PLOT: 22 years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis, Anna now has a daughter and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover that lightning might strike twice.
REVIEW: A Legacy sequel to a remake sounds like a certain kind of hell to me, especially in 2025, yet here we are. I saw the Lohan/Curtis Freaky Friday in theaters way back in middle school and thought it was a decent enough family comedy. I wouldn’t say that it’s aged the best, but it’s not a shock that they’re going back to this after all these years. A bit ironic given that Jamie Lee Curtis pretty much set off the Legacy Sequel trend with 2018’s Halloween. But is this sequel able to capture the fun spirit that makes body-swapping movies a good time?
Freakier Friday follows a very similar formula to the first film, only with the twist of adding two more people to the body-switching shenanigans. In fact, nearly every plot point is just some kind of subversion of what we’ve already seen before. Anna (Lohan) is now the one getting married, with her daughter Harper (Butters) disapproving and thinking she’s moving too fast. It doesn’t help that Anna’s fiancé, Eric (Jacinto), has a teen daughter, Lily (Hammons), who doesn’t get along with Harper in any way. I’m sure you can just imagine the wacky hijinks that would ensue. It’s a decent setup when you’re dealing with a body swap movie, but it can be a bit slow in the first act, waiting for the inevitable.
Once the body switch happens, the film livens up a lot, and that’s where the best part comes into view: the performances. I’ll always get a kick out of actors getting to play multiple roles within the same body, and it’s really well done here. Curtis and Butters, in particular, really thrive in their respective roles and are very believable in their approaches. Butters has always been wise beyond her years, and that translates extremely well here. Lindsay Lohan, who has mostly been relegated to Netflix RomComs in recent years, proves that she’s ready to move on to bigger and better. All four leads are affable and bring a certain charm, even when their characters kind of suck (I’m looking at you, Lily).
There are some fun callbacks to the first film, the best of which is Chad Michael Murray‘s Jake. His infatuation with older women (and Tess in particular) got some good laughs. It was also nice to see Mark Harmon back, even if he feels underused; he gets one good scene. In fact, damn near everyone is back here, and sometimes it works while other times it feels very awkward and forced. But at this point, that’s just legacy sequels. Fans of the original will be happy, while others may be a bit lost.
It’s kind of hilarious how little effort goes into the body swap itself. And I suppose that could be said of most of the script, which feels very sloppy throughout. I get it: if you’re watching a Freaky Friday sequel, then you know what you’re in for, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be a little bit of effort in getting the characters where they need to be. Instead, we get loose explanations and characters being forgotten about for long periods of time. If they do another sequel, they desperately need to switch up the formula and not just do a complete rehash. And maybe do some jokes that aren’t solely at the character’s expense.
Freakier Friday is far from the cheap Disney Plus-style movie that I had feared it would be. They’re able to still give this the big-screen treatment and do callbacks that are drenched in nostalgia. But I also can’t put on a front and pretend that this movie was for me in any way. However, I could still appreciate the performances and what went into them. I can also acknowledge that there’s going to be a sect of people who grew up with the first film and want to see this continuation. Lohan/Curtis seem to be having a blast, and while I pretty much just laughed twice, the very female audience I saw it with seemed to be loving it. Despite completely lacking in originality, it was inoffensive, and fans of the first film will likely have a good time. I just can’t imagine this converting non-fans.
FREAKIER FRIDAY RELEASES TO THEATERS ON AUGUST 8TH, 2025.
