Jamie Lee Curtis (left) and Lindsay Lohan in 'Freakier Friday.' Glen Wilson/Disney Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The prolific Hollywood subgenre of the body-swap comedy had already been around a while when Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan teamed up for the surprise hit, Freaky Friday. Heaven Can Wait, All of Me, Big and the Blake Edwards guilty pleasure, Switch - yeah, it's bad, but Ellen Barkin and JoBeth Williams can do no wrong - are just a few. There was also, among others, a 1976 version of Freaky Friday whose lackluster script and broad direction were somewhat redeemed by the irresistible pairing of Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris. But Mark Waters' 2003 remake raised the bar, with zesty dialogue (courtesy of writers Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon), energetic physical comedy and well-matched leads with strong chemistry. It remains easily the best screen adaptation of Mary Rodgers' 1972 kid-lit classic. Related Stories Lifestyle Disney Parks and Stoney Clover Lane's Rope Drop-Ready Collab Gets a Restock: Here's When and Where to Shop Online Movies Lindsay Lohan Admits It's "Frustrating" Being Pigeonholed By Past Roles: "Give Me the Chance" Freakier Friday The Bottom Line Does this make 'Freakiest Friday' inevitable? Release date: Friday, Aug. 8Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Rosalind Chao, Chad Michael Murray, Mark HarmonDirector: Nisha GanatraScreenwriter: Jordan Weiss; story by Elyse Hollander and Weiss, based on Mary Rodgers' book Freaky Friday Rated PG, 1 hour 51 minutes Sadly, there's nothing even remotely as funny in the new follow-up, Freakier Friday, as Lohan's high school grunge rocker Anna Coleman waking up in the body of Curtis as her control-freak psychotherapist mother Tess and screaming in horror at the mirror: "I'm like the crypt-keeper!" Arriving 22 years and countless other body-swap comedies after its predecessor, Nisha Ganatra's "freakquel" (blame Disney for that one, not me) swaps the earlier film's buoyancy and charm for manufactured chaos that's far more strained and aggressive. In fact, your mileage with this one might depend on your tolerance for Curtis dialing up the wacky meter to maximum volume in a performance so manic and screechy she makes Donna, her recurring character on The Bear, seem demure. The intergenerational sparring and mother-daughter friction that fueled the laughs in Freaky Friday are diluted in a script by Jordan Weiss (Hulu's Dollface) that sticks to much of the earlier template but doubles the body-swap shenanigans. That spreads the awkward hilarity of the scenario too thin, to the point where you start to forget who's who. Or stop caring. Just as the 2003 film exploded from the conflict of rebellious teenage Anna's resentment that Tess was planning to replace her late husband by marrying Ryan (Mark Harmon), the sequel spins around the threat of another major disruption to the family dynamic. This time it's single mother Anna, whose wedding to widowed Brit restaurateur Eric (Manny Jacinto) is looming after a whirlwind six-month courtship. Anna's surly 15-year-old daughter Harper (Julia Butters) is vehemently opposed to the possibility of being uprooted and moved to London. Eric's daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons), also 15, is hostile to the idea of staying on in Los Angeles rather than getting back to England to enroll in fashion school. Naturally, the two teens hate each other, leading to a school bake-sale food fight that's pure Disney Channel. While Rosalind Chao and Lucille Soong are among the returning Freaky Friday cast, their characters have little to do, but at least the filmmakers wisely dispense with the "Asian voodoo" fortune-cookie factor. Instead, first Anna and Tess and then Harper and Lily land at the table of bargain-basement psychic Madame Jen (Vanessa Bayer, working hard for little dividend), who surprises even herself by intuiting that the older Colemans' lifelines have intersected before. Without knowing where the mantra even comes from, Madame Jen tells the teens: "Change the hearts you know are wrong, to reach the place where you belong." Anyone who saw the first go-round will know what a rumbling earthquake felt only by the four ladies portends. At midnight, Anna and Tess find themselves in the bodies of Harper and Lily, respectively, and vice versa. Panic and confusion ensue, along with a major wrench in the marriage plans, as they get to experience each other's lives through different eyes, eventually discovering empathy and common ground that previously were elusive. One issue here is that grown-up Anna and middle-aged Tess are a lot less fun than their younger counterparts, no matter who's inhabiting their bodies. There's some pleasure in seeing Lohan return to one of her most be