FREAKIER FRIDAY:
SECOND LINDSAY LOHAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS BODY-SWAP IS A LIGHTHEARTED GOOD TIME!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
DISNEY
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis in Freakier Friday
Lindsay Lohan (The Parent Trap (1998), Mean Girls, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween franchise, A Fish Called Wanda, Everything Everywhere All at Once) are back as Anna and Tess Coleman in Freakier Friday, the much anticipated sequel to the 2003 remake of the 1976 Disney comedy, Freaky Friday. I really liked Disney’s 2003 remake of Freaky Friday and think it’s one of the rare remakes of a Disney film that’s actually better than the original as it modernized the premise of the 1976 movie and took full advantage of the possibilities (Teenage daughter in the workplace, mother has to learn rock n roll, etc.).
Not to mention incredible performances from both Lohan and Curtis as the mother stuck in the teenage daughter’s body and the teenage daughter stuck in the mother’s body. The latter in particular is one of the most consistently funny things in that movie long before Jack Black learned to act like a teenage girl in the Jumanji sequels.
Now we have this sequel released 22 years later with Lohan and Curtis reprising their roles and Nisha Ganatra (Cake, Late Night, The High Note) taking over directing duties from Mark Waters. I was skeptical about this when it was announced for various reasons, the over two-decade gap in-between movies and the fact most comedy sequels often don’t live up to their predecessors.
Still, I was at least interested in seeing what they would do with a Freaky Friday sequel and it would be nice to see Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis together again regardless of how it turns out. Well, I can say that Freakier Friday is…not bad!
It’s honestly hard to be super critical about a movie like this because it gives exactly what you’d expect and doesn’t try to reinvent the Freaky Friday formula or anything like that, it just does the same thing except bigger. But Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are doing their thing again so I can’t complain and they are still wonderful all these years later.
The film is set 22 years after the first and follows Anna Coleman (Lohan), now a music producer and mother to teenage daughter, Harper (Julia Butters-13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Fabelmans) falling in love with British single father, Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto-The Good Place, Top Gun: Maverick, The Acolyte) and the two of them get engaged. Unfortunately, Harper and Eric’s daughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons-The Social Dilemma, Under Wraps, The Absence of Eden) don’t exactly get along and are always at each other’s throats.
After another fateful night, Anna, her mother Tess (Curtis), Harper, and Lily magically switch bodies with mom and grandma becoming the kids and the daughters are now the adults. Just like last time, Anna, Tess, Harper, and Lily will all need to learn a lesson in order to switch back.
The film also stars Mark Harmon (Wyatt Earp, NCIS, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) reprising his role as Tess’ husband Ryan, Chad Michael Murray (Dawson’s Creek, A Cinderella Story, Riverdale) reprising his role as Anna’s ex-boyfriend Jake, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever, Turning Red) as Ella, Rosalind Chao (The Joy Luck Club, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mulan (2020)) reprising her role as Chinese restaurant owner Pei-Pei, Stephen Tobolowsky (Thelma & Louise, Basic Instinct, Poolman) reprising his role as Anna’s former teacher Mr. Elton Bates, and Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live, Trainwreck, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) as fortune teller Madame Jen.
Overall, Freakier Friday is a perfectly fine follow-up to a Disney movie that’s over 20 years old that doesn’t demand much from its audience and focuses more on giving them a good time instead. It’s a perfect fluff movie which isn’t a strike against it because it is done well enough and there are some genuinely entertaining moments, particularly the performances of Lohan and Curtis again.
Jamie Lee Curtis gets a lot of laughs as another young person trapped in an old lady’s body though this time she becomes the British stepdaughter (No accent when she changes). But whether she’s Lindsay Lohan or Sophia Hammons, Jamie Lee Curtis acting like a teenage girl that’s pretending to be an adult will always be funny and it’s neat that this is one of her performances after winning her Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Lindsay Lohan is also great and I’ve been enjoying this new era of movies for her as she appeared in the Mean Girls musical remake last year and now she’s reprising another iconic role of hers from the 2000s. She nails the comedy while also delivering a lot of heart to this film whether as herself or as her daughter in her body, Lohan is talented, what more can I say?
Even Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons are standouts as the daughter and stepdaughter and one thing I really appreciate is that neither one of them is insufferable. Despite them constantly clashing with each other, I understood what they’re going through and over the course of the film you see them bond together and grow by the end.
I do think this movie is a bit too long and there are times where the film drags, but I get it since it’s about four people switching bodies instead of just two and you need to devote enough time to everyone. Personally, I think there are better ways of doing this instead of having Lohan and Curtis in Butters and Hammons’ bodies scraping gum off the bleachers in detention, you feel me?
If you’re very nostalgic for the 2003 Freaky Friday then you’ll probably have a good time with Freakier Fridayand enjoy seeing familiar faces from over 20 years ago again. It’s got more of what people loved about its predecessor but doubled and they crank up the goofiness while also blending it with some genuine heart and strong messages about family, it honestly took me back to the 90s and 2000s when Disney would crank these types of films out all the time.
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