‘The Change-Up’: Take our body-swap film quiz
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In the new comedy “The Change-Up,” Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds play two childhood friends who’ve grown into very different adults — one’s a successful lawyer and father, the other is a devil-may-care, struggling actor who enjoys playing the field. After a night of drinking they experience a freak accident at a fountain in a park and end up switching bodies.
Such swaps are a time-honored trope in Hollywood, with the ’80s seeing a particular surge. Can you name these four films from that era in which characters ended up in each other’s skin? (Answers appear below each photo)
1. In this 1984 film directed by Carl Reiner and starring Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin and Victoria Tennant, the wealthy spinster Edwina Cutwater (Tomlin) has arranged to have her soul migrate into the body of a young beauty (Tennant) but a mishap sends it instead into that of unhappy attorney Roger Cobb (Martin). Martin and Tennant married two years after the film came out.
Answer: “All of Me”
2. In this 1987 movie, Dudley Moore plays Dr. Jack Hammond, a heart surgeon, who swaps brains with his likable but not super-smart teenage son, Chris (Kirk Cameron).
Answer: “Like Father, Like Son”
3. In this 1988 film, George Burns ends up in the body of his 18-year-old grandson (Charlie Schlatter).
Answer: “18 Again!”
4. In this 1989 movie, Jason Robards plays Coleman Ettinger, who’s hoping to enter a dream state so that he and his wife, Gena (Piper Laurie), can live forever. They embark on some “transcendental” exercises on their front lawn, and just then 16-year-old Bobby (Corey Feldman) happens by, colliding with the bike-riding Lainie (Meredith Salenger), the most gorgeous girl in his school. Both are knocked momentarily unconscious; when they come to, the spirits of Coleman and Gena have entered their bodies.
Answer: “Dream a Little Dream”
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Photos, from top: Jason Bateman, left, and Ryan Reynolds in ‘The Change-Up’; Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin in ‘All of Me’; Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron in ‘Like Father, Like Son’; George Burns and Anita Morris in ’18 Again’; Meredith Salenger and Corey Feldman in ‘Dream a Little Dream.’ Credits: Richard Cartwright / Universal Pictures; Los Angeles Library; file; New World Pictures; Vestron Pictures
