Lindsay Lohan's sequel ‘mildly exhausting' Why sequel to Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis' cult movie Freaky Friday is ‘mildly exhausting'
FREAKIER FRIDAY (PG)
Director: Nisha Ganatra (Late Night)
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons
***
As is the case every other month lately, it is back-to-the future time in the world of Disney.
The latest dip into the famed studio's extensive catalogue of classic properties is Freakier Friday, a revival of a famous mother-daughter body-swap premise that first surfaced in the 1970s.
The key reference point for this busy, fizzy sequel is the 2003 edition of Freaky Friday, in which Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan experienced an inter-family switcheroo in amusing and endearing style.
The same coupling returns in pleasing enough fashion, with Curtis' Tess now a podcasting psychologist specialising in how to be a great grandmother.
As for Lohan's Anna, these days she is a single mother who is still working in the music business like before, albeit as a producer instead of a performer.
If you're assuming these two will be trading physical identities once again, you have got it all wrong.
This time around, courtesy of a chance encounter with an incompetent psychic, Anna will be reversing roles with her rebellious teenage daughter Harper (Julia Butters).
As for Tess, she is about to exchange bodies with another teenager, her step-granddaughter-to-be, Lily (Sophia Hammons).
The presence of Lily in this complicated set-up requires a little explaining. Her father, a British chef named Eric (Manny Jacinto) is about to marry Anna after a whirlwind romance.
Neither Lily nor Harper are looking forward to becoming part of a new family unit, as they are mortal enemies at high school.
For such a simple movie, Freakier Friday has a lot of plotting for its audience to process, and not all of the storytelling enhances an increasingly convoluted experience.
In fact, with two sets of body-swaps in play at any one time, most viewers will find themselves concentrating hard to keep track of who is who, and just as importantly, who isn't who.
(Do the maths: one body-swap means two possible combinations of mother-daughter mayhem, while two body-swaps blows the total number of combos out to twelve!)
Occasionally, this means Freakier Friday can present as mildly exhausting, when it really should be effortlessly entertaining.
The saving graces, of course, are Curtis and Lohan, who both have serious skills when it comes to finding the funny in not having to act their age.
Their younger co-stars Butters and Hammons also rise admirably to the challenges posed to them as performers, even though their brash, bratty characters prove difficult to warm to.
Freakier Friday is in cinemas now.
TOGETHER (MA15+)
***
General release
That time-honoured metaphor about couples sticking together no matter what gets put to a staggeringly literal test in Together. Most unsuspecting viewers won't see what's really in store for them here. And once they do gather what Together is really up to, there's no way they will ever truly unsee what happens next. Initially at least, the movie presents an authentic and amusing portrait of a long-term couple who have hit that point where both commitment and contentment are two very big issues. Millie and Tim (played by real-life partners Alison Brie and Dave Franco) still want each other, but are giving clear signals they may want different things from their relationship. All of this and more comes to a dramatic head one fateful night, where Millie and Tim must take sudden refuge from a torrential rainstorm. For reasons best not mentioned here, the pair's problems are manifested in a body-altering (or is that body-merging?) form that is increasingly confronting to witness. If you were tough enough to make it through The Substance, then you should be able to cope with the high-concept horrors Together intends to unleash. Just don't say you weren't warned.
THIS IS SPINAL TAP (M)
Selected cinemas
Now rightly recognised as one of the great movie comedies of all time, this gut-bustingly funny rockumentary makes a welcome return to the big screen ahead of a much-anticipated sequel dropping next month. For those arriving late to the party, Spinal Tap is an ailing metal band who just won't call it a day, despite the ever-increasing selectivity of its appeal. Filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) tracks brain-addled Brits David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) and their eclectic entourage as they try to complete the concert tour that will cement their position at the bottom of the charts. The layering of the jokes is dense, the behaviour captured on camera even denser, and the satire of heavy metal's heaviest excesses is on-the-money from beginning to end. Throw in an unexplained series of dead drummers, a microscopic stage re-creation of the Stonehenge monument, and a songbook pushing lyrics and melodies to their absolute limits, and the perfection is complete.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
34 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Mixed reviews as Netflix finally releases season 2 of global smash ‘Wednesday'
It was perhaps a near-impossible feat for Netflix to top the dizzying highs of Wednesday's first season, which still ranks as the streamer's most-watched show of all time. Yet three years after viewers were first introduced to Tim Burton's macabre thriller centred around Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega), it seems for some, the wait wasn't worth it. The streamer finally released part one of Wednesday 's second season on August 6, with the first four episodes generating a deeply divided reaction among fans and critics. While there's yet again wide praise for Ortega's performance, the key takeaway is the character becomes lost in a convoluted plot with an overcrowded cast. Season two picks up back at Nevermore Academy, where Wednesday is – to her disdain – the toast of the school after her murder-solving exploits last season. The Hollywood Reporter was among the most scathing of reviews, criticising the unmemorable screenplay, and the bolstered roles of the entire Addams family, including Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), Morticia (Catherine Zeta Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman). 'I can't think of any more damning criticism for these four new episodes of Wednesday than that, just two days after watching them, I legitimately can't remember anything that Wednesday is trying to accomplish this season, nor any single withering line of dialogue,' wrote reviewer Daniel Fienberg. 'Whereas my original review of the first season praised Wednesday for having the restraint and focus to not simply become The Addams Family … Wednesday has simply become The Addams Family,' Fienberg continued. The LA Times, meanwhile, ruled season two failed to 'recapture the magic' of its debut. 'It's impossible to recapture the magic of the first season, and Wednesday Season 2 isn't quite as crisp or surprising,' wrote culture critic Lorraine Ali. 'In the first four episodes made available for review, Wednesday 's zingers aren't as wickedly sharp as they once were. And because we know she's going to be annoyed by her classmates, such as perky werewolf roommate Enid (Emma Myers), the dynamic is not as morbidly charming.' IndieWire described the plot as 'so ordinary', while lamenting several 'lazy' one-liners. ' Wednesday 's dry, morbid humour is, at best, noticeable, but too often forgettable and sometimes actively lazy,' the outlet's review read. 'While arguably inconsequential in the long run, the faux pas exemplifies Wednesday 's priorities: all looks and little else. 'The absent attention to detail beyond what's stylish, combined with the neat-and-tidy aesthetic mandated for broadly appealing teen dramas, puts the focus back on what Season 2 is trying to say, which isn't much.' On the flip side, Variety was much more positive in its assessment, writing the show offered 'the same visual delights that have made all of Burton's worlds so fascinating.' 'With the Addams family getting increased screen time, several layered enigmas, and Ortega leading the charge, the show is still as twisted, enticing and devour-able as it was when it first debuted three years ago,' penned critic Aramide Tinubu. The Telegraph gave it four out of five stars, declaring the second outing offered 'both substance and style.' 'Netflix has given the series every chance with glittering additions to the ensemble and a twisting, turning storyline, full of homicidal crows and dark family secrets. A near three-year delay would have killed off a lesser show, but Wednesday 's murderously enjoyable second season proves worth the wait.' Part two of the season, which hits the platform September 3, has already generated considerable buzz thanks to a solid cliffhanger and an anticipated A-list cameo from Lady Gaga.
News.com.au
34 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Davey Lloyd opens up about drug addiction and how he turned life around
Davey Lloyd has opened up about his sobriety journey – revealing that his addiction to drugs and alcohol was so bad, he nearly lost his life before managing to beat his demons. The former reality star, 35, has been free of substances for more than 500 days, a feat he achieved after checking into rehab following a scary accidental cocaine overdose that left Lloyd 'clinically dead' for several minutes in December 2023. After hitting rock bottom, the reformed party boy has a new outlook on life, explaining the emotional reason he finally cleaned himself up after hitting rock bottom. 'The only way I could be a decent human being, is to get sober,' he said while appearing as a guest on the new episode of the Soberly Speaking podcast. 'And doing that for my future wife, future kids and for my family.' Lloyd told host Julia Rangiheuea, a former Big Brother contestant who has also had a personal battle with substance abuse, that his issues stemmed from an unknown trauma he carried as a child after losing a sibling to Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). 'I found out through doing a lot of healing, and stuff like that in rehab, that trauma can be passed down from parents to their children,' he said. 'My brother passed away at five weeks old of cot death (an older term for SIDS), on Christmas Eve in 1988. 'I was conceived not long after his passing … my mum was still mourning when she was pregnant with me, so I absorbed a lot of her trauma and her own self-doubt. That has been ingrained into me.' He went on to state – through tears – that he believes this is where his own 'self-loathing and shame' came from, and why he detached himself to drugs after taking his first pill at age 16. From there, Lloyd began smoking marijuana, before finding cocaine, a drug he said was highly addictive as he had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). 'It made me feel normal,' he explained. 'People with ADHD release less dopamine in the brain, so cocaine for me was like self-medicating, and I remember being like, 'this is who I am supposed to be'. I can sit down and talk to people. I could be so friendly. I could listen to what people had to say.' After discovering the Class A narcotic, Lloyd became a 'party boy' who would go on days-long benders, admitting that before he starred on the first season of The Bachelorette with Sam Frost in 2015, he'd been out getting wasted. 'I was 25, the youngest there, and the first one to meet her,' he recalled on Soberly Speaking. 'I'd come from a big weekend, I'd probably had 15 eckies [ecstasy pills] and what not. 'I think I finished up partying on the Monday morning from Friday, and then had to leave the house on Tuesday to start filming'. Despite forming a 'connection' with Frost, Lloyd left the famous mansion without a rose ceremony, and returned back to his party lifestyle, which he said only snowballed from there. As a result, Lloyd experienced three drug-induced seizures over the next decade, with the latter almost taking his life. 'I'd been sniffing for 48 hours, and I got up to get in an Uber, but as I stood up, I don't really know what happened,' he said. 'Forty minutes later, I woke up on the ground, all the ambulance surrounding me. I pissed myself, I couldn't get up, my mates were in hysterics, I couldn't speak. 'They told me after that I had died. My friends had attempted CPR on me and had failed, but luckily the ambulance came in time and brought me back to life.' After this terrifying brush with death, Lloyd began the long journey to health and recovery, stating it made him realise that 'my life was meaningless'. He moved back in with his parents and checked into rehab. But it wasn't all smooth sailing. Lloyd's addition had left him $70,000 in debt. 'When you're sniffing $8000 of cocaine-a-week, it racks up, pun intended,' he said. Now almost two years clean of drugs and alcohol, Lloyd is focused on his future, and hopes his sobriety will make him a good dad and partner when the time comes. Now, the former reality star said he's 'grateful' for the events that brought him to where he is today. 'I'm so grateful to be here, to have made it through the tough times, and to be experiencing life in a new way,' he wrote on Instagram recently. Fans have been quick to commend the reformed drug addict, praising him for his honesty and bravery. 'You should be so proud of yourself,' one said. 'Super brave Davey to be so open and transparent …. You are doing amazing things and your dreams and aspirations will most definitely come true,' agreed another. As one mused: 'Sobriety looks so good on you.'
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Matthew McConaughey lost lead Titanic role for refusing director James Cameron's simple request
Paint me like one of your Dallas girls. Matthew McConaughey was nearly cast as Jack Dawson in Titanic, but reportedly sunk his audition with director James Cameron. Journalist Matthew Belloni's newsletter, What I'm Hearing, features an excerpt from the record-breaking film's producer Jon Landau's posthumous book, The Bigger Picture, which explains what allegedly happened during the Texas-born actor's audition. 'We brought him in to do a scene with Kate [Winslet]. You want to check for chemistry, not just how people look on film but how they interact,' Landau writes in his memoir, per the newsletter. 'Kate was taken with Matthew, his presence and charm. Matthew did the scene with the drawl.' When McConaughey, now 55, spoke with a Southern accent, Cameron, now 70, reportedly told him, 'That's great,' but added, 'Now let's try it a different way.' Dawson was meant to be an orphaned man from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, trying to make his way back to the US via the doomed ocean liner after travelling abroad. Landau claims McConaughey flat-out told Cameron after his accent change request, 'No. That was pretty good. Thanks,' costing him the part. Page Six reached out to reps for the actor and director for comment but did not immediately hear back. Although Leonardo DiCaprio was eventually cast as Dawson opposite Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, the What's Eating Gilbert Grape star didn't make Cameron's job any easier in his own audition. In 2022, the Oscar-winning filmmaker told GQ that when he asked DiCaprio, now 50, to read the script during an impromptu test shoot, he told him, 'Oh, I don't read.' However, when Cameron let him know that if he didn't read, he wouldn't get the part, DiCaprio reluctantly agreed to run through lines and knocked the audition out of the park. The famed director said, 'Kate just lit up … dark clouds had opened up and a ray of sun came down and lit up Jack. I'm like, 'Alright, he's the guy.''
