FREAKIER FRIDAY (DISNEY+) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: 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.

MOVIE REVIEW:

We always remember Lindsay Lohan as the kid in The Parent Trap and the sassy teenager in Freaky Friday (2003) and Mean Girls (2004). And now, she’s playing the role of a mother. Time truly flies.

In the sequel to Freaky Friday, Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis reprise their roles as Anna Coleman and her therapist mother, Tess. Since it’s set 22 years later, Anna is now a successful music producer and single mother to teenager Harper (Julia Butters). Fate has it that she’s fallen for a Brit chef, Eric (Manny Jacinto), who is, coincidentally, also a single father to Harper’s classmate, Lily (Sophia Hammons). And, of course, Harper and Lily are enemies at school. As if that’s not enough coincidence, Anna and Eric are ready to get married after only six months of dating. Unsurprisingly, Harper and Lily are furious at the thought of becoming stepsisters.

To make things even more complicated, instead of the original’s two-way body swap, the sequel involves Harper switching bodies with her mom, while Lily swaps bodies with Tess after a fateful fortune reading with a certain Madam Jen (Vanessa Bayer).

Frankly, Freakier Friday is that kind of sequel nobody asked for or expected. Amazingly, though, it didn’t end up relegated to Disney+ and even did marginally well in theaters. To be fair, Lohan and Curtis are still decent especially Curtis, who gives it her all playing a teenager trapped in an older woman’s body (for the second time!). Lohan and Curtis’s chemistry remains, even after two decades. Still, the script doesn’t require much from these two seasoned actors. Most of the time, it’s just silly fun and messages about keeping harmony in the family.

If you’re in it for nostalgia, Chad Michael Murray returns as Anna’s ex-boyfriend, though now he seems to harbor a thing for older ladies. Manny Jacinto, who turned heads in The Acolyte, does a serviceable job as the male lead. The younger cast, Butters and Hammons, add to the fun as the squabbling soon-to-be stepsisters.

Even with all the different dynamics and body-swapping humor, the sequel runs at least 15 minutes longer than the original—not that it needed the extra screen time. Despite its good intentions, it’s clearly a TV movie. Body swap comedies definitely belong to the past, and this sequel tries to recapture the magic, but overall, it’s little more than a lazy, predictable premise.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee