‘Freakier Friday’ is a corporate retreat of a movie. There are familiar faces to be seen, some new ones who manage to impress in the brief amount of time they’re given, and occasional bits of fun to be had. But the whole thing never feels driven by passion; rather, it seems motivated by business decisions based on a spreadsheet. Nostalgia for the 2000s is huge right now, best exemplified by the success of Disney’s other follow-up to a hugely popular original, Lilo & Stitch, from earlier this summer. Freakier Friday strives to cash in on this twenty-year nostalgia cycle in a similar fashion, but, like Lilo & Stitch, it seems intent on doing so through surface-level evocations and shallow retreads.

TOP FIVE THINGS ABOUT ‘FREAKIER FRIDAY’

5. A New Age, For Better or Worse

‘Freakier Friday‘ updates a classic formula for the social media era—but not always successfully.

Freakier Friday is indicative of younger-audience-skewing filmmaking of its time in the same way that Freaky Friday was of the younger-audience-skewing filmmaking of the ’00s. Whereas the 2003 film went all-in on presenting a sterilized, encapsulated version of 2000s pop culture to further illustrate the divide between Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan’s characters, the new film seeks to embrace a more social media-driven visual aesthetic that might similarly highlight the chasm between its characters. It certainly doesn’t always succeed, but I appreciate that director Nisha Ganatra made the effort.

The downside of attempting to make a pressingly modern movie today is that cultural trends move at such a rapid pace—thanks largely to social media—that it’s nearly impossible to create a current-tense film without it feeling dated by the time it’s released. In many ways, that is true of Freakier Friday. Where the first film could reference Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time,” a song from four years prior to the movie’s release, and get away with it, the same cannot be said for this era or for the sequel.

4. The Cast is Game

If nothing else, ‘Freakier Friday‘ thrives on the energy of its cast.

The primary cast of the movie seems to be having a genuinely good time, and that energy makes them fun to watch. Curtis and Lohan are palpably excited to be back on screen together, and there’s a certain satisfaction in watching the Lohan renaissance continue. Newcomers like Manny Jacinto and Julia Butters deliver strong performances, balancing lighthearted comedy with genuine emotion in the film’s more heartfelt moments. Chad Michael Murray also makes the most of his return, hamming it up with a charm that fits perfectly into the movie’s playful spirit.

3. Cameos Galore

Cameos may be fun, but in ‘Freakier Friday’ they become a distraction.

Cameos are everywhere in Freakier Friday, but instead of adding charm, they weigh the film down. The movie is crowded with character actors, comedians, and improv artists, which feeds into that “corporate retreat” vibe—as if speakers are cycled in just to fill time. It doesn’t really find its footing until about halfway through, once the main cast is firmly in place and the story shifts into a rehash of the original. By then, though, the first half has already struggled under the weight of scattered scenes and unfocused energy. At a point when it should be establishing its characters’ lives with clarity and depth—so the body-swap twist lands with impact—the film instead darts from one flimsy gag to the next, leaving the whole experience feeling oddly unmoored.

2. Empty Nostalgia

Legacy sequels often walk a fine line between honoring the past and offering something new—and ‘Freakier Friday‘ leans almost entirely on the former.

Much has been said about legacy sequels over the past decade—about how they do little more than repackage original stories within the confines of modern trappings to sell established IPs back to audiences, with the added hit of nostalgia to boost ticket sales. Freakier Friday is precisely that. It spends the majority of its runtime lightly gesturing at things audiences might remember from the first film and expecting that to generate enough of a dopamine hit to keep them happy.

The amount of actual new ideas at play here is shockingly small, and what is there is often left completely unexplored in favor of simply rehashing the old hits.

1. Made for Streaming

‘Freakier Friday’ struggles to feel like a fully realized movie, leaning heavily on nostalgia at the expense of structure and effort.

Freakier Friday never actually feels like a movie. Between the loosely constructed story, the lifeless visuals, and the general lackadaisical tone, it ends up feeling more like a lightly scripted Freaky Friday reunion stretched into a two-hour runtime. Like Lilo & Stitch, it seems likely this was originally intended for Disney+, as the sheer lack of effort on display is readily apparent. The film evokes the same sense as Hocus Pocus 2 or Disenchanted—other sequels to nostalgic favorites that went straight to streaming and were largely forgotten. Experiencing Freakier Friday in a theater, particularly in a Dolby setting, only further emphasizes how loose, airy, and unrefined the film truly is.

RGM GRADE

(D+)

The cast is game, and there are some occasionally fun bits, but Freakier Friday can’t help but feel like its entire structure is made out of popsicle sticks hastily stuck together with gum and duct tape.

Will Jones