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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon
Director: Mark Waters
Running Time: 97 mins
Freaky Friday is an American film about a woman and her teenage daughter who swap bodies after a mysterious woman gives them some mysterious fortune cookies, and they must try and live out each other’s lives for a whole day on the eve of the mother’s wedding.
This film is a classic story, but unfortunately, as many people forget, it’s a remake. And I’ve got to say that it’s not the best remake, full of terrible performances, unfunny jokes, irritating characters and a story that’s totally predictable, yet doesn’t change one bit until the last ten minutes.
Here’s one thing. The original is, at least, a bit interesting and a bit funny, so I didn’t really care when the story was as predictable as it was. However, because this film was not at all funny and so irritating, I found the time to pick more holes in it by looking at its characters and story.
I know that in a Disney film like this, it’s pointless to expect really good characters and a really good story, but had it been funny, I wouldn’t have cared that the story was so bad.
Meanwhile, I really hated the main characters in this film. I’ve never been a champion of the Disneyfied teenage girls aimed at 8 year olds, they’re usually extremely shallow and whiny, and with Lindsay Lohan taking that role, and then trying to be a mature woman as well, nothing could really be worse. A whining character coupled with her extremely annoying acting turned this film into an incredibly frustrating affair.
Not even Jamie Lee Curtis could really save this. She was a little bit more fun to watch, but because of the poor writing and very watered-down humour aimed at kids, there wasn’t much for her to do.
Finally, the fact that there was not even one point where I smiled or laughed throughout this was the icing on the cake. The body swap’s a fun concept, but with a real lack of laughs, it was difficult to really be entertained by this film, so that’s why it gets a 4.5.
