PREMIERE HOP - Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Change-Up

How lucky can I be?  Two successful hops in a row, and not only that, but this one was a not-yet-released-movie hop!  And get this, last weekend was Cowboys & Aliens (with Olivia Wilde) and Horrible Bosses (with Jason Bateman) and in this hop I saw The Change-Up which starred them both! (and for those who care, Wilde oddly enough has bare-breast moments in both) Crazier things may have happened, but this definitely counts in my book of crazy.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - The film is based in San Francisco, so fun times watching the apes wreak havoc on the Golden Gate Bridge and ride the cable car like they own the place.  Mediocre acting on the part of James Franco, reminded me of his dismal performance hosting the 2011 Oscars.  Some of the CGI work on the apes was fantastic; mainly the close-ups as the appearance of apes in large numbers looked rather phony.  But it is rather difficult to make large numbers appear believable, in my opinion so far only the LOTR peeps really made it work.  A couple great "hells yeah" moments where you might have difficulty not fist-pumping the air, but overall don't go in with high expectations.

THE CHANGE-UP - This movie was way better than I thought it was going to be.  The pairing of Reynolds and Bateman is absolute gold, their comedic timing together is effortless.  I was laughing and cringing and having a grand ol' time during the screening, and at one point even erupted in spontaneous applause.  Have no clear recollection why, but at the moment seemed the right thing to do.  You may think you have seen this movie before, with the age-old "oh-no-our-bodies-have-been-switched" plot, but no matter how you felt about it in the past you should hit this flick up.  Even the  sappy moments, which I usually cannot stand, are tolerable (and for me that is saying a lot!)