Is this a masterpiece ? No.

Does it deserve the bad critics? No.

Let's take the movie for what it is: a light family movie you can totally enjoy during the period of Christmas.

I watched the movie with my kids yesterday (10 and 8 years) and my wife.

We all enjoyed. The jokes are not always crazy good but good enough to make us laugh and have a good time.

The movie is obviously predictable but still, it did not bother me/us that much.

I would still recommend to people with a young family. It's light, entertaining and as mentioned funny.

Even for us as parents, there are some interesting messages (again, it's not deep but still, some nice reminders here and there that I enjoyed).

Give it a shot unless light family comedies aren't your thing.

"Family Switch" sounds like a temporary title; you'd walk into a meeting room and pitch "family switch" and assure the producers you'd come up with something better. But no, the laziness of this film is so astounding, that upon realizing no one had this title before, the filmmakers (and Netflix) decided to just go with it and not really question why.

I can't pretend like Family Switch is all that terrible; it crosses into "so bad it's good territory", particularly towards the end. The entire "high school partying" scene is truly glorious in how bizarre it is. The human interactions feel mechanical and strange, as if the writers had never been around humans before or been to a party. It was this moment when I began to suspect that this movie was in fact, not written by humans, but by an AI. (I'm only half joking)

Because everything else feels like an amalgamation of everything you've seen before in every family comedy ever made. What, you're telling me this zany body switch just-so-happens to occur at the time when EVERYONE has this big thing they need to do, with major implications for their future? NO WAY. And, it just so happens that everything just kinda sorta works out in the end? Color me surprised.

To be fair, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the performances. Jennifer Garner is pretty good here, probably because she's played this sort of role before. Emma Myers is also quite good as well, and surprisingly, the best out of the bunch. There are also some genuinely funny moments with the two of them, if they aren't a bit juvenile (I don't consider myself too refined for a well time fart joke).

But Ed Helms and Brady Noon...what on Earth was going on with these too? I get Helms' character Bill (truly memorable name, I know) is simultaneously the lamest Dad you could imagine, but also impossibly charming and suave? I guess the idea is that in a teenager's body, he could be "cool" again, but it's never really communicated properly.

Oh, and just to further my AI theory, this film is set at Christmas and is marketed as a "Christmas movie," but I can't consider it one in good conscious. It's a film "set at Christmas", but aside from a generic "appreciate your family" message, this film has barely anything to do with Christmas. Iron Man 3 is more of a Christmas movie than this one.

Still, I do think if you have some time to kill, this movie can be funny to watch in an awkward, cringe inducing sort of way. I guess that's fine.

This is a cute, feel-good movie that made me laugh out loud a few times and kept me entertained the rest of the time.

This falls squarely in the genre of "Disney-esque" movies that take place during the holidays, with lots of festive bells jingling and ding-donging throughout the score.

I wasn't expecting to raise my IQ by watching it, and of course I didn't. Nor was I expecting a transcendent work of cinematic art, and it wasn't.

But the acting was solid from all characters, the premise (while ridiculous, as all of these "body-swapping" stories are, unapologetically!) remained pretty steady throughout, and although it was predictable and formulaic, it wasn't over-the-top corny. (Sure, it was a little corny, but not TOO bad.)

There's even a cute dance sequence in the middle of the movie that turned suddenly sentimental and made me tear up for no discernable reason except that I am a pathetic sap, lol.

I enjoyed it and would recommend it if, like me, you enjoy sometimes just turning your brain off for a bit during the holidays, and watching something that's basically the cinematic equivalent of a warm snowman-shaped sugar cookie.