Written by Sam Clark 

Certificate: PG 

Running time: 110 minutes 

Director: Nisha Ganatra 

We once again find ourselves transported twenty-two years into the past as Hollywood continues to ram nostalgia down our throats. What property is it this time? None other than Disney's iconic body swap classic ''Freaky Friday''. The topic of whether or not things should be left alone is particularly pertinent here as not only are we re-hashing another film, but the body swap genre itself has been done so much over the decades. There's a lot going on here contextually and historically. The 1976 Disney original was the first film to do body swapping, but that in and of itself was an adaption of a book released in 1972 of the same name. Since then, various genres across cinematic history have adopted the idea and put their own spins on it, as after all the concept is a goldmine and lots of fun can be had. My own personal favourite happens to be ''Freaky'', in which Vince Vaughan's slasher serial killer swaps bodies with high school student Kathryn Newton, and that was fun (the film is even called  ''freaky'' so the inspirations are clear - however unsubtle they may be). 

Directed by Nisha Ganatra who was worked on a plethora of successful TV shows including ''Shameless'' and ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine''' and penned by ''Dollface'' creator Joran Weiss, ''Freakier Friday'' takes place twenty-two years after the first, of course. ''Anna'' (Lindsay Lohan) and her mother ''Tess'' (Jamie Lee Curtis) are navigating their way through life after swapping with each other's bodies all those years ago with ''Anna'' as a single parent and ''Tess'' as a supportive grandma and podcast host. ''Anna'' meets British ''Eric'' (Manny Jacinto) after they are both called to the principals office where both of their daughters -''Anna's daughter ''Harper'' (Julia Butters) and ''Eric's daughter ''Lily'' (Sophia Hammons) - attend school. Neither of the girls get along but their parents strike up a romance and become engaged. ''Lily'' wants to move back home to London whereas ''Eric'' wishes for them to say in L.A.

Whilst attending ''Anna's bachelorette party, ''Tess'' and 'Anna'' take part in a psychic palm reading, and so do the daughters. Moments later, a small earthquake takes place that only their can feel. The next morning, all hell breaks loose and they discover that all four of them have switched with each other: ''Anna'' is now ''Harper''; ''Tess'' is now ''Lily''; ''Harper'' is now ''Tess'' and ''Lily'' has become ''Anna'' (if you think that's confusing, you ain't seen nothing yet). ''Harper'' and ''Lily'' do not want to live with each other, and so they use this conundrum to split their parents and the wedding up, but all does not go according to plan. 

I was not expecting much at all from ''Freakier Friday'', I only saw the trailer once and it was before another film, so I was forced to watched it. Well, as it happens, I really enjoyed it. I could not tell you how long it has been since I last saw the 03 version but I remembered enough of it and do remember it fondly, for what it's worth. The issue with most legacy sequels of old properties and franchises, is that they forget what made the first or the originals so good, and fall into the trap of just becoming pointless and boring and eradicating any sense of joy you used to have. Despite the fact that my hopes were not particularly high for this and there wasn't a great deal at stake personally, there is still a sense of fear or trepidation going into this as I didn't want to sit through yet another pointless re-hash (the phrase that will be brought up time and time again). 

''Freakier Friday'' has far more fun with body swapping this time around than the original did which does make sense (though the 03 version was still enjoyable and silly), because when you bring something back after so long, you bring it back with a bang. This does also acclimatize very well to a new generation, with lots of uses of modern day grammar and slang that at new and young audience will completely understand (just so that you're aware of what ball park you're in, there is a lot of ''it's given'' and ''slay''). But not only was I thoroughly entertained by just how silly and enjoyably entertaining the swapping gets, I was surprisingly taken back at just how emotional of a film ''Freakier Friday'' turned out to be. ''Eric'' lost his wife and has now found comfort and solace with ''Anna''. This is a film about death and mourning, and there are some emotionally powerful conversation that take place surrounding this which I was very emotionally engaged with and taken back by, and I admit that I welled up. 

When I came to discover just how mature and well handled it proved to be, any reservations went out the window and I happily gave into it. The issue facing body swapping films is that it can be quite tricky to keep up with what is going on, even if it is just between two characters. The biggest battle ''Freakier Friday'' has and sadly loses that there are four characters to try and balance and keep up with, and it does get confusing trying to remember who was who and what they are trying to do. But having said that and amongst the issues, the film certainly has its's cake and eats it. As is always expected, there are plenty of joked about older people being in the bodies of younger people, and vice versa. One gag about ''Facebook'' being labelled as ''a database for old people'' is quite enjoyable, as well as Jamie Lee Curtis's character bending down and saying ''I can bend over now without tooting''. Silly buy harmless stuff.

I was naturally skeptical about ''Freakier Friday'' considering how many legacies have not been working as of late. But it remembers how to have fun with it's concept, is innocently funny, full of heart and love and ends with a call back to the original at the end for good measure. A nice, welcome and pleasant surprise. 

In cinemas now