Freakier Friday is finally in theaters, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan seem pumped for fans to check it out. The movie follows their characters from 2003’s Freaky Friday as they enter a new phase in their lives, and history ultimately repeats itself. The body-switching comedy is getting generally favorable reviews, with CinemaBlend giving the film 4 stars. However, not everyone is on board for this sequel, and Jamie Lee Curtis even responded to one review she found to be particularly rough.
The write-up in question came from Time, with the critic having less than favorable things to say about the 2025 movie release. In the review, the writer opined that the legacy sequel simply cashes in on nostalgia, and they called the movie “humiliating for everyone involved.” The critic thought there was little need for a Freaky Friday sequel in the first place, and the situations the characters are put in for the movie are just humiliating for humiliation’s sake. The Instagram post’s caption read, in part:
Ugly costumes, humiliating scenarios, and zero added value—this is a sequel with the sole purpose of cashing in on the fondness people have for the original movie and nothing more. The worst part is, ‘Freakier Friday’ arrived in a pack of other sequels with genuinely fresh takes on their original source material.
Jamie Lee Curtis eventually commented under Time’s IG post, noting that the outlet’s sentiments hadn’t been shared by everyone. She commented:
SEEMS a TAD HARSH. SOME people LOVE it. Me being one.
Curtis is right in that some people do appear to love this film. The critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is currently at 73%, which still represents a generally positive reception from film pundits. Even more notable, the audience score is holding at 93%, so many are seemingly walking out of Freakier Friday this weekend having had a good time. The cast anticipated audiences receiving the film well, as Lindsay Lohan said she was overwhelmed by the crowd’s energy after an early screening of the film at CinemaCon this past spring.
Even if that negative review does seem to be a bit of an outlier, there may be some truth to the point about nostalgia. It could be argued that a love for the original film could’ve factored into people’s desire to see the sequel. Also, the new movie does make a lot of callbacks to other well-loved Lohan flicks. Plus, with the original Freaky Friday cast returning, including Chad Michael Murray, the creative team certainly knows its audience. All of this isn’t necessarily bad, though. Nostalgia is just sometimes a vehicle for sequels, so it doesn’t mean Freakier Friday is committing some creative sin.
I’d also argue that the team behind Freakier Friday deserves acknowledging generation gaps like in the original film, but also making it applicable to a modern, Gen Z audience. The movie builds off the theme of intergenerational understanding, and the strength of mother/daughter relationships, even if these relationships get fraught during teenage years. Additionally, it’s nice to see more movies geared towards women at the box office, as well as comedies having a resurgence.
Of course, regardless of what a critic or even Jamie Lee Curtis thinks, check out Freakier Friday in theaters now and make up your own mind about it. Fans can also revisit 2003’s Freaky Friday now with a Disney+ subscription.
