REVIEW: The Change-Up Takes Oversexed Dude Comedy to Grim, Joyless New Depths

The Change-Up is a studio hybrid both so advanced and so primitive it defies parsing. Partly derived from the old Freaky Friday switcheroo comedy, partly bent on what feels like the pre-Enlightenment theme of men fretting over whether to live selfishly or with personal and social responsibility, it’s post-Hays code, state-of-the-art obscenity mingled with the pre-feminist option of treating women as problems against which a man’s life is defined. If Philip Roth and Ivan Reitman had a celluloid baby? Does it come from the future? Or did its everything-and-nothing-ness lower from the sky in a toxic, crowd-sourcing cloud? Have we burned our gender constructs so far into the ground they now have to be taught to us by soullessly motivated filmmakers beholden to brainless focus testing? But Jason Bateman is adorable, isn’t he? The face of froggy resignation with the dry wit of a straight-man who has suffered too many fools, he projects the ironical, distancing presence of mind we all like to think we possess in an increasingly silly world. A role like Arrested Development’s Michael Bluth was a revelation for Bateman, and it was only a matter of time before he ascended to leading roles in big-screen comedies, a mixed blessing in such deeply unsophisticated times. He managed to make it through The Switch, the Jennifer Aniston immaculate conception comedy, with most of his capital intact, but his latest film could have leached the charm out of Cary Grant. Actually, the biggest surprise of The Change-Up, in which Bateman plays a husband and father pining for the decade he pissed away with accomplishments, is the extent to which his co-star, the odious Ryan Reynolds, can be made palatable simply by pretending to be Jason Bateman. Bateman plays Dave Lockwood, a corporate lawyer with infant twins whose mind is so crammed with stress and sleep-training trivia that he’s always forgetting his plans with both his wife, Jamie (Leslie Mann), and his best friend, Mitch (Reynolds). Mitch is the moldy flipside in this familiar equation: He’s still listening to early Beasties, sleeps most days, and “I dated her mouth for a whole semester” is an example of both his conversation in company and the longest relationship he ever had. The two men attend a baseball game early on, and over beers discuss the precise shade of green they each envision on the other side. During some homo-social co-urination, they utter the same thing — “I wish I had your life!” — at the same time, and the jinx sticks. The next morning Dave wakes up in Mitch’s body and considerably less auspicious bachelor loft, and Mitch is faced with the flesh-and-fluid corporeality that lies behind the cozy front of domesticity. What we’re trapped in is a flurry of low-grade humor where the men rarely feel at risk and the women, revealed as the gory other lurking underneath all that verdant green grass, are ritually humiliated. Mitch has to pretend to be a lawyer, and is fouling up a big Japanese deal when he’s not treating Dave’s comely associate (Olivia Wilde) to sub-pornographic come-ons. Meanwhile, Dave has to show up for Mitch the aspiring actor’s gig, only to find out it’s a “lorno” (light porno), and his co-star is a wretchedly distorted older woman with dirigible breasts. At home Mitch’s Tuesday booty call turns out to be a massively pregnant blonde, and Leslie Mann and her bowel functions appall Mitch into celibacy. There’s a long set piece featuring irreverent cruelty to babies, and Mann is asked to give the same speech she did to Paul Rudd in Knocked Up, wherein she cries through her complaints about Dave’s inability to enjoy the perfectly nice life they have set up for themselves. Director David Dobkin, who was praised for bringing gratuitous female nudity back with the R-rated comedy Wedding Crashers, outdoes himself in The Change-Up. After Dave is schooled, on Mitch’s lorno shoot, about the strategic value of the TS and the BTS (basically: bare boob shots), they are liberally deployed in the film. But like much of The Change-Up, the effect is grim and joyless instead of lighthearted and loose. Even the pleasure in the novelty of the lead performances — Reynolds goes much farther in “doing” Bateman, who is too bogged down in profanity to have much fun with the characterization — is tainted by a script (by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore) so risibly broad it makes Wedding Crashers look like Bergman in the Hamptons. Each man teaches the other the tao of their particular brand of masculinity, and “conflict” is derived from the mutual realization that they actually don’t mind the switch as much they first feared. “I don’t know how to do your grown-up crap,” Mitch says, in awe of Dave’s array of responsibilities. “Think of yourself as a brain-damaged mule lost in the desert,” Dave says, by way of instruction. The Change-Up doesn’t have much to say about what it means to be a man, but that seems like pretty solid advice for a certain kind of comedy director.

Couric 'frustrated' at CBS News

CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and new 'Evening News' anchor Scott Pelley at Wednesday's TCA panel.Katie Couric, who spent five years anchoring "The CBS Evening News," was rarely, if ever, professionally satisfied during her tenure at the Eye.So said CBS News chairman Jeff Fager at the Television Critics Assn. confab in Beverly Hills. Fager said Couric ''was frustrated" doing the news every night and that she "realized she needed to move and spread her wings. It was not the right vehicle for her."Since her final broadcast in May, ratings for the nightly newscast have improved. Scott Pelley, a longtime correspondent on "60 Minutes," has taken over as anchor and managing editor.Fager, Pelley and CBS News president David Rhodes argued at the panel that despite budget cuts and the elimination of many worldwide bureaus -- circumstances that are evident across all broadcast news divisions -- the Eye has enough manpower to get the job done."I have experienced no lack of resources and we have had no shortage of people," Pelley said. "Shortages or resources is not something I look at every morning."Added Rhodes: "You hear how network news organizations have cut back and I don't see that we don't have what we need to do a capable job every night. I think it's a misnomer. ... You don't necessarily need physical offices in as many places to put on a credible broadcast. With new technologies, I think it's a mistake to count heads or number of bureaus."After a handful of news orgs were suspected of paying for photos, video and interviews in the recent Casey Anthony case, Fager said CBS would not go down that road to get something exclusive and a possible ratings boost.'It goes against what we believe in. We won't do it," he said. ''If others want to do it, fine. There are stories out there to tell and we don't need to get in that line of work."Now that ratings for the "CBS Evening News" are moving in the right direction, Fager said much of his attention is being paid to "The Early Show," which has gone through several personnel transformations in the last few years but is still trailing badly in the morning race behind longtime leader "Today" and "Good Morning America.""It's a big challenge for us," Fager said. "We need to focus on it."Harry Smith, who was the most recognizable face on the ayem skein, left the show at the end of last year and recently moved over to rival NBC News.When asked if morning viewing habits are too engrained to be changed, Fager answered: "I hope not." Contact Stuart Levine at stuart.levine@variety.com

Magical Elves remains a top producer

Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz have brought a bouquet of hit unscripted fare to cable and broadcast TV.'Braxton Family Values''The Real L Word''Top Chef''Work of Art'It all began at a friend's birthday party more than a decade ago. After a few too many drinks, Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth began talking about starting their own production company."I can't remember who suggested it to who, but the other person said, 'Yeah, I've been thinking about that too,'?" Cutforth recalled as he and Lipsitz sat for a joint interview recently in their Hollywood-based Magical Elves shingle.The company, officially launched 10 years ago, has been behind some of reality TV's most popular skeins, including "Top Chef" as well as "Work of Art," "The Real L Word" and "Braxton Family Values." On the theatrical side, Magical Elves reached out to the teenage girl crowd with "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never."Since they joined forces on VH1's "Bands on the Run," Cutforth and Lipsitz have developed and produced shows for an array of broadcast ("Last Comic Standing" and the upcoming "Fashion Star") and cable nets ("Project Greenlight," "Top Design" and "Dance Your Ass Off")."I never could have gotten through these last 10 years without having Dan as my partner," Lipsitz says of Cutforth, whom she met while she was an exec at VH1 overseeing and producing such shows as "Pop Up Video" and "The List."The partners finish each other's sentences so often that they originally considered calling the company Twin Talk. They agree that their partnership is similar to a longterm relationship."In a marriage you produce children and here we produce television," Lipsitz says. "Our productions are our children. There's a lot of conversations about how do you manage the kids, how do you make the television shows better."When they launched Magical Elves, the partners worked side by side and tried to do everything in tandem, but as they started to produce more shows, they were forced to split primary responsibility with certain series. Cutforth is now more directly involved in the day-to-day of Bravo's "Top Chef" franchise while Lipsitz is focused on Showtime's "The Real L Word," launching "Fashion Star" for NBC and taking the lead in development."It's definitely like a male-female thing," Lipsitz says. "Dan is very good at organization, structure and seeing how formats come together as part of a big picture. I spend a little more time on developing the emotional side of storytelling. We can definitely see the yin-yang working. We balance each other out."Lauren Zalaznick, chairman of NBC Universal Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media, first worked with Lipsitz back in 1996 when both were at VH1. By the time Zalaznick came to Bravo in 2004, Magical Elves had begun its stellar run and the executive has watched as Lipsitz and Cutforth continue to display extraordinary teamwork."They have truly a perfect team with a near-perfect relationship," she says. "Like a perfect emotional relationship or marriage or business partnership, they understand each other's brand and essence and passion and drive and craziness."With a full roster of reality shows that have many unpredictable elements, the Elves team often find itself reacting to a logistics problem, a budget situation or creative issue -- sometimes all at once."We have all these different hats we have to wear in the space of a day, and multitasking on that many levels is really hard," Cutforth says. "You're trying to drive five cars at the same time. You drive one car for a little bit and then you stop, get out and run back to where the other cars are. Then you drive another one for a little bit, stop, get out of that and maybe drive the first one for a bit more. I feel like we do a decent job of driving all those cars."Having a sense of humor has helped."What has characterized our relationship from day one is that in times of great crisis, we usually find a way to make it funny," says Cutforth. "We literally end up laughing about it and then we figure it out. First we freak out, then we laugh about the fact that we freaked out. Then we fix it."NBC reality topper Paul Teledgy says there are good reasons why Magical Elves productions are in demand, whether they have created a show themselves or are asked by a network to produce it."Dan and Jane really know what they are doing and they care deeply," he says. "We know what we are buying when we buy a Magical Elves show. Because they are 100% owners of the company, they march to the beat of their own drum creatively and from a business point of view."Producer David Nevins, who worked with Lipsitz and Cutforth on "Treasure Hunters" on NBC in 2006 and more recently on Showtime's "The Real L Word," says the Magical Elves team brings something very rare to the reality show table: "They have the instincts of real documentarians and real sophistication in how they approach their subjects."Nevins hopes they remain a unit for at least another 10 years."They have relentless creative minds and they work really well together -- pushing each other," he says. "Reality television is a medium that changes really fast and there's a constant hunger for the next thing. They are smart enough that they will stay on the cutting edge as long as they want to."Lipsitz remembers that when she and Cutforth started talking seriously about forming their own company at that birthday party more than a decade ago, they looked to Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey's World of Wonder shingle as a model."People accuse us of sort of chasing the shiny butterfly in the field, but for us that's not a bad thing," she says. "We are mindful of running a successful business, but at the same time we are guided by our creative principles."MAGICAL ELVES AT 10:Magical Elves remains a top producer | Magical moments | 'Top Chef,' top franchise | On the slate Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

VIDEO: Rhianna States Tim Gunn is "As being a Bully" Regarding Hillary Clinton

Rhianna Rhianna co-located Monday's episode from the View and also the subject of Tim Gunn's recent comments regarding Hillary Rodham Clinton's wardrobe options emerged. (Gunn had stated a week ago on Lopez Tonight, "I believe [Clinton is] unclear about her gender. Each one of these large, baggy, customized men's suits? No, I am serious.Inch) Gaga's response? "He's as being a bully. I believe Hillary Clinton has more essential things to bother with than her hemline." Since Gaga has surpassed Gunn's fashion relevance for some time now, we are more inclined to defer to her. (And also, since when does a lady selecting to put on anything have effect on her gender identity? Is Gunn residing in the '50s?) Rhianna release a photography book Watch Gaga's defense and Gunn's original comment below: And, here is a bonus video: Gaga also talked about Amy Winehouse's dying, which she stated left her without words for 48 hrs following the news broke. "The lesson ended up being to be kinder towards the celebrity. Everyone am difficult on her," stated Gaga. That discussion brought to that one on Gaga's drug history: