FREAKIER FRIDAY – Review

Long after Disney’s FREAKY FRIDAY hit screens, the House of Mouse is back with a sequel. FREAKIER FRIDAY. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are back but this time it’s a double switch. Fans of the original should enjoy this new switcheroo, with plenty of teen in the adult body and adult in the teen body farce humor and ample jokes, and a nice performances from the stars of the first one. Even if you aren’t particularly fan of the first one, Jamie Lee Curtis brings a lot of goofy humor to deliver some smiles, aided by a script that keeps things fun without going too absurd with the already absurd premise.

A quick recap: in the original, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan played a battling mother and teen-aged daughter who magically switch bodies, letting each see other’s point-of-view by walking around in the other’s shoes – quite literally. In Disney’s new fantasy comedy sequel, Curtis and Lohan are back as mother-and-daughter duo, Tess and Anna Coleman, but it is the teen-aged daughter of the now-grown Anna (Lohan) who is causing trouble. Anna is planning to marry hot British chef Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto) but daughter Harper (Julia Butters) is rebelling because 1) the couple plan to relocate the family to Britain, and 2) Harper’s school enemy is Eric’s snooty daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons. The prospect of both having her hated rival as a stepsister and being isolated from Southern California and surfing in not-so-jolly old London is just too much for Harper. Harper and Lily, who agree that they don’t want to be sisters but disagree about the plan to move to London, come together to take action. At a pre-wedding party, the girls encounter a psychic, Madame Jen (a funny Vanessa Bayer) with a million side hustles, who agrees to help, but instead weaves her magic to pull another body switcheroo, without telling them and leaving them with a cryptic phrase, about reaching peace (or at least agreement), in order to switch back.

Silly comedy ensues, with director Nisha Ganatra keeping things moving along, and scriptwriter Jordan Weiss supplying plenty of jokes. The sequel is less messaging about understanding between generations, and more focused on just plain fun and silliness. The humor is mostly farcical and slapstick, with the young pair in the older bodies and adults in the younger bodies as parallel comedy shows. The 15-year-olds are horrified to find themselves in “old bodies,” with wrinkles and sags, particularly fashion-obsessed, would-be designer Lily, who is now in Curtis’ Grandma Tess’ body. The girls have to deal with knees that don’t work, and with Anna’s job obligation’s as manager of pop star Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who is enduring a painful romantic break-up as she it launching a new album. On the other hand, it’s not all bad since the teens can now do adult things, like order drinks and drive – at least when they are out of sight of the adults who are now in their teen bodies.

Likewise, Anna and Tess have a little fun, eating forbidden treats without digestive payback pain, and falling without breaking anything, while trying to keep track of the newly-liberated teens, as they try to damage control while figuring out how to get things back to normal.

Jamie Lee Curtis pretty much makes this film, milking all that silly stuff like the pro she is. Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are the best part of the film, and have fun with it all, with Curtis chewing scenery with abandon (and stay for the outtakes at the end for more of that). Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons do fine too, handling their silly stuff and teen drama and tantrums well. Manny Jacinto as fiance Eric and Mark Harmon as Tess’ husband have little to do, but Vanessa Bayer adds a few extra laughs as the goofy psychic with multiple jobs pops up unexpectedly from time to time. The only side plot that falls a bit flat is the one about broken-hearted pop star Ella, as Ramakrishnan is rather unconvincing as a pop princess, although the side story gives Lohan a little chance to rock out.

Overall, FREAKIER FRIDAY is a somewhat funny, generally painless sequel to the 2003 Disney original, a sequel whose greatest comic asset is Jamie Lee Curtis. The audience who will enjoy this sequel to most are fans of the original, but Jamie Lee Curtis makes it a bit fun for anyone.

FREAKIER FRIDAY opens in theaters on Friday, Aug. 8, 2025.

RATING: 2. out of 4 stars