List: Body-Switching Movies

Posted on April 13, 2009 at 10:00 am

This week’s release of “17 Again,” starring Zac Efron and Matthew Perry, about a middle-aged man who finds himself turned back into a teenager, reminded me of some of my favorite “body-switching” movies.

1. Freaky Friday Both feature film versions of the classic book about a mother and daughter who switch bodies are delightful and it is fun to see them both and talk about the way each one reflects its era. Be sure to read the book by Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein).

2. Vice Versa Judge Reinhold and “Wonder Years'” Fred Savage play the body-switching father and son in this 1988 comedy.

3. All of Me This very funny story about a wealthy lifelong invalid who wants her spirit to find a healthy body has lawyer Steve Martin is inhabited by the spirit of Lily Tomlin (some mature material).

4. Face/Off It’s actually not the bodies but the faces that switch in this fantasy-thriller that has cop Nicolas Cage swapping his face and voice with criminal John Travolta (very mature material).

5. Dating the Enemy A pair switches not just bodies but genders in this story about an estranged couple about to break up find themselves in each other’s bodies in this Australian film starring Guy Pearce.

6. Big One of the most beloved films in this category has Tom Hanks as a boy in a grown-up body. It includes the “Chopsticks” scene, with Hanks and Robert Loggia jumping over an enormous keyboard to play the song. (Some mature material)

7. Turnabout This odd little 1940 comedy has a married couple switching bodies thanks to a magical statue in their bedroom.

8. Prelude to a Kiss Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan fall in love and then on their wedding day an old man gives her a kiss and what began as a fairly standard romance becomes a meditation on identity and intimacy.

9. Being John Malkovich A brilliant screenplay by Charlie Kauffman explores the nature of identity, art, gender, the wish for immortality, and a lot more in this story of a portal to the mind of actor Malkovich (who appears as himself, sort of). (Very mature material)

10. 18 Again! and Seventeen Again Body-switching skips a generation as grandparents find themselves teenagers again in these two movies, one starring George Burns and the other starring Tia and Tamera Mowry.

Others in this category include Goodbye Charlie and Switch (both about lotharios whose spirits come back as women) and A Saintly Switch, a Disney film with Viveca A. Fox and David Allen Grier as a quarreling pregnant woman and her football player husband who switch bodies thanks to a magical potion.

Related Tags:

List: Crunchy Conservative Movies

Posted on April 12, 2009 at 8:11 am

My fellow blogger (and movie maven) Ron Dreher is compiling a list of Crunchy Con movies on his blog, which promotes the ideas of traditionalist conservatives who support environmental conservation, frugal living, and the preservation of traditional family values. Take a look at what he has come up with and some of the ideas from commenters. Just about all the movies are great choices, especially if they lead to a debate about the validity of their being interpreted as “conservative” or “liberal.”

Related Tags:

For Your Netflix Queue

Tribute: Maurice Jarre

Posted on April 5, 2009 at 8:12 pm

Maurice Jarre wrote soundtracks for movies that became the soundtracks for our lives. The lush romantic score for Dr Zhivago (known as “Somewhere My Love”) is inseparable from the snowy vistas of the story. The sweep of his score for Lawrence of Arabia perfectly matched the endless sweep of the desert and the endless competing ambitions of the title character. Both won Oscars as did a third score Jarre did for director David Lean, A Passage to India. Other memorable scores included “Fatal Attraction,” “The Year of Living Dangerously,” and “Dead Poet’s Society.”

Movie Aliens

Posted on April 5, 2009 at 8:00 am

Be sure to check out Paul Asay’s great gallery of movie aliens. I was very pleased to see that he included my beloved Galaxy Quest along with classics like E.T., “Cocoon,” and the original The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Some of my favorites that were not on his list include Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, and Damon Wayans in “Earth Girls are Easy,” assorted characters in the “Star Trek” (especially Mr. Spock and the Tribbles) and “Star Wars” movies (especially Chewbacca), John Candy in “Spaceballs,” Jeff Bridges in “Starman,” and just about everyone in “Men in Black.” galaxy quest.jpg And we can’t forget the children from the original, sequel, and recent “re-imagined” Witch Mountain movies, the oddballs in what many people consider the best worst movie of all time, “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” and what many people consider one of the worst worst movies of all time, “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.”
A special shout-out to Patrick Breen (second from the left in the photo), who played wonderful aliens in “Men in Black” and “Galaxy Quest!”

Related Tags:

For Your Netflix Queue

The Big Bad Swim

Posted on April 4, 2009 at 6:02 pm

I am a bit of a softie when it comes to those movies about diverse groups of people who come together to learn something new like tap dancing (“Stepping Out” with Liza Minnelli) or ballroom dancing (“Shall We Dance” with Richard Gere) or Italian (“Italian for Beginners”). We get to see glimpses of lots of different characters and stories and we get to see the way that they engage with new challenges and are transformed by their sense of accomplishment, new skills, and relationships.

I really enjoyed a quiet little movie in this genre called The Big Bad Swim. A group of people sign up for a swim class at a local rec center. It is a special class for people who are reluctant or scared of the water. The students include a recently divorced calculus teacher, a cop, a casino dealer/stripper, and a couple with a new pool. The movie skillfully interweaves the characters and their relationships with the kind of messy authenticity and respect for the audience that makes independent films so engaging. The performances are exceptionally layered and true, especially Paget Brewster as the teacher, and the little coda after the credits is delightful. This has very mature material, including sexual references and situations, drinking and drug use, and some very bad decisions, but is well worth a look for fans of independent film and good stories.