick. If they had called it Rob Switches Bodies With Hot Chick, I would never have gone to see it. Yes, it had Rachel McAdams in one of her first roles, but it was a switching body movie, and I was numb for weeks.

Now, it seems that Hollywood is trying to bring back the age switching films once again. There are three movies in some stage of production. The most notable of which is 17. This film stars Matthew Perry and Zac Efron. The premise is a middle-age father who wakes up to find he's 17 again. In order to be close to his children, he enrolls in the same school as them. It's not quite switching bodies, but it is damn close. If you go see this film, or the other two in production, it will just convince Hollywood to make more. Please don't. It is time to stop the madness.


4 comments:

  1. I love BIG. Hated Freaky Friday, both versions. 13 Going on 30 was cute, but not BIG.

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  2. Actually, Vice Versa is based on the first body switching novel by F. Antsey, published in the late 1800s. he was a British satirist who wrote for Punch.

    Freaky Friday, Big etc all take the device from his work.

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  3. Ent sez...

    Hollywood did trick me back in 2002 with The Hot Chick.

    Sorry, I'm not buying this -- you can't blame Hollywood. If you voluntarily went to see a ROB SCHNEIDER film then you could probably have been tricked by a third grader pulling a quarter out of your ear.

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  4. Aww, c'mon. 13 Going on 30 made me feel like a kid again. And there's nothing wrong with that.

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