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I recently watched Vice Versa after not seeing it since my childhood and I gotta say, for the most part it holds up pretty well today. It belongs to that beloved 80's sub-genre "Yuppies In Peril," as mentioned in my review of Funny Farm. It also attempts to cash in on a typical Yuppy malady, the mid-life crisis that can also be seen with Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron in Like Father Like Son. Hell, even George Burns got in on the action with 18 Again. For the uninitiated, these films feature a younger and older person switching bodies, reaping the benefits and suffering the consequences leading to some funny moments and self-realizations.
I feel like Vice Versa is probably the best of the bunch, mainly because the two leads really embody their counterparts. Judge Reinhold with his dopey, immature antics is perfectly matched by Fred Savage's smarmy, pissed off adult. The early scenes of their switcheroo are pure Comedy gold from Marshall/Savage telling his ride to school that he's had better days and being called a Raccoon turd by the man's son to Charlie/Reinhold jamming out in the middle of a department store.
The biggest problem I have with this movie is that it coasts along on this father-son switcheroo for a while and then in the final act completely derails and becomes a typical cheesy 80's action flick. Once "real ballbuster" Swoosie Kurtz and her bumbling henchman David Proval show up the cozy comedy ends and the dumb action begins.
If you can forgive the ending, then Vice Versa deserves it's place among 80's Comedy gems. It also has a great message about Yuppy fathers not paying enough attention to their kids. And it's got Corinne Bohrer, an underappreciated 80's babe. Plus an early cameo by Jane Lynch.
