That was an excellent one.

Pretty Good

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, Perry King, JoBeth Williams and Lorraine Bracco star in Blake Edwards' 1991 comedy. King (Class of 1984) plays Steven Brooks, a philandering, ad exec who gets shot by 3 women. He's sent back to earth, but must live as a female, Amanda (Barkin) and find love in order to go to heaven. Smits (Running Scared) plays his best pal, Walter, Williams (Poltergeist) plays Margo, one of Steven's girlfriends/lovers and Bracco (Goodfellas) plays Sheila, a businesswoman. This is a pretty good comedy that sort of shares similarities with "Oh God, You Devil!" and "Heaven Can Wait," Barkin is great in it and she and Smits have good chemistry. I recommend this.

Sorry, Charlie, only good looking men who know how to treat a woman get to avoid the fate of Perry King here. The early 60's Broadway play "Goodbye Charlie" (starring Lauren Bacall) which became a flop movie starring Debbie Reynolds became the basis for this Blake Edwards update where the individual mistresses of a naughty New York playboy get together and plan his demise. His death isn't going to be an easy one. The three of these women don't have the strength to hold his head underwater, so it's finally a gunshot which does him in and sends him straight to hell where it is judged that he must return to life inside a woman's body with the same mind and find somebody who really loves him/her within a set period of time, otherwise be eternally damned.Coming back to earth in this classic variation on "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" and its remake "Heaven Can Wait", King changes into the sultry voiced Ellen Barkin, and when he wakes up after having a supposed nightmare of being murdered and finds out that he's now a woman, he/she confronts his/her "killers" and thus begins a scheme of blackmail and life living as a woman, pretty much doing the same thing all over again. But a he-man like the deceased King isn't going to play around with men; this "switch" makes him/her go from "playboy" to "playgirl", a lesbian who seduces a woman simply to get a business deal through and ultimately breaks her heart just as he had done with the women who did him in.Along the way, there's his best buddy, Jimmy Smits, not as much of a playboy, or at least with a bit more ethics, and when the new best buddies of man and woman have a bit too much to drink, it ends up in a scene that some people might classify as date rape. That is one element which some of the critics truly found disturbing and why some panned it. But there couldn't be the final plot twist without that, so sometimes a writer has to take liberties with good taste in order to satisfy the storyline. The performances of Barkin and Smits are excellent, and her reaction to what happens with them is priceless, as is the twist which occurs because of their one-time encounter.In supporting roles, Tony Roberts, Jobeth Williams and Lorraine Bracco are all excellent. Williams is a tough straight broad who tells it the way she feels, especially when encountering a woman who comments on her mink, "Do you realize how many poor animals had to die so you could get that coat?". Roberts plays King and Smit's boss who is an older version of King's sleazy character, and when Smits gets the axe, he gives him an outstanding exit line. From the moment you see Bracco, she is truly unforgettable as the lonely lesbian Barkin takes advantage of. You can see she's been used by men which is why she switched to women (another controversial plot element which probably disturbed a lot of lesbians), but there's a light sense of reality to her pain.This is a film which is going to give a lot of mixed emotions to people, certainly not a flawless film, but one which deserved to get a bit more acclaim than it received. It's probably because of Barkin's energetic performance that made me like this as much as I did, but it's also the gorgeous Joni Mitchell song which opens and closes the film, and really gives some morality to an otherwise shady story. Take this movie for the statement it is trying to make on male/female relationships and the theory that people really can change when destiny calls for it. They may not need to be murdered and brought back in the body of the opposite sex to do it, but there is certainly hope for everybody.

Switch is just one of those movies you just have to love.Touching on offensive subject matter and being socially inappropriate by today's censored standards it tells the story of a womanizer named Steve who is murdered by 3 of his ex lovers for being a male chauvinistic pig. He crosses over into a sort of limbo and being thats he's been so bad to the opposite sex is sent back to earth to find one female who truly loves him. He than can move on to heaven but if he can't will go straight to hell. The woman he becomes is played by a young Ellen Barkin in her sexual prime and comic glory.Creative laughs ensue as he deals with homosexuality, struggles of sexism in the workplace and world, repercussions of his past actions from women and advances from all kinds of men including his best friend played charmingly by the than hunky Jimmy Smits. The movie is smart funny and wholly original in its exploration of its premise and even raunchy and envelop pushing by todays standards. Although not a perfect film there are some pacing issues and questionable directorial approaches on how he approaches the material times. Switch is still a great movie as timely as ever showing us just how little we've progressed in the age old war between the sexes not to say their hasn't been a lot of progress but we still have a ways to go.

What a way to go. When a man mistreats a woman, he comes back as one. In the movie "Switch", it makes all sense. Perry King known as Cody on NBC's "RipTide" plays Steve Brooks, a known playboy who gets his just desserts. During a night out with some ex-girlfriends, he gets a taste of his own medicine and then some. He gets killed. In the Bible, adulterers and fornicators have their part in the lake of fire. However, he does get a second chance of life. Not as Steve, but as Amanda(Ellen Barkin). His best friend Walter(Jimmy Smits, LA LAW and NYPD BLUE) starts to get suspicious of her. Not knowing that Steve was killed by the exes, it's up to Amanda to nail his killers. When Walter and Amanda get married, the relationship is short. She has a daughter and dies. At least there was some redemption there. Born a man, see the errors of your ways as a woman and get to Heaven. Most men would wise up from their playboy ways, and there are those who just don't get it. A very good movie, and got some biblical sense in it as well. 3 out of 5 stars!