No Academy Awards here, but thanks largely to Jamie Lee Curtis it provides a good time.
Yes, "Freaky Friday" strains credibility at every turn and, yes, you have to accept illogical and exaggerated behavior as the norm, but by the end of the film the characters actually have you cheering for them. The movie makes its points about the generation gap and mutual understanding and does so with gentle, if silly, humor. I have to admit I laughed out loud several times, which is more than I can say for most the comedies I've forced myself to watch over the past few years. "Freaky Friday" is ultimately, like, you know, freaky fun.
Trivia note: Jodie Foster, who played the daughter in the first "Freaky Friday" movie was asked to come back and play the mother in the remake. She declined, saying the gimmick of her playing the mom might have upstaged the rest of the movie. I dunno; I like Ms. Foster's acting talents a lot and have no doubt she would have done a great job with the role, but it's hard to imagine her topping Ms. Curtis. Maybe everything is meant to be, after all.
Video:
The picture has been mastered to THX specifications in two ratios, a 1.33:1 standard screen and a 1.74:1 widescreen. Since the movie was originally shot in the 1.33:1 format, the standard screen actually shows more information at the top and bottom, although it is slightly cut at the sides compared to the widescreen. Six of one.... I watched in widescreen, as that was the ratio shown in theaters, and I found the video excellent. Colors are bright and vibrant, rich and darkly impressive. There is no grain to speak of and there are no moiré effects, so it's almost as good as it can be. Almost. Except that on three or four occasions the image froze up momentarily. Not a layer turnover, mind you, just a freeze up such as occurred on several other Buena Vista discs a year or more previous. Since other people also experienced the earlier problem, I concluded it was not confined to my equipment but a problem in the disc mastering, a problem I thought BV had by now solved. Maybe not.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics are clean, with good presence and good dynamics. Most of the sound is used to convey dialogue, and it excels in doing so clearly, although like almost all modern films it confines the speaking parts to the center channel. There is very little use of the rear channels, which is a pity, but the front channels rock when they need to with deep bass and quick transients.
Extras:
The extras are aimed primarily at children and teens, another shame because the film easily appeals to adults, too. The major item is an eight-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, "Backstage Pass With Lindsay Lohan," that pretty much follows Ms. Lohan around the studio lot getting her perspective on things. After that are two music videos, "What I Like About You," performed by Lillix, and "Me vs. the World," performed by Halo Friendlies. Then there is a two-minute reel of bloopers, one brief deleted scene, and three alternative endings introduced by director Mark Waters. Things conclude with a THX Optimizer set of audiovisual tests; twelve (only twelve?) scene selections; English as the only spoken language; and no subtitles (but English captions for the hearing impaired). I suspect this scarcity of chapters, languages, and subtitles is also a concession to youth, who probably wouldn't be much interested in such things.
Parting Thoughts:
Admittedly, "Freaky Friday" takes a degree of patience and endurance to appreciate, unless you're willing to suspend your disbelief more than usual. If you stick with it, however, it will reward with more than its fair share of laughs and a poignant ending that you can see a mile coming but pleases anyhow. It's a movie aimed straight at the teen and younger set, but it goes down easily for adults as well. No Academy Awards here, but thanks largely to Jamie Lee Curtis it provides a good time.
Trivia note: Jodie Foster, who played the daughter in the first "Freaky Friday" movie was asked to come back and play the mother in the remake. She declined, saying the gimmick of her playing the mom might have upstaged the rest of the movie. I dunno; I like Ms. Foster's acting talents a lot and have no doubt she would have done a great job with the role, but it's hard to imagine her topping Ms. Curtis. Maybe everything is meant to be, after all.
Video:
The picture has been mastered to THX specifications in two ratios, a 1.33:1 standard screen and a 1.74:1 widescreen. Since the movie was originally shot in the 1.33:1 format, the standard screen actually shows more information at the top and bottom, although it is slightly cut at the sides compared to the widescreen. Six of one.... I watched in widescreen, as that was the ratio shown in theaters, and I found the video excellent. Colors are bright and vibrant, rich and darkly impressive. There is no grain to speak of and there are no moiré effects, so it's almost as good as it can be. Almost. Except that on three or four occasions the image froze up momentarily. Not a layer turnover, mind you, just a freeze up such as occurred on several other Buena Vista discs a year or more previous. Since other people also experienced the earlier problem, I concluded it was not confined to my equipment but a problem in the disc mastering, a problem I thought BV had by now solved. Maybe not.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics are clean, with good presence and good dynamics. Most of the sound is used to convey dialogue, and it excels in doing so clearly, although like almost all modern films it confines the speaking parts to the center channel. There is very little use of the rear channels, which is a pity, but the front channels rock when they need to with deep bass and quick transients.
Extras:
The extras are aimed primarily at children and teens, another shame because the film easily appeals to adults, too. The major item is an eight-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, "Backstage Pass With Lindsay Lohan," that pretty much follows Ms. Lohan around the studio lot getting her perspective on things. After that are two music videos, "What I Like About You," performed by Lillix, and "Me vs. the World," performed by Halo Friendlies. Then there is a two-minute reel of bloopers, one brief deleted scene, and three alternative endings introduced by director Mark Waters. Things conclude with a THX Optimizer set of audiovisual tests; twelve (only twelve?) scene selections; English as the only spoken language; and no subtitles (but English captions for the hearing impaired). I suspect this scarcity of chapters, languages, and subtitles is also a concession to youth, who probably wouldn't be much interested in such things.
Parting Thoughts:
Admittedly, "Freaky Friday" takes a degree of patience and endurance to appreciate, unless you're willing to suspend your disbelief more than usual. If you stick with it, however, it will reward with more than its fair share of laughs and a poignant ending that you can see a mile coming but pleases anyhow. It's a movie aimed straight at the teen and younger set, but it goes down easily for adults as well. No Academy Awards here, but thanks largely to Jamie Lee Curtis it provides a good time.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]11532[/release]