I took 3 kids and my 70-something mom to see 'Freakier Friday.' No one laughed harder than grandma.

Yahoo

a day ago

The movie is rated PG — that's "perfect for grandma."
This story contains spoilers. Don't say we didn't warn ya.
Hello, Yahoo readers. I'm Suzy Byrne, and I've been covering entertainment in this space for over a decade.
I'll be the first to tell you I'm no hardcore cinema buff. Since I had a child, though, I've made it a point to see as many kid-friendly movies as possible. Maybe it's because I'm a big kid ✔ and love a cheerful ending ✔. But also, as a busy working parent, getting two hours to turn off my phone, put up my feet and eat whatever I want while my child is fully entertained is the definition of movie magic.
So that's what this is — one entertainment reporter + her 10-year-old child + friends seeing family-friendly fare and replying all to you about the experience. Welcome to Kids' Movie Club.
Now playing:
The adults outnumbered the kids six to three for our family movie trip, which should clue you in that nostalgia was the real star of the Freaky Friday sequel.
That said, when we walked into the theater, someone in our group admitted, 'I don't think I even watched Freaky Friday' — and it turns out they weren't alone. Seeing the 2003 original definitely adds context, but our crew — which spanned three generations and two continents (my sister's family was visiting from Australia) — felt the sequel stood on its own just fine without revisiting its predecessor.
Jamie Lee Curtis stole the show, especially with my 70-something mom, who guffawed at every senior citizen joke like it was written for her. Lindsay Lohan was like a fast-forwarded version of her younger self; she had the same cadence, delivery and spark. The PG-rated movie isn't chasing Oscars, though; it's chasing laughs and delivers enough of them. With a mix of punchlines about aging and early 2000s nods, it knows exactly who it's playing to.
Maybe because it felt a little old school to the 10-year-olds among us, Freakier Friday was a harder sell to the kids than the other movies we've seen this summer. I had to promise to take them to Cat Video Fest first (yes, two hours of cat videos) in exchange for them seeing this. Apparently, they don't hold LiLo in their Y2K hearts the way I do.
The plot 🎬
Like in the first film, Freakier Friday has body-swap chaos, but this time it's not just two people in the mix, it's four: Tess (Curtis), her daughter Anna (Lohan), Anna's daughter Harper (Julia Butters) and Anna's soon-to-be stepdaughter Lily (Sophia Hammons).
Everyone in my group was confused trying to keep track of who was in whose body. We could have used some good old-fashioned Pop Up Video captions — 'Lily is in Tess's body' — just to stay on track.
Saturday Night Live alum Vanessa Bayer has a scene-stealing role in the magical mix-up. From there, most of the film is the four women working to undo the switcheroo while stepping into each other's very different lives.
Meanwhile, teens Harper and Lily are on a mission to sabotage Anna's wedding to Lily's dad Eric (Manny Jacinto), which adds another layer of chaos and comedy to the generational tension and family drama. But naturally, the heart of the film is about walking a mile in someone else's shoes — and learning something along the way.
Parts that had the kids talking 👧🏻👧🏻👦🏻
Again, the trio of cousins preferred the cat videos to Freakier Friday. After the movie, they were talking about cats. And none of them begged to watch Freaky Friday when we got home.
The real highlight for them? The snacks. And the mix-up. In what felt like our own Freakier Friday moment, our server kept bringing us food we hadn't ordered — and couldn't take back. A large popcorn somehow turned into three small ones. Three drinks multiplied to eight. The kids were giggling about it for half the movie. So if Madame Jen had a hand in that little magic trick, thanks.
Parts that had the adults talking 👩🏻👩🏻👱🏻‍♀️🙎🏻‍♂️👵🏻
Curtis could do no wrong. Whether the therapist turned author Tess was playing pickleball, shopping for senior care items, gushing about her love of Parcheesi or getting her lips plumped, she had us laughing.
It was all about the old-age jokes. When they first changed bodies, the zingers came fast: 'I'm bloody decomposing!' My 'butt is so high!' 'My face looks like a Birkin bag left out in the sun to rot.' What the film lacked in plot, it made up for in one-liners about adult diapers, Fixodent, toots, enemas and the giant letter virus that is older people using the oversize font setting on their iPhones, like grandma.
The parents weren't spared, either. There were jokes about Coldplay and John Mayer — what we grew up on — as being dated. Not to mention Facebook being a 'database of old people.' (Hold on while I delete my account.)
The women were the stars of the show, but the men held their own. Jacinto doing Dirty Dancing was a great moment. I also found myself staring at Chad Michael Murray's hair (he's back as Anna's ex, Jake) and wondered what he's doing to keep it so shiny. Meanwhile, Mark Harmon's return — with a full head of white hair — was shocking in the best way.
Of course, the movie had its tropes — the future stepsisters who hate each other, the dead mom and the very soap opera way Eric called off the wedding in a room full of people vs. a side conversation with Anna. But the confetti-filled, crowd-surfing reconciliation scene? I ate it up.
Dumb things I searched after the movie 💻
I don't surf. I don't live near the beach. But that didn't stop me from Googling how to get the floral wetsuit Lohan wore. (It's Cynthia Rowley. Yes, I still want it and, no, I don't need it.)
Stay for the credits? 🎞️
Yes, it's cute with a lot of funny outtakes, like Curtis biting into 34 donuts to get a scene just right. There's also some cheeky fourth-wall breaking.
Trailers 🎥
My daughter is counting down the days until Zootopia 2, but I also got, 'Can we see that?' for films targeting older audiences — A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and Regretting You.
It made me wonder: Are we aging out of the kids' movies? Maybe, but I hope we never outgrow watching them together, especially as a family.
Looking for more recs? Find your next watch on the Yahoo 100, our daily updating list of the most popular movies of the year.
Solve the daily Crossword