11/26/2009 --- John Hughes and Patrick Swayze were huge losses this year in the entertainment indust...
11/26/2009 --- John Hughes and Patrick Swayze were huge losses this year in the entertainment industry, and I intend to honor them over the next few weeks. Chris :)
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<<<<< TITLE: Freaky Friday >>>>> <<<<< RATING: ***1/2 (out of 5) >>>>> <<<<< CAST: Lindsey Lohan, Jaime Lee Curtis, Mark Harmon, Harold Gould, Chad Michael Murphy, Stephen Tobolowsky, Christina Vidal, Ryan Malgirini, Haley Hudson, Rosalind Caio. <<<<< DIRECTOR: Mark S. Waters >>>>> <<<<< STUDIO: Walt Disney >>>>> <<<<< RUNNING TIME: 93 MIN. >>>>> <<<<< RATED: PG (UK & USA) >>>>>
<<<<< Did We Really Need Another Remake? >>>>>
In the past decade or so, Walt Disney Films seems to be determined to make a sequel to every animated film they have ever made to be released direct to video. At the same time, they have been determined to remake many old 60's and 70's films to appeal to today's generation. Some were quite dreadful (1997's THAT DARN CAT), some were so-so (1997's 101 DALMATIONS) and some were actually quite good (1998's THE PARENT TRAP). Personally, I think they have gone a little too far, and it only proves my philosophy that Hollywood is losing originality year after year.
Now we have a remake of the 1976 film of the same name, which starred Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris; they are now replaced by Lindsey Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. The original film was an interesting, funny combination of slapstick and sentimentality, while the same time trying to drive home a family message. I barely remembeted the original, and even tried to rent it to see it again to prepare for the new one, though it's extremely hard to rent where I was. As a result, I had to keep my memory of the original
intact (too difficult) and see if the new movie did it justice and in fact if it is just worth seeing period.
<<<<< Box Office Smash of August >>>>>
So, I paid my money, sat down the theater to get ready to see the film that was already #1 at the box office for 3 weeks in a row. We meet Tess Coleman (Curtis) a widowed psychiatrist who is about to remarry, while her daughter Anna (Lohan) is pretty much your average 15-year-old girl, with the added dimension that she's the leader of a garage band named Pink Slip, likes a pretty boy (Chad Murray), is the object of torment by the most "beautiful" girl in school, and thinks that her mother wants complete control of her life and doesnt give Anna any privacy. In fact, she goes as far as removing and hiding Anna's own bedroom door!!!!
Tess and her fiance (Mark Harmon) decide to take Anna and her young brother Harry (Ryan Malgarini) to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where she and Tess get into what must be their thousandth argument, leading to them eating magical fortune cookies by a kindly Chinese lady. If you haven't seen the original, you don't know what has happened really until the next morning when Anna wakes up and finds out she is Tess on the inside, and vice versa.
Sound familiar? Well, it is...aside from the '76 original, there were 4 (count 'em four) films with practically the same plot that came out in 1988...VICE VERSA, BIG (the best of them all), 18 AGAIN, and LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON. Amazingly, though, FREAKY FRIDAY has a certain freshness to it...sure, the ending is never in doubt, but the film is so colorful, funny, and delightful that it all actually works.
For one thing, the film has some twists and turns that you won't be able to guess, like when Murray discovers Curtis (with Lohan's personailty), and begins to like HER way more than Lohan before the switch! (If they had kissed, it would have been a riot!) I also loved it when Lohan got her revenge against the popular girl; and that one I will not spoil. I don't know if I was more forgiving to this update than I should of been, but I found it a lot of fun from beginning to end, and a lot of it is because the performances of the two actresses is sheer perfection; I was especially impressed by the 16-year-old Lohan, who also played the twins in the remake of THE PARENT TRAP.
<<<<< A Freaky Cast in a Freaky Movie >>>>>
Jaime Lee Curtis has done comedy before (TRADING PLACES, A FISH CALLED WANDA), but never has she given a more outrageous or hilarious performance as Tess. Originally, the producers wanted Jodie Foster to play the mother (which I think would have been ideal in my opinion, since she played the daugher in the original), but she actually declined because she had "concerns about the casting of her would be more of a stunt and overshadow the overall merit of the film." So, after Foster and Annette Bening turned the project down, Curtis stepped in, and I must admit she was more than adequate.
Lindsey Lohan is very talented and even though she is no Hayley Mills, she was as fun to watch here as she was in the 1998 remake of THE PARENT TRAP. Being only sixteen herself, she was quite convincing as Anna, considering she is a real teenager, and she even sings well onscreen; though, if you ask me, I don't think I can bring myself to buy a CD by a band named Pink Slip, lol. The song that she sings is called "Unfortunate,".....though I don't think it really has any relevance to the plot. I can't say if I'm a fan of Lohan now, but she will be in a string of films coming out soon I'm looking forward too, including CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, MEAN GIRLS, and DRAMARAMA.
Incidentally, the only actor who was in the original was Marc McClure; in the first movie, he played Foster's love interest and here, he has a cameo as a delivery man. Harmon and Murray are adequate, if not memorable, as the male leads in this one. However, Ryan Malginiri threatens to steal every scene he is in as Anna's younger brother, who loves to play jokes on his older sister and make her a target. Plus, his reaction is pure magic when Anna (in her mothers body) says to him, "What are you looking at you little fart???"
<<<<< Direction and Writing >>>>>>
The film is directed by Mark S. Waters, who helmed two Freddie Prinze Jr comedies before this...the excellent THE HOUSE OF YES and the dreadful HEAD OVER HEELS. His touch is certainly acceptable, but I think the film would have benefitted from a better director like say, Nancy Meyers (who made PARENT TRAP and WHAT WOMEN WANT), Bryan Gordon, or even Duwayne Dunham, who made the best Disney remake of the past decade, HOMEWARD BOUND: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY. If anything, at least Prinze isn't in his cast for once, so I respect him for that.
The original film was written by Mary Rodgers, who adapted her own novel, which was widely read by kids at that time. The remake is written by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon (OVERBOARD, OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE). All in all, a worthy remake of the original, and more enjoyable than you might think. When I originally posted this op, there were some comments regarding the fact that this will never live up to the original or the book. Well, all I can say is that I actual ended walking away liking the remake, though there are flaws in the film that would hard not to overlook. Plus, as funny as it gets at times, it also gets occasionally unbelieveable and silly, particularly in one sequence where Anna (trapped in her mother's body) goes on a talk show to talk about her book, and then turns on her teenage charm, which leads to her being passed around as if she's in the mosh pit.
This movie will be released in the UK on December 19, just to let you all know. I say it is worth the price of admission, and I'm sure a lot of family's will be going to see it, though why they are releasing it during the holidays here I really don't know. Well, one thing is for sure, things are going to get freaky this holiday season....Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your comments. Chris xxx
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Ohhh so I recognised Lindsay Lohan from Parent Trap, its been bugging me ever since I saw Freaky Friday - thank you for putting an end to my constant wondering! Great op, film pretty good too. Soph x
maidstone_fox 17.12.2003 02:33
Hollywood and originality in the same sentence eh? Never thought I'd see the day! Good job there was a negative in there too! Agree with most of what you say in this "review" (still prefer the word "op"). Come on Disney - sort it out, concentrate on original quality films instead of churning money making sequels! Great op.
CarolB 16.12.2003 18:11
I want to take my niece to see this! She'll love it! Carol
In the wonderfully entertainingFreaky Friday, teenager Anna (Lindsay Lohan) and her ... more
fortysomething psychiatrist mum Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) have sunk into a rut of frustrated bickering--until a magic spell causes them to switch bodies. Suddenly Tess fi...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Award-winning actress Jodie Foster stars in this ingenious, sidesplitting comedy about ... more
what it's really like being in someone else's shoes. When tomboyish Annabel switches bodies with her mother, Ellen, she suddenly finds herself responsible for runnin...
Advantages: Sweet, funny and charming. Disadvantages: None!
damncoldnightdotnet 16.05.2006 (16.05.2006)
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Sep 23rd, 2003
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