Freakier Friday Film Review
Sequels are usually produced when people actually like or remember a film enough that the studio have no choice but to do another one. Neither of those things apply to this film as the film came out over twenty years ago and no one talked about it then and there not talking about it now which makes it all the more surprising that Disney would greenlight a sequel let alone give it a theatrical release and so then join me as I review the film that quite literally nobody was asking for with the film in question being called simply just "Freakier Friday" enjoy.
The plot of this film is over two decades after they last swapped bodies Anna and her mother Tess once again swap bodies only this time they also swap bodies with Anna's fifteen year old daughter and her soon to be step-daughter as well. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that' actually featured / presen6ted to us in this very film was in all honesty just OK at best with this films plot being nothing more then a badly done rehash of the first films plot which that plot in of itself was nothing then average at best with there not really being anything new added to this films plot to make it's tired and worn out tropes feel new and fresh again and while it is great to see that Lindsey Lohan is working with Disney again and is getting acting jobs again even she still deserves to be in films with better plots as this films plot when it's not rehashing things from the 2003 film just feels weak at best with it being made perfectly clear that the makers of this film want to cash in on people's nostalgia for the 2003 film and that's really it and even then not enough people who saw the film back then were asking for this film to be and those that were will still be upset of this films lack of an original plot and while the idea of Lindsey's character having a daughter is a good idea it's the only good idea that the film has and even then it's due to the fact that that is something that would logically make sense for her character with the plot of this film not even being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is one of this films producers Jamie Lee Curtis as Tess Coleman and one of this films executive producers Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan as Anna Coleman and Julia Butters as Harper Coleman. Also starring in this film is Sophia Hammons as Lily Reyes , Manny Jacinto as Eric Reyes , Mark Harmon as Ryan , Chad Michael Murray as Jake Austin , Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Ella , Rosalind Chao as Pei-Pei , Vanessa Bayer as Madame Jen , Christina Vidal Mitchell as Maddie , Haley Hudson as Peg , Ryan Malgarini as Harry Coleman , Lucille Soong as Grandma Chiang , Stephen Tobolowsky as Mr. Elton Bates , Elaine Hendrix as Blake Kale , June Diane Raphael as Veronica , Aryan Simhadri as Jai , Jordan E. Cooper as Jett and Chloe Fineman as GiGi.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With both Jaimie and Lindsey rather rightfully getting alot of praise for their performances in this film as they really do turn in some really good performances in this film with the same thing even being true for alot of the films newer characters as well as they do turn in some solid performances with both Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons more then holding their own when it comes to acting against the more established actors in this film and while it will be hard to say if they both have a future in acting as there both still young it can be said that so far if they so choose to want to make it as actors then they really can do should hey choose the right projects moving forward with the best actors in this film being of course Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan as they both have some really great chemistry together and both manage to bring a more mature version of the performances that people will remember from the 2003 film and while Lindsey really hasn't done that much acting in a while she really does look natural in front of the camera and with her being on this nostalgia crusade if you will she very easily could make more of a comeback if she wanted to as she really is just that good in this film with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Character wise this film does fair a little bit better but not by much tho as the films characters are some decently well done characters. As even all of the films character arcs are the exact same from the 2003 film the characters are likable enough to pull them off with some of the characters having matured in ways that does make sense for the characters none of which can be said here as they are kind of spoilers for the movie but its the only thing that the film gets right about it's characters as it does get the Jake character wrong as he should be the character that peaked in high school and is now working in a dead end job where as the film goes the complete opposite way with his character which is something that doesn't make sense for his character with both Anna and Tess coming off better when it comes to the returning characters as how the film progressed there characters does make alot of sense for there characters with there characters coming of the better as both Harper and Lily don't really get much in terms of actual character with the only things that we get to find out about them is that Harper likes surfing and Lily is into fashion and that's it which isn't enough to make them fully formed characters as that part of their character doesn't impact the plot of the film and we don't get to find out anything else about them and yet there the characters that are meant to lead the film and they feel like carboard cutouts of characters with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film where banking on the fact that the got the original stars from the 2003 film back and therefor didn't really bother to give us any good or even memorable characters for that matter.
Right now this film is getting beaten at the box office by a little known horror film called Weapons with that film earning back it's entire budget of $40 million American dollars. With this film earning around $43 millions American dollars which yes does make it look like that this film is winning at the box office however once you take into account that Weapons is number one at the box office and Freakier Friday as at number 2 with Weapons just from Sunday alone earning $10.35 million American dollars and this film earning $7.2 million American dollars this does go along way to showing you that people not only want original stories but that they also want well written films as well and that they don't want sequels that they A didn't ask for in the first place and B weren't promoted all that well to begin with as while yes granted this this film is performing slightly better then expected at the box office given that this is a huge Disney film that does have a huge name starring in it where as Weapons is not only an original film but also has no big bankable name starring in it then that does show you that Disney is perhaps relying to much on what worked in the past like they do with all of their remakes and their sequels and aren't bothering to give us the basic things that could have made this film as by all rights this film should have been a home run for Disney but because of the fact that they didn't promote the film and had it release in theaters when this is quite clearly a Disney+ Original Movie it does mean that the film will struggle to find any fans but since all Disney cares about is if it makes any money that is where they get some good news as this film will make them money just not that much of it to warrant a third film in this franchise.
To be frank this is a film that feels like it was written in 2020 as the language that Anna uses doesn't feel like something that a person her age would say. As she uses words like safe space alot of the time all throughout the film and someone who is her age wouldn't say things like that as that is not only against her character from the first film but it's also just not true to being and I can say as i'm roughly a year younger then what her character's age is meant to be in this film with this film feeling like it was made to appease people who are trying to talk like today's audience but they don't know what kind of language today's audience uses and so they just looked up some buzzwords online and instead of giving those kinds of words to characters like Harper or Lily they instead give them to the adults which makes no sense whatsoever as a character like Anna who was this rebellious kid someone who would do anything to fight the system because it's rock and roll wouldn't use the word safe space nor would she use have the words that she uses when she's talking to her daughter Tess might do but that's more due to her job then anything else but this is something that does age the film as even people today don't use the word safe space all that much or at all anymore and yet because of the fact that Disney just doesn't understand what it is that it's audience wants anymore we instead get a script that feels like it's five years out of date even tho it's just made a year ago where as films like the original Mean Girl feel timeless because of the fact that how the characters talked in that film is how kids today still do talk and because of that that film still comes across as being timeless and ageless whereas this film instead feels like it's dated all ready.
To be fair to this film the relationships between Anna , Lily and Harper is one of the best aspects of the film and one of the few things that the film does get right. As it will always be interesting seeing someone who was this wild child suddenly be forced to grow up when she herself has a kid and then be forced to grow up again when she has to deal with the daughter of the person that she wants to marry and seeing how she struggles to maintain all three relationships at the start of the film to then having her this truly beautiful heart to heart with her kid near the end of the film does show that there are moments of greatness to be found in this film with that being helped by the fact that her own mother also has to deal with her ever evolving relationship with Anna as well which whilst it understandably doesn't get as much focus as the kids relationship with each other does also lead to a truly beautiful scene near the end of the film with her and Lily and while it is kind of predictable what it is that they both talk about it is something that's done so well that those scenes do intern end up becoming the best scenes in the film but in saying that tho those scenes as well acted as they are by all involved don't really earned and instead come across as feeling forced as nothing up until that point had even hinted that those scenes were coming in the film with them coming quite literally out of nowhere and instead feel like that they were included because of the fact that they were in the 2003 film and not because of the fact that they are important to the plot of this film with it not really being helped by the fact that those emotional moments don't really last very long and are just there for the sake of being there and while none of them thankfully end on a joke the makers of this film still could have done something to make those moments feel all the more earned and impactful then what they already do.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running tome of exactly one hour and forty five minuets and thirty six seconds. Which to be fair to this film is pretty much the exact grand total running time that you'd expect a film like this one to have and to this film credit it really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time but the issue tho is that this film really doesn't use it's running tome all that wisely as the plot of the film isn't that well developed as the plot of the film is the weakest aspect of the film as it just comes across as being a carbon copy of the 2003 films plot only less developed as it comes across as the makers of this film just couldn't be bothered to come up with an original plot and so they just redid the plot of the 2003 film and made no changes to it with this films plot not being that well developed that all of the moments that should have been really emotional instead just come across as being hollow as the film didn't fully develop it's plot all that well with this even effecting it's characters as well as none of this films characters come across as being that well developed with the same thing also being true for all of the film s returning characters as they all lack a personality and all of the films characters come across as being bland versions of characters that were done better in the 2003 film with this being something that very easily could have been fixed by having a re-write of the films script as that then would have fixed alot of the issues with the film but for whatever reason the makers of this film thought that this film script was OK when it clearly isn't but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As while the film does have alot of painfully unfunny jokes in it the film does have one or two decently well done jokes but that's also the issue as it's quite literally just one or two jokes with the rest of this films jokes being really unfunny jokes that even by live action Disney standards are really bad with there being so many bad jokes in this film that it would be hard just to tell what the best of the joke of the film is as there all just that painfully bad with the least bad joke in the film being at the start of the film when we see Anna performing a song infront of dozens of people only for it to be dream and she's infact performing her guitar on her own which yes is a classic bit to do but it's still a joke that does work really well and is an example of alot of this films jokes as there all just jokes that we've seen done before in other and quite frankly better films and while there's nothing wrong with this films as seeing the girls going around town in the adults bodies will always bring a smile to people the issue is is that the film does nothing funny with that idea this is despite the fact that the very idea itself does lend itself to some really funny jokes it's just that the film doesn't take the chance that the very idea of the film itself gave them to tell some actually funny jokes with it's idea alone in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this film was made for an audience that wasn't demanding it in he first place and because of that the whole thing does feel like the complete and total waste of a perfectly good idea as by all rights this is film that should have worked it just needed the right creative team to make it work and that's really it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.
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