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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Gary Nelson
Cast:
Jodie Foster, Barbara Harris, John Astin
Writing Credits:
Mary Rodgers

Synopsis:
A mother and daughter find their personalities switched and have to live each other's lives on one strange Friday.

MPAA:
Rated G

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English Dolby Monaural
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
None

Runtime: 98 min.
Price: $39.99
Release Date: 3/27/2018

Bonus:
• None


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RELATED REVIEWS


Freaky Friday [Blu-Ray] (1977)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 1, 2022)

While 1977’s Freaky Friday didn't pioneer the "body swap" genre, it popularized it and remains a touchstone. But does it hold up 45 years later?

13-year-old Annabel Andrews (Foster) lives with her mother Ellen (Barbara Harris) and irritating younger brother Ben (Sparky Marcus). Both Anna and Ellen bicker over the usual parent/daughter issues and they think that the other one has it easy.

One afternoon, both muse about the superiority of the others’ lives and at the same time, they utter “I wish I could switch places with her for just one day”. Magically, this occurs, as they suddenly swap bodies.

The film follows their dual paths as we watch them deal with the challenges that accompany this perplexing change. After the initial shock, they still indicate that they can handle matters, so they try to go about business as usual. Various complications ensue as they come to terms with different challenges and learn a little in the process.

“Body swap” movies predate Freaky Friday, but I think the modern-day examples of this genre owe their existence to it. The film did well at the box office and showed its influence when we got an explosion of these flicks in the 1980s.

I’d love to say that Friday acts as one of the genre’s best, but unfortunately, it doesn’t hold up well over the years. Not only do spiritual siblings like 1988’s Big better it, but also Friday’s 2003 remake offers a superior version.

A substantially superior version, in fact, though since I’ve not seen the 2003 take in about a decade, I can’t directly compare the two. To be honest, I barely remember the Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsay Lohan edition. However, I recall enough to know that I enjoyed it and thought it provided a good take on the topic.

The 2003 Friday was pretty bright and funny, and it attempted to create its own internal logic. None of those positives accompany the wholly, consistently, relentlessly mediocre 1977 version.

Truthfully, the story exists as nothing more than a long collection of comedic beats. It seems to think it’ll succeed based solely on its wacky premise, so it does little to deliver much more beyond its general concept. The movie hopes we’ll be so delighted by its nutty notions that we won’t notice how little else it has going for itself.

Perhaps we might not care if we got better lead performances. While I think Harris and Foster are decent in their roles, they can’t elevate their underwritten parts.

Of the two, Foster does the best, as she manages to play an adult in a reasonable manner. She relies on a few too many stodgy mannerisms, but she does fine.

On the other hand, Harris tends to overdo the teenage girl. Rather than play a natural kid, Harris turns her into a moronic dope. This seems too over the top to create real comedy.

I do think the movie would work better if it attempted more of a story. Unlike the remake, the 1977 Friday never attempts to tell us how the body swap happens.

The characters accept it virtually immediately and never question it, which seems weird. They just act like it’s no big deal, and I guess we’re supposed to follow suit, but it’d be nice to have some clue about the cause of the switch. Didn’t the filmmakers think anyone might wonder about this?

I suspect they didn’t really care. As a movie for youngsters, Freaky Friday works fine; I was nine when it hit screens and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, unlike the better “kiddie flicks”, Friday won’t do much for anyone other than the little ones.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio C/ Bonus F

Freaky Friday appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-Ray Disc. This was a pretty solid presentation.

Sharpness appeared positive. A few shots looked a bit soft but the majority of the flick seemed well-defined and concise.

Jagged edges and moiré effects offered no issues, while I also detected no edge haloes. Grain felt natural, and I noticed no obvious print flaws.

Colors impressed. The movie used a natural palette, and it showed vibrant, rich tones throughout the film. The colors turned into arguably the most appealing aspect of the image.

Black levels appeared pretty deep and rich, and shadow detail seemed appropriately dense. Ultimately, Freaky Friday brought a highly appealing image.

With the movie’s Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack, audio quality showed its age but appeared acceptable. Speech seemed somewhat thin and flat at times, but most of the lines came across as reasonably clear and distinct, and I noticed no concerns related to intelligibility or edginess.

Effects played a fairly minor role in the film. Nonetheless, they appeared reasonably clean and accurate, and they displayed no signs of distortion. How did the Blu-ray compare with the DVD from 2004? Audio reverted to the original monaural, whereas the DVD came with a 5.1 remix.

Given that the “5.1” essentially offered “broad mono”, I didn’t mind the loss of that version. I prefer movies to offer their theatrical audio anyway.

That said, this seemed like a lackluster mix. The track lost points due to the absence of a lossless option, and the material seemed mastered at a very low level, so I needed to crank up the volume.

Even so, the track felt dull. The mono mix wasn’t worse than the 5.1 track, but it seemed blah.

At least visuals showed substantial improvements, as the Blu-ray looked tighter, cleaner and more vibrant. In terms of picture, this became a considerable upgrade.

Alas, the Blu-ray lost the minor extras from the DVD. The latter included an interesting chat with Jodie Foster, so it disappoints that it doesn’t reappear here.

As a kid, I liked Freaky Friday, and as an adult, I hoped it’d offer something more than basic nostalgia. Unfortunately, it doesn’t bring much entertainment value and provides a sloppy, silly collection of comedic beats. The Blu-ray gives us very good picture as well as bland audio and no bonus materials. If you want to see a good version of the story, stick with the 2003 remake, as the 1977 Friday lacks much merit.

Note that Freaky Friday hit Blu-ray as an exclusive for the “Disney Movie Club”. If you click the links on this page, you can buy a third-party copy through Amazon, but the Disney Movie Club offers the cheapest way to get it – assuming you want to buy other Disney discs as well.

To rate this film visit the DVD review of FREAKY FRIDAY

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