I watched Opposite Day yesterday and it was possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. My wife couldn't believe how awful it was either - we both like kids movies and even a lot of movies that people say are terrible don't seem too bad when we keep in mind that they are for kids. I have enjoyed children's movies starring Pauly Shore, Jim Varney as Ernest P. Worrel, Hulk Hogan, and most recently Jackie Chan and Dwayne Johnson. However, Opposite Day was terrible; I'm talking Baby Geniuses 2 terrible.
It seemed as if the writer of Opposite Day didn't know his own plot. Situations presented for supposedly comedic effect were not indicative of the alternate reality that we were supposed to accept. The script was also filled with throwaway dialog that was humorless even for children too young to understand simple jokes.
The director seemed to think the audience was dumb (over explaining concepts that ruin the suspension of belief even in young children). Maybe he was overcompensating for the horrible writing. The shot angles were adequate, but I don't think the director had a plan.
I also think the acting would have been better with a different director - some characters in kids movies must overact to emphasize their emotions for people who may not otherwise understand (very young kids); in Opposite Day there were no subtle characters which causes the effect to be lost on young and old alike. The movie had some good actors; George Wendt, Ariel Winter, etc, but they must have been told how to perform scenes rather than the director letting their abilities carry them.
I'm not trying to over analyze the movie. I am willing to glaze over most faults I find in a movie like this. However, I should have turned this movie off way before it turned me off so entirely. I do not see how anyone can truly enjoy this this movie. It is not so much that it is stupid, it is that the writing doesn't even try to be funny.
At one point a character says "We're going to have so much fun it will be coming out our ears!" and the kids laugh hysterically. I really think that was supposed to be a funny one-liner, but can't tell. This movie lacks humor and tries to rely on sight gags that not only get tiresome from repetition, they are so dumb that a typical child will have his/her intelligence insulted. My 5yo son loves movies, but was bored with this - anyone older than him would not even care enough to make a joke like "This film is great - WAIT - it's Opposite Day!"
