The Greatest Physique-Swap Films to Amuse Audiences
The underwhelming Netflix comedy Family Switch (“A dad joke of a movie,” according to critic Nell Minow) reminds us of two things. First, the appeal of body-swap movies for filmmakers remains undimmed even after a century or so of service and a multitude of examples in every category imaginable.
And second, as evidenced below, many body-swap movies knock Family Switch into the proverbial cocked hat.
The genre has a surprising number of classic hits fans love, as well as some underrated gems you forgot about.
1. Big (1988)
In a star-making turn, Tom Hanks plays Josh Baskin, a 12-year-old kid who wakes one morning to find he’s metamorphized into an adult. Initially alarmed by his Kafka-lite transformation, Josh quickly turns it to his advantage, employing his authentic childlike naivety to land a job as a top-level toy tester.
It doesn’t take long for the challenges of adulthood – work, relationships, ear hair etc. – begin to bear down, persuading Josh that a kid’s life has its attractions after all (even if it means he can’t sleep with grown-up girlfriend Elizabeth Perkins anymore).
2. Get Out (2017)
Not a body-swap movie in the conventional sense – as if there’s anything conventional about Jordan Peele’s game-changing psychological horror – this one offers something far more sinister: extreme cultural appropriation, vis a vis elderly white folk using hypnotherapy/brain surgery to usurp the bodies of young Blacks.
3. Being John Malkovich (1999)
If the title of writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze debut collaboration shouts “self-serious biopic,” the premise – sad-sack puppeteer John Cusack discovers a gateway into John Malkovich’s head, allowing anyone to experience the world from the award-winning actor’s perspective for fifteen minutes – positively screams “Hey, everyone, look how wacky we can be!”
The reality brilliantly sustains comedy-drama, employing its surreal concept as less showy gimmick and more a means to explore weighty issues of love and identity. Naturally, Malkovich plays himself, memorably pushing the meta envelope at one point to take charge of a scene populated entirely with ersatz versions of himself.
4. Face/Off (1997)
Thanks to some radical cosmetic surgery, international terrorist Nic Cage switches places with arch nemesis FBI Special Agent John Travolta in this ultra-stylish, neo-noir action thriller from John Woo, the Stanley Kubrick of ultra-stylish, neo-noir action thrillers.
5. The Fly (1986)
King of body horror David Cronenberg outdoes himself with this surprisingly moving tale of an obsessive scientist (Jeff Goldblum) experimenting with teleportation and getting his DNA all mixed up with a fly’s, triggering his gradual mutation into a monstrous human-insect hybrid.
So, technically, it qualifies as a body-fusion movie rather than a body-swap, but it’s way too good to leave out.
6. Your Name (2016)
Captivating anime from Makoto Shinkai, starring Ryunosuke Kamiki and Mone Kamishiraishi as two high-school students, one living in Tokyo, the other in the faraway region of Gifu Prefecture, who begin inexplicably to inhabit each other’s bodies.
Inspired by the frequency of natural disasters in Japan and delving into issues of compassion, destiny, and the transcendent power of love, Your Name wowed critics and audiences worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing Japanese film of all time.
7. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
As the title suggests, a little more goes on in writer-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s genre-defying magnum opus than a brief summary can handle.
But a body-swap element pervades, with Michelle Yeoh ping-ponging between pan-dimensional versions of herself to prevent a malignant superbeing trashing the multiverse.
8. All of Me (1984)
When a spiritual transfer ceremony goes haywire, laid-back lawyer Steve Martin gets accidentally possessed by uptight heiress Lily Tomlin in this cracking contemporary screwball from director Carl Reiner. Consummate verbal sparring abounds, likewise matchless rubber-limbed physicality from Martin.
9. 13 Going on 30 (2004)
Jennifer Garner turns on the charm as a giggly adolescent ensconced in the body of a sophisticated young woman, with all the comedy-of-manners merriment that allows. Childlike but never childish, Garner’s delightful performance elevates proceedings far above the well-worn premise.
10. Freaky Friday (1976)
A top-drawer teen comedy, based on the 1972 novel by Mary Rogers.
Mother and daughter Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris heal their strained relationship by magically switching bodies for a day, learning valuable lessons about communication, empathy and water-skiing along the way. An only slightly less top-drawer remake followed in 2003, with Lindsey Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis in the leads.
11. Freaky (2020)
Low-budget, high-quality slasher-comedy inspired by the above with Vince Vaughan as a mythic serial killer switching bodies with high-school cheerleader Kathryn Newton, leaving him to pursue his gruesome hobby incognito and her with some explaining to do.
12. Heaven Can Wait (1978)
In a successful retread of 1941’s Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Warren Beatty stars as an NFL quarterback sent prematurely to the big locker room in the sky and brought back to earth by his errant guardian angel in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.
13. Runaway Brain (1995)
A bizarre Disney short in which Mickey, short of dough to buy Minnie an anniversary present, volunteers for a brain-swap op with a massive shambling monster.
14. The Skeleton Key (2005)
This underrated Southern Gothic horror stars Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, and Peter Sarsgaard in a plot generously laced with hoodoo ritual and endowed with a diabolical body-swap plot that owes nothing whatsoever to family-friendly fare of the Freaky Friday ilk.
15. 17 Again (2009)
Feeling the pinch of middle age, Mike O’Donnell (Matthew Perry) gets to relive his teens in the body of his younger self (Zac Effron, flexing impressive comedy chops). Hilarity of the toe-curling variety ensues with Mike enrolling in high school alongside his own teenage daughter.
16. Vice Versa (1988)
The great-grandaddy/mommy of all body-swap yarns (not counting Frankenstein author Mary Shelley’s 1870 short story “Transformation” of course), Vice Versa dates to an 1882 novel by English author F. Anstey in which a father and son switch identities. 1916 saw the first film adaptation, with remakes appearing in 1948 and 1981.
The well-received 1988 version stars Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage as the generational switchees. Savage acquits himself well in the dad role, but Reinhold flounders. “He plays an 11-year-old boy less like an 11-year-old boy,” noted The Guardian‘s Stuart Heritage, “and more like an adult who has sustained concussive trauma to his skull.”
17. Nine Lives (2016)
Businessman Kevin Spacey radically reassesses his work-life balance after transmogrifying into his teen daughter’s pet cat, Mr. Fuzzypants.
18. The Green-Eyed Elephant (1960)
A pair of aspiring actresses discover an ancient Aztec effigy that allows them to exchange bodies at will. Denmark’s entry into the body-swap fray wins no prizes for originality but does reflect the concept’s international reach.
It holds a certain interest for being written, produced, and directed by semi-legendary Hollywood figure Sidney W. Pink, dubbed the father of 3D cinema for his groundbreaking 1952 movie Bwana Devil.
19. The Mephisto Waltz (1971)
This creepy supernatural thriller stars Alan Alda as a dying devil-worshiper who implants his soul into a young concert pianist (Jacqueline Bisset). No great shakes but worth the candle for the great Jerry Goldsmith’s spine-chilling score.
20. The Hot Chick (2002)
Rob Schneider takes body-swap movies to new levels of adequacy as a small-time crook swapping bodies with bratty teen Rachel McAdams. Yes, Adam Sandler does a cameo. And yes, the Family Switch/cocked hat scenario holds true, believe it or not.
The post The Best Body-Swap Movies to Amuse Audiences first appeared on Wealth of Geeks.
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