Freaky Friday

Annabel Andrews (Jodie Foster) is a teen slob, field hockey jock, academically challenged, and fighting with her mother (Barbara Harris). They both think the other has it easy. They both wish to switch places for just one day at the same time and that's exactly what happens. They both struggle with their day culminating in Annabel water-skiing in the Aquacad for her PR executive father Bill (John Astin). This classic Disney kids movie marks a transition year for child star Jodie Foster. It's the same year as Taxi Driver. She is great at transitioning from self-obsessed teen to a mature mom personality. Barbara Harris is little inconsistent. It doesn't help that a lot of the wife duties seem overly manufactured. Even as a kid, I thought the scene where she's overwhelmed by everybody at the house is too silly.

I decided to watch this movie after watching Vice Versa (1988). I knew it was similar and had been made before Vice Versa so I wanted to see the same premise in action in 1976. I liked Vice Versa better. Freaky Friday is a body swap by mother and daughter. They each experience the other's life for a--you guessed it--Friday. The movie is kind of dated now, but I suppose that's why they made another one in 1995, 2003, and 2018. Freaky Friday is OK. The comedy didn't do anything for me even though the concept is still a novel one. I'd like to see a Freaky Friday the 13th. Now that would be something.

I nearly busted a gut with this one. Barbara Harris is an especial treat, especially in the climatic waterskiing nail-biter! I wish I could be *her*...just for a day! It has interesting feminist implications and the heavily hinted-at subplot involving teen alcoholism is compellingly unexplained.

She was very plain and looked like a boy. The mom in this movie was hot as hell however. Probably why Jodie turned into a lesbian. Overall a very silly movie with every sitcom actor of the seventies making an appearance. I saw it in the theater as a kid and liked it then but its not all that funny now

If you changed personalities with your kid--actually found yourself in his or her body--would you spend the rest of the day in school? If you found yourself in your mother's body, would you bother cooking a meal for your husband's corporate buffet? Disney's "Freaky Friday", adapted by Mary Rodgers from her popular young adult novel, doesn't quite work; there's no awe in the circumstance involved--just lessons to be learned. Mom Barbara Harris earns points for daughter Jodie Foster at school, while Foster (in Harris' body) gets closer to the guy next door. Both leads are very good however, and Harris is wonderful calling her husband "Daddy" (with a quick switch to "Bill, Dear") and later playing a hot game of softball with a group of boys (while chewing bubblegum AND smoking a cigarette). Foster has some funny outbursts but generally has less to work with (she screws up a typing class, a photography class, band practice and field hockey, but does great in social studies). The movie is far too long, with inertia setting in right about the time Harris is called to the principal's office to discuss her daughter's schoolwork. The slapstick finale, a painful "Love Bug" flashback, is pure juvenalia (complete with a magic twist that makes no sense--not even in this movie's universe), yet the picture was a blockbuster anyway. **1/2 from ****

I saw the 2003 version of 'Freaky Friday' and I loved it. Then I watched the original version and it was now where near as funny or dramatic as the remake. In the original version the mother and daughter are only having very minor arguments. They don't even yell. While in the remake the mother and daughter are having really big arguments! Really huge disputes! With the daughter saying things like "Mum! You're ruining my life!" Also in the original movie version the daughter is only having minor disputes with her younger brother. While in the remake the daughter really hates her brother. She insults him! She chases him! She is even close to attacking him! This original movie version is also less dramatic when the mother and daughter swap bodies. In this version they find themselves puzzled and confused. While in the remake they find themselves totally shocked and totally freaked out! And best of all when they first look in a mirror they scream!! The remake is also better because the daughter is a teenager, instead of a twelve year old. Which I think gives the film a wider audience. While the original movie of 'Freaky Friday' made me fall asleep, the remake made me laugh my head off! So I don't recommend the original to anyone, but I highly recommend the 2003 remake!

This movie must have been really funny in the 70s. Unfortunately, the movie is based so much on the differences between 1970s adults and teenagers that it utterly dates itself more than any other film I've ever seen. The conflicts all arise out of technologies that are nonexistent today: landline phones, electric typewriters, dark rooms and camera film, "rum raisin ice cream." No one in the current generation could empathize or even sympathize with any of the characters. Thus, the film is a fossil and completely inaccessible to anyone born within the past 30 years.