It’s been over two decades since Freaky Friday first hit theaters in 2003, but the wait is finally over! Freakier Friday arrives in theaters August 8 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reprising their iconic mother-daughter roles. The sequel picks up years after Tess and Anna’s original identity crisis, now with Anna navigating life as a mom herself. This time, a new generation gets caught in the body-swapping madness. Joining the cast are Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Julia Butters, and Sophia Hammons, alongside returning favorites including Chad Michael Murray and Mark Harmon.
So, did Freakier Friday pull off the magic of the 2003 original? Critics are saying it’s a well-paced, laugh-out-loud, nostalgic tribute to the first installment. Check below for some first reviews of the film, which releases in theaters on August 8:
“The double swap lends ‘Freakier Friday’ a juggling-balls-in-the-air quality that gives off a pleasant hum. It’s fun to ride the film’s complications; it follows through on its own logic just enough to create a watchably friendly Disney landscape.”
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“To their credit, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis slip back into their characters with ease and are even convincing in their ‘body switched’ roles as Harper and Lily. The pair are comfortable with each other and are flexing their honed comedy skills”.
— Tyler Taing, DiscussingFilm
“It’s Curtis who embodies the story’s wacky spirit.”
— Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“Jacinto also brings easygoing warmth and a dash of poignancy to his role as the poster-boy fiancé.”
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
“Butters and Hammons are warm and winning as older women trapped in their young bodies. They get plenty of wisecracks about having good bone density, and a goofy, frolicsome montage where they enjoy eating junk food their older bodies can no longer withstand. However, the main event is seeing Lohan and Curtis reunited—and even better—together.”
— Maureen Lee Lanker, Entertainment Weekly
“Kudos, then, to Butters, for doing a commendable job of capturing Lohan’s tone and mannerisms.”
— Clarisse Loughery, The Independent
“More narrative convolutions, more subplots, more supporting characters, more one-liners, more slapstick, more musical interludes, and even more tear-jerking finales.”
— Kevin Maher, The Times
“If you enjoyed the first one, you will find its sequel’s almost obsessive commitment to providing more of the same a comfortingly nostalgic joy.”
— Francesca Steele, The Paper
“Leave it to Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan to crack the code as to what makes a good legacyquel, which they’ve done quite handily with their long-gestating ‘Freaky Friday’ sequel, Nisha Ganatra’s charming and quite fun ‘Freakier Friday.’ The secret? Fittingly enough, it harkens back to exactly what Curtis and Lohan brought to Mark Waters’ 2003 “Freaky Friday”: actual verve, obvious joy, and performances that are about three times better than they need to be.”
— Kate Erbland, IndieWire
“Props to Chad Michael Murray, who reprises his Freaky Friday role of Jake, Anna’s high school crush; his surprisingly sweet revival of the character gets a terrific payoff in the finale. But moreover, the chemistry between Murray and a flustered Curtis is hot enough that I wouldn’t be mad if somebody made a May-December rom-com with the two of them.”
— Kristy Puchko, Mashable
“‘Freakier Friday’ is the best kind of legacy sequel. It harkens back to what made the original work without literally doing the same thing all over again. It reunites a great cast and gives the new stars just as much time to shine. It’s full of easter eggs from the original but isn’t beholden to lazy nostalgia, and mostly works on its own, whether you’ve seen the 2003 version of ‘Freaky Friday’ or not.”
— William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“Freakier Friday, managed to be a rare nostalgia sequel that was, in a word, effervescent. Both delightful and sweet, the Freaky Friday sequel smartly used its starting point of nostalgia to bubble up into a movie that shines on its own.”
— Rotem Rusak, Nerdist
“The film is an Etch-a-Sketch wiped clean; unobjectionable fun, if a trifle anodyne.”
— Tim Robey, The Telegraph
“It is not a world-beater, but Freakier Friday has its charms, moves with pace and has a script that will make you laugh out loud.”
— James Mottram, South China Morning Post
“It also relies on a lot of call-backs to that dim-and-distant first film, yet lacks the elegant simplicity of that film’s plot.”
— Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman
Freakier Friday opens in theaters on August 8, 2025.
