Freakier Friday

I just got out of Freakier Friday.

A legacy sequel to a fun remake. What can go wrong??

Not a lot, really, I liked the Jodie Foster version and had fun with the remake. This was when Lohan was at the top of her games.

Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are front and centre in this, (which I'm glad about, as I was worried the younger cast were going to dominate) and they still play well off each other!! There scenes were my favourite in the movie. The other girls, Julia Butters who plays Lohan's daughter (and later Lohan) and Sophia Hammond who plays Lohan's soon to be daughter in law (and later Jamie Lee Curtis) are both great, too. Manny Jacinto is perfect as Lohan's husband to be, Mark Harmon is back, but isn't given much to do and I don't think he even shared a scene with Lohan.

The ending is quite emotional, it does have a lot of heart to it. Especially if you have kids or have lost a parent.

This feels like this was filmed as a streaming movie, that the decided to go theatrical, with. It just feels small scale. It is a bit convoluted and the swapping around is more than a bit confusing at first. A few times, I had to take a minute and think who I was watching!! It has pacing issues, but when the premise is this complicated, it's to be expected and the dialogue can often be clunky and awkward.

Overall I liked it, it was good to see Lohan back on the big screen.

Freakier Friday is the sequel to Freaky Friday from 2003. This follow-up is directed by Nisha Ganatra, known for Late Night and Transparent.

Twenty-two years after Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Anna (Lindsay Lohan) experienced a body swap, a lot has changed. Anna is now a mother herself to daughter Harper (Julia Butters) and soon-to-be stepmother to stepdaughter Lily (Sophia Hammons). She is trying to take on the challenge of keeping a blended family running smoothly.

After a special incident, they find themselves swapping bodies again - but this time, the daughter and stepdaughter are also involved. Until they manage to switch back, the four must try to function in each other's lives. That's quite a challenge, as a lot has changed in 22 years, and there is still much to learn.

This sequel, set 22 years later, essentially copies the story of the first film but makes it bigger by adding extra characters. This not only makes it more extensive but also somewhat more complicated, as this time you follow four characters who have swapped bodies. That can make it tricky to keep track of what each of them is doing.

Despite the repetition, the film plays nicely into modern-day topics, in which different age groups can recognize themselves, and it shows how varied the worldview can be between generations. This leads to several comedic moments. The film also appeals to fans of the original, who have grown older themselves and may now face relatable life situations or changes, just like the characters.

Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons convincingly portray older people trapped in younger bodies, delivering believable performances. For Jamie Lee Curtis, even though it's yet another body swap - this time from granddaughter to grandmother - she still manages to create comedic moments and do remarkable things for someone her age. It's also a treat to see Lindsay Lohan return to her role. Compared to when she starred in the first film, she has faced many dark moments in her life, but she has now been sober for several years and is living a healthy lifestyle again.

There are actually three iterations of "Freaky Friday," including the 1976 one with Jodie Foster, the one with Shelley Long in 1995, and the one with Jamie Lee and Lindsay from 2003. This is the only one with a sequel, and for the most part, it's a fun ride.

For Jamie Lee, she might have longed for a chance to do something fun besides the endless "Halloween" rehashes, and for Lindsay, it's just nice to see her in a major movie again after Jamie Lee coaxed her into it (according to the trivia entries) and they are both part of the producer team.

This movie demands your full attention and almost completely requires the viewer to have seen the first one because there are so many nods to it. Without giving too much away, this time there are four, count 'em, four people involved in the body swap, and sometimes it did get confusing to follow who is in whose body.

Maybe the best thing is that it has captured the spirit of the best live-action Disney comedies going back decades because of the mix of silly fun and sentimentality. It also has relatable bits for today's teens, millennials, Gen X-ers, and of course boomers. Even young children will enjoy the spectacle of a food fight in an earlier scene and older people acting silly in later scenes, such as by careening around in a classic Chevy Camaro.

The men involved make the most of their roles, too as with Manny Jacinto, Annabelle's new love interest, Chad Michael Murray reappearing as Jake from the first one (and STILL uncannily attracted to Jamie Lee's Tess), and of course handsome Mark Harmon radiates California cool halfway into his seventh decade.

It all comes to a very satisfying close in a musical way which, the less said about it the better. It's very joyful and ties up all the loose ends nicely, kind of a payoff for the earlier jokes that don't land as well, some earlier scenes that seem tacked on and the earlier-mentioned challenge of keeping up with who's who.

Freakier Friday was, I hate to say it, a slight let down!

The original worked so well and had fun comedy and a good emotional element, but this instalment just didn't seem remotely fresh. Instead, it just seems to hash over the same story beats as the first film, but this time with an additional body swap scenario that added nothing of real value and just made the whole thing feel a bit messy.

In fact, this is my main gripe with the film. Having Jamie Lee Curtis' Tess swap bodies with Sophia Hammons' Lily just seems utterly pointless. It was shoehorned in so that Jamie Lee Curtis could be let loose, but it served no real emotional value. It was also very annoying that the two characters didn't act like they were in the other's body! After the swap, they just felt like two completely different characters. At least with Lindsey Lohan and Julia Butters, they actually felt like they were playing the other character.

Aside from this major gripe, the plot also just felt a bit repetitive of the first film just with more people. It also was hard to root for the main characters as they are trying to split up a loving relationship, and considering the end was so obvious what was going to happen it makes the journey there a little tiresome at times.

Ultimately though I know this film shouldn't be taken so seriously. It's tongue in cheek and it does have lots of good comedy, and the emotional moments are strong when they focus on Lindsey Lohan's Anna and her daughter. The performances are all pretty good, and I think Manny Jacinto as Anna's fiance is a great addition.

Despite being a let down compared to the original one, it is still funny enough and is worth a watch for fans of the first film.

This was honestly a lot better than I expected it to be. I went in with very low expectations and wanted to see it just for a shout out to my childhood but it was honestly hilarious. I was laughing almost the whole movie. Jamie Lee Curtis is so funny and the return of Chad Michael Murray as Jake. Love it. Go see this movie if you are from my generation. Trust me it's hilarious.