STRANGE BREW

The Switch was OK. It had a few laughs, primarily due to Jason Bateman's comedic timing; he can do no wrong. It's a very weird, dark, slightly sour little comedy about a guy who hijacks his best friend's (Anniston) artificial insemination by switching the co-ingredient (donated by Patrick Wilson) with his own, inferior product. 7 years pass and wouldn't you know it -- there's a son that Bateman has never met.  Things, of course, get complicated.  Anniston is Anniston; it's yet another role she can do in her sleep.  Jeff Goldblum steals a few scenes as Bateman's sarcastic co-worker.  The the little kid playing the son was excellent, if totally unrealistically written (6 year olds aren't this smart).  As directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck from a screenplay by the prolific Allan Loeb (The Dilemma, Things We Lost in the Fire, Wall Street 2), The Switch definitely should have been rated-R and it definitely needed a few more big laughs.  It's worth a rental if you're a fan of Bateman but I'd have been pissed had I spent money to see it in the theater.  Sadly, the script doesn't do much with a funny (however messed up) premise, and Gordon/Speck's direction isn't as loose as it was with their asinine Will Ferrell comedy Blades of Glory.  It's just an odd duck of a movie.