`Family comedy'. The term inspires fear. Add the word `remake' and you've got a sentence like community service: portentous, painful and pointless. Not this time. Freaky Friday is a smart, slick makeover of the nostalgia-bathed '70s original, boasting its high concept and charisma but dumping the tweeness that suffocates the Jodie Foster-starrer.
A likeable Lindsay Lohan steps into Jodie's shoes, playing a hygienically grungy teen who supernaturally swaps bodies with Jamie Lee Curtis' middle-aged mum. Lohan has a lot of fun aping the older actress but Curtis steals most of the scenes, crying of her post-switch self, ""I'm like the Cryptkeeper!"" before bounding through the join-the-dots action with a performance of witty self-deprecation. Predictable but pleasant.
DVD Extras:
Two barely changed alternative endings, a disposable deleted scene, music videos, blooper reel and sprightly, Lohan-hosted featurette. Slight for sure, but who needs commentaries for such polished, throwaway fun?
