Hearing Voices and Body Swapping: Things That Remind You of Ryan Reynolds

I recently saw the trailer for the Kevin Costner film Criminal and it seemed awfully familiar. From what I gathered, Kevin Costner gets implanted with Ryan Reynolds’ memories and kicks a lot of butt. Here is the IMDb synopsis and trailer.

In a last-ditch effort to stop a diabolical plot, a dead CIA operative’s memories, secrets, and skills are implanted into a death-row inmate in hopes the he will complete the operative’s mission.

.

The trailer got me thinking about the 2015 film Self/Less and it lead me down a path of random Ryan Reynolds observations. The guy has been swapping bodies/memories and hearing voices for years. The similar roles may be a coincidence, or Reynolds just loves swapping bodies and the world is finally starting to notice.The following post breaks down Reynolds long history with familiar cinematic themes.

Sidenote: I’ve left out The Nines because it felt like a stretch. Read an article with writer/director here.  

Bottleneck/Big Monster on Campus (2000)

Reynolds doesn’t swap bodies in Big Monster on Campus, he swaps brains. He plays a goth kid who is killed and brought back to life via a brain swap. The problem is he receives a serial killer brain that makes him rambunctious. I never knew about this movie before today.

.

The Amityville Horror (2005)

The Amityville Horror is a better than average horror remake that is probably only remembered for the shirtless scenes. This remake started the whole Ryan Reynolds hearing noises craze. Those pesky evil spirits told him to kill his family, and he listened.

.

The Change-Up (2011)

The Change-Up tells the age-old story of two annoying men and a magical body swap. Basically, Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds swap bodies and spout a lot of R-rated dialogue.

.

R.I.P.D. (2013)

How did this movie happen? It is an absolute mess that features terrible CGI, Jeff Bridges chewing on scenery and Reynolds dying again. The reason R.I.P.D makes the list is because when anybody in the real world sees Ryan’s paranormal cop he appears as James Wong. Hilarious!

.

The Voices (2014)

The Voices was a very pleasant surprise. It features one of Reynolds best performances (alongside Adventureland and Mississippi Grind) as an endearing schizophrenic guy named Jerry. He stars in the film and provides the voices of his Scottish-accented cat Mr. Whiskers, his dog Bosco, a weird Bunny Monkey sock puppet, and a dying deer his character hits with a car. It all sounds very odd but Reynolds holds it together perfectly.

.

Self/Less (2015)

Much Like R.I.P.D. I still don’t believe this movie actually happened. It went in and out of the theaters and I’m pretty certain everyone involved is happy about that. Self/Less tells the tale of Ben Kingsley’s terminally ill character getting his consciousness swapped into Ryan’s body. I feel really bad for the director Tarsem Singh (The Fall, The Cell, Immortals), the guy couldn’t do anything with this film.

.

 

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments.