So much average

Fresh and Exciting

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, Perry King, JoBeth Williams and Lorraine Bracco star in Blake Edwards' 1991 comedy. King (Class of 1984) plays Steven Brooks, a philandering, ad exec who gets shot by 3 women. He's sent back to earth, but must live as a female, Amanda (Barkin) and find love in order to go to heaven. Smits (Running Scared) plays his best pal, Walter, Williams (Poltergeist) plays Margo, one of Steven's girlfriends/lovers and Bracco (Goodfellas) plays Sheila, a businesswoman. This is a pretty good comedy that sort of shares similarities with "Oh God, You Devil!" and "Heaven Can Wait," Barkin is great in it and she and Smits have good chemistry. I recommend this.

So it's about the man's man. And how he must learn that there is something on this earth besides him named "woman", and it's not created only for his joy. She's a human being, who has feelings and role in life. Hence he has to confess her being, value her talents (else her sexual ones !), and treat her fairly. It's a good meaning. And the movie chooses fantasy to say it; particularly the "trapped-in-another-body" trick, which was so popular back then. (Blake Edwards), a master of farce, is directing. Great pop soundtrack is presented, with songs like (Lyle Lovet)'s You Can't Resist It, and (Jody Watle)'s It's All There. So what the heck went wrong ??!!It's basically in the script. After choosing the fantasy plot, its creativeness ended, inclining to easy and empty talking, not situations. Look at the endless phone calls to the previous girlfriends to assure the main character's unfairness towards women, with not one satisfied or laughable situation. Then it takes 2 or 3 dry, direct and sudden monologues to face the "other" unfair men with their truths, like the company's boss and else, with no appropriate situations either. And when the script makes situation, it rather fabricates a lame one where the lead's male friend sleeps with him, while he's a woman, to have a baby (And worse, it's all predictable from there to the end !). Sure it lacks a lot, for instance see how the lead blackmails his boss by knowing about his mistress, then blackmails his landlord by knowing about his mistress TOO !The line of the lesbian affair was there to showcase the dominating male mentality even in affairs of that kind. However the movie saw in it a way to attract male audience; therefore exploited it cheaply. Enough to know that a seduction scene between (Ellen Barkin) and (Lorraine Bracco) was excised after poor reactions in test screenings ! Add the naked butt's long shot to know perfectly that this movie cared about sex more than its comedy !The script didn't find any way to produce laughs out of its plot. Walking falteringly in the high heels, or being bothered by the long hair were naive, and went on and on in so boring manner ! Speaking about "naive", in the lesbian bar fight, no way one punch could hit the eyes of 2 different persons in the same time ! Character like the gay psychic wasn't funny at all. To tell you the truth no character was funny in the first place ! And no effort was done in scenes like the court's one, or the madhouse's, to make them any comedic. It's only the line of (JoBeth Williams)'s character about getting her "fur" which made me smile during the whole thing !Strangely, (Edwards) direction was as dead as the script. I don't exactly know why he went to the one-shot scenes, enhancing the wrong theatrical case, and causing a slow visual pace. In fact, this movie wasn't in the need of less impressive element or more bore !(Barkin) is yes beautiful, and did well in some scenes, but she's not a natural comedienne. (Bruce Payne) can't be the male lead. He's not charismatic, and his performance was kind of cold. (Bracco), on the other hand, was unbearably cold. And – sorrowfully – the movie doesn't give anybody else an interesting role. So (Switch) is primitive, cheap and unfunny. It's clear that its makers were between hasty and uninspired. This is why they, and us, ended up with good idea made in no good movie.

Switch is just one of those movies you just have to love.Touching on offensive subject matter and being socially inappropriate by today's censored standards it tells the story of a womanizer named Steve who is murdered by 3 of his ex lovers for being a male chauvinistic pig. He crosses over into a sort of limbo and being thats he's been so bad to the opposite sex is sent back to earth to find one female who truly loves him. He than can move on to heaven but if he can't will go straight to hell. The woman he becomes is played by a young Ellen Barkin in her sexual prime and comic glory.Creative laughs ensue as he deals with homosexuality, struggles of sexism in the workplace and world, repercussions of his past actions from women and advances from all kinds of men including his best friend played charmingly by the than hunky Jimmy Smits. The movie is smart funny and wholly original in its exploration of its premise and even raunchy and envelop pushing by todays standards. Although not a perfect film there are some pacing issues and questionable directorial approaches on how he approaches the material times. Switch is still a great movie as timely as ever showing us just how little we've progressed in the age old war between the sexes not to say their hasn't been a lot of progress but we still have a ways to go.

Actually, this is what I would call a wise comedy. It is funny and Ms. Barkin is terrific in the part but it does speak to the modern woman's life in a way I found true and meaningful. I work and live very much like a man in a professional sense with all the toughness that requires but I am a woman and a mom. I saw in Barkin her personal knowledge of being a tough, straight woman surprised by the feelings that come with pregnancy and childbirth. For some of us it truly is the introduction to a love like no other. As to the end, there is an old Greek legend of the wisest of men who is given the opportunity to experience life and sex as a woman in order to decide whether it is more pleasurable to be a woman or a man. He opts for woman. Ellen Barkin's character and perhaps something of the actress herself based on the performance, knows that is too difficult a question to answer quickly and ponders it far longer with the end left open. In many times and places the answer would be easy because women have awful lives in many cultures but in the here and now, Amanda speaks for me and to me and I thank Ms. Barkin for communicating so well.