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Switching Channels

Switching Channels

Comedy · 1988

A television news chief courts his anchorwoman ex-wife with an eleventh-hour story.

Movie details

Switching Channels

“There's a lot more going on around here than news, weather, and sports.”

1988 Comedy 1h 45m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

5.9 / 10

4.2K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

60 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A television news chief courts his anchorwoman ex-wife with an eleventh-hour story.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Switching Channels?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Ted Kotcheff

Written by

Ben Hecht · Charles MacArthur · Jonathan Reynolds

Kathleen Turner

Kathleen Turner

Christy Colleran

Burt Reynolds

Burt Reynolds

John L. Sullivan IV

Christopher Reeve

Christopher Reeve

Blaine Bingham

Ned Beatty

Ned Beatty

Roy Ridnitz

Henry Gibson

Henry Gibson

Ike Roscoe

George Newbern

George Newbern

Siegenthaler

Al Waxman

Al Waxman

Berger

Court is in session

Put Switching Channels on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Popcorn Loyalist

“It owes the canon nothing.”

The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.

The prosecution The Big-Idea Head

“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”

It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.