notalwaysweak I swear I was trying to pay attention but after a while the male characters started to kind of blend together until I couldn't quite tell who was who. It was all brown hair and moustaches and aside from the black guy and the big guy they were so same-y.The DVD blurb made the movie sound more interesting than I thought it was. It felt very slow-paced for something that was meant to be 'action-filled'.Also the large chunk of racism and anti-Semitism was just... weird. I don't know whether that was where the 'comedic gem' part was supposed to come in; if so it really didn't work.Always like Jennifer Aniston, and she played her role well, but sadly she was the only bright spot in this movie.

MovieHoliks I just saw this adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, "The Switch" off Amazon Prime the other day, and it's a winner! If you recall the 1997 Quentin Tarantino film, "Jackie Brown" (which was based on Leonard's novel, "Rum Punch"), this is sort of a prequel to that, using the same characters. John Hawkes and Yasiin Bey (AKA "Mos Def") play the same two characters Robert DeNiro and Samuel L. Jackson played in that earlier Tarantino picture. This time, they take for ransom the wife (Jennifer Aniston) of a wealthy man (Tim Robbins), who they believe will cough up some big dough for her, but upon realizing what's going on, she doesn't believe the money will be coming through. The heart of this film is the relationship between Hawkes and Aniston, who develop a sorta romantic thing while this whole ordeal is going on. I first remember Hawkes as the "Crab Shack" guy on an early '90s episode of "Wings", but wow, in recent years has he come into his own as a film actor- with the likes of movies such as "The Surrogate", "Me and You and Everyone We Know", etc.. Well, anyway, that's the reason to check out this movie, plus like with most Leonard-based films- so much going on at once- and a lot of fun in a darkly-comic-film-noir-type way. Thumbs up!

moonspinner55 Serio-comic adaptation of Elmore Leonard's crime novel "The Switch" features a scenario that is well played-out by now: unhappily married woman, whose wealthy husband is a cheat and a swindler, is kidnapped by amateurs who ask for a million dollars in ransom; her husband, being a heartless snake with no morals, is reluctant to pay it. Well-cast but rather ungainly production, with both a direction and screenplay by Daniel Schechter that weaken as the film progresses, leading to an uninteresting final act. Jennifer Aniston and Tim Robbins are excellent as the couple in question, but Will Forte is wasted as a weak-kneed Lothario and Eric Alan Edwards' cinematography is disappointing, with cheap green-screen shots that give the picture a TV-movie feel. ** from ****

SnoopyStyle It's 1978 Detroit. Louis Gara (John Hawkes) and Ordell Robbie (Yasiin Bey) are petty criminal best friends. Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins) is a brash abusive real-estate developer. While Frank and his son Bo are away, Louis and Ordell with neo-Nazi Richard Monk kidnap Frank's wife Mickey (Jennifer Aniston). Marshall Taylor (Will Forte) had interrupted the kidnapping but he is unwilling to reveal the crime. Meanwhile Frank is in the Bahamas with girlfriend Melanie (Isla Fisher). He tells her that he's getting divorced. The kidnappers want $1 million ransom but it's questionable if Frank would ever pay.This is an Elmore Leonard movie or a pale imitation of one. It has the bare bones of unconventional lowlife characters and their desperate eccentric idiocy that is the world of Elmore Leonard. It has some good actors. There are some fun wild moments like a lit cigarette in the eye. However Daniel Schechter doesn't have quite enough skills to bring Elmore's words into full bloom.