Review of Switching Channels (1988) by Joe S — 03 Sep 2012

"Switching Channels" is the eight filmed version of the stage play "The Front Line", updated for modern audiences with mixed results. It takes some liberties with the original story, updating the newspaper setting to a 24 hour TV news channel and makes the crime at the center of the story a drug-related killing, but there's a lot of the same characteristics that remain.

It gets a lot of mileage out of jokes about the state of reporting, and there's a lot of slapstick comedy involving the love triangle between the three primary actors. Unfortunately, that comedy only works in spurts and the lightweight tone of the picture is all but crushed by the heavy-handed direction. Ted Kotcheff is more known for his action and dramatic films and he seems unsure of how to handle this material effectively. It's a lot less fun for the audience than it apparently was for the actors.

Kathleen Turner is radiant in the lead role, and it's nice to see Burt Reynolds return to comedy after a string of box office flops in the action genre. He has a real flair for this type of film, and he gets the few big laughs here thanks to some clever writing. It's fun watching him sabotage Turner's new relationship, but regrettably in the second half, the death row inmate story takes center stage and it just isn't worth following. The film has some legitimate and pointed arguments against television news, and it beats them like a dead horse.

All of the promise early on is sucked out of "Switching Channels", and it grows more tedious with each passing minute. The game cast is let down by the oppressive direction.