Freaky Friday (2003)

Well, look at this…the movies from November’s viewings are spilling into December. These family teen Disney movies had been so plentiful and I just didn’t have the energy to write so many reviews so here we are. With that said, I kind of works with the lighthearted winter holiday movies theme that is going on here. Its just that is taking me a while to put together seeing as I reviewed so many of them before. You can find all the reviews from past holiday marathon in the menu above under movies. With that said, I haven’t seen Freaky Friday so I figured it was a good time to do some catch up (just like the previous The Lizzie McGuire Movie review I did HERE). Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis: I mean, what could go wrong, right?

Freaky Friday (2003)

Director: Mark Waters

Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Mark Harmon, Harold Gould, Chad Michael Murray, Rosalind Chao

An overworked mother and her daughter do not get along. When they switch bodies, each is forced to adapt to the other’s life for one freaky Friday. – IMDB

 There is a wonderful entertainment value in Freaky Friday. I can’t say that I would watch this all the time but it has this really harmless fun feeling. Exactly how Disney family features usually are. While the plot is a little funky and its weird to see Jamie Lee Curtis play a role like this one especially since in her early days she was a scream queen and then in the recent years, she’s the dean on Scream Queens TV series, its hard to imagine her in such a comedic role but playing a rather uptight character that had to do a flip to act like a teenage girl. I always like these sort of flip personalities sort of thing because most of the time (even in the most ridiculous ways), hilarity ensues.

I have to admit that I don’t quite like this one as much as The Lizzie Mcguire Movie or The Parent Trap. There are moments where it feels like I should find it funny and yet I didn’t really want to. Maybe an overuse of the same humor like the Chinese Restaurant owner who keeps insisting on having the party held at their restaurant for a discount. Although those parts with the owner and her mom felt weird but still rather fun. What does make Freaky Friday good is the message it delivers of not really understanding someone and their decisions until you step into their shoes, maybe not as literal as the movie but it makes a good point about family and communication.

While these types of movies usually go over the top a little with the acting and very guided story lines, this one does deliver emotionally at the end. As much as I was sure about how I felt about Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis’s characters respectively, it was hard to deny that I grew to like them more as we connected with them and in the end, it triggered some nice feelings as they embraced what they felt they needed to do naturally. The addition of the supporting characters actually adds a little extra although no one had quite as much as screen time as these two ladies. I did enjoy seeing Chad Michael Murray, who just seems to be hovering over a ton of stuff I’m watching of late and man, it makes me want to watch A Cinderella Story (again!).

Overall, Freaky Friday is a good enough Disney movie. Definitely not my favorite. However, it does have some nice feels and some good humor going on. It kind of hits in a plot territory that I appreciate and have a soft spot for. Still, I don’t see myself wanting to run back to rewatch this one too frequently but I’m definitely not opposed to seeing it again if it ever does occur. I guess what I’m saying is that I had fun but slightly indifferent.

Have you seen Freaky Friday? Did you like it?

The Parent Trap (1998)

Fun fact about me: I’m a huge fan of Lindsay Lohan when she was a young actress even up to her teenage roles, probably ends around Mean Girls. I remember that I have no idea how I landed on watching The Parent Trap when I was young but it was long enough ago for me to not really remember too much of it. This was a pretty fresh watch. However, I’m big on these twin movies. I still love It Takes Two to absolute bits. After a month of horror, its high time for some more family fun sort of movies. I was saying that it was teen comedies but I think the correct term of it is family features mostly in November. Sometimes, we just gotta take it easy especially when my mind is in high panic phase or at least it will be soon if it hasn’t already.

Let’s check it out!

The Parent Trap (1998)

Director: Nancy Meyers

Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson, Elaine Hendrix, Lisa Ann Walter, Simon Kunz

Identical twins Annie and Hallie, separated at birth and each raised by one of their biological parents later they discover each other for the first time at summer camp and make a plan to bring their wayward parents back together.- IMDB

The best way to start this write-up is to first say that I haven’t watched the original The Parent Trap so I’m taking this one as a standalone, which it should be, even if it is a remake. The Parent Trap is kind of your cliche family movie. In many ways, I prefer It Takes Two over it if we were to compare, especially since there are many similarities between the two and I like the Olsen twins a tad more than a double of Lindsay Lohan. However, she does do a great job especially realizing that at a young age, she could do the British accent and the normal, plus there was some pretty fun parts. The Parent Trap isn’t a long movie either and carries some pretty entertaining times.

First of all, the cast is pretty good. Playing the father is Dennis Quaid who I do enjoy watching from time to time. Oddly, most of them are family films, except for Vantage Point. However, the fun isn’t exactly with these two adults meeting again and rekindling their love in a few days and putting all differences aside. The over the top character of Meredith, makes for some funny moments especially when she reacts quite funnily and as annoying as this character would be in real life, it offers a comedic element. My favorite character, other than Lindsay Lohans, have to go to the characters Chessy and Martin (portrayed by Lisa Ann Walter and Simon Kunz respectively) because they play the father’s sister and the butler on the mom’s side and was the adults pulling the strings and they were just hilarious together.

The Parent Trap does have some fun characters and that really elevate the movie quite a bit. The very young Lindsay Lohan is remarkable and cute. Probably one of the extremely shining moments of this rather cliche movie. In fact, having two Lindsay Lohans here shows the diversity of her acting. She doesn’t come off as bratty either. In fact, we actually can see the innocence of the two little girls here who really are hidden in the dark about having a twin and then not really understanding what made their parents fall apart but having that immense desire to put them back together since they are single still. Life (and love) is more complicated than that but the simplicity of Hallie and Annie does make for many fun moments.

Most family movies work with a formula, and The Parent Trap is no different. However, it is surprisingly entertaining and has lots of great moments. Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, and the other cast are all having fun with their respective roles and giving us some cool characters. In that end, that is what matters, right? Lots of movies are formulaic, especially with the amount of sequels and remakes that we get in one year nowadays, but the feeling we get out of some of these family movies carry weight. The Parent Trap is a at many times not only fun but has its fair share of heartwarming moments as well.

Have you seen The Parent Trap? How about the original? How do they compare?

The Canyons (2013)

I could’ve watched a whole lot of other 2013 choices from Netflix but why did I choose The Canyons? Well, one, because I was curious about what its all about and two, it was one of the shorter selections without getting too intense.  I had extremely low expectations for this.  I’ll talk more about my reasoning behind it afterwards.  Lets start with a little synopsis.

Director: Paul Schrader

Cast: Lindsay Lohan, James Deen, Nolan Gerard Funk, Amanda Brooks, Tenille Houston

Christian, an LA trust fund guy gets involved in a movie production business in order to keep his father happy. His girlfriend Tara is an actress who has pulled out of a recent project. They have a fairly casual relationship with frequent hookups with other people or couples, but when Christian realizes that Tara is involved with the lead actor in the upcoming production, he starts playing mind games and loses control.

Up there, I started talking about why I had low expectations for it.  One of the probably more obvious reasons is that the male lead is played by James Deen, who is a porn actor.  From my very limited experience, porn requires some so-called acting but more exactly, exaggerated like crazy.  Despite that point, aside from Lindsay Lohan, this was also another reason I was intrigued by it.  I was curious how it would turn out. I’d like to think the man can act, right?

So, back to The Canyons.  The plot itself had a lot of potential, I think. If it was shot differently, it might actually had been a whole lot better than the average movie that I saw.  The one big thing that bothered me was how a lot of the shots were framed.  I mean, close-ups shots, weird lighting, trying to capture too much unnecessary angles and details.  There’s one thing that bothers me A LOT about movies.  There’s foreshadowing and then there’s what they did here, treating the audience like retards.  I mean there was one shot where it was about the actor Ryan trying to get more shifts at work from his manager and obviously, the manager doesn’t say it out loud that he wants something sexual in exchange so you know what the camera focuses on? We’re eye level with Ryan focused on the manager’s pants and his legs shifting and stuff.  Really? I just watched a good part of this movie and you think I don’t get the point that you’re trying to tell me is there is control and sex themes in this? Seriously?!?!?

Also, there are some movies who can do this whole blurred genre thing but The Canyons, not so much.  Its categorized as a drama thriller but I mean, sure, there was some drama according to the story but thriller, nope, not really.  I mean, if you want to get the thrill removed, just head over to IMDB and read their plot summary.  It recaps the story and the damn ending, which is somewhat stupid.  Netflix does a much better job for The Canyons write-up saying its about dark side of human nature.

Do you know who I’m going to talk about now? Yup, the dude up there and that pic took me all of 10 minutes scrolling down Google images to find.  I present to you, James Deen.  Now, you see that look up there.  Over-emoting and trying to make sure people understand that he isn’t just reading the lines but acting it out.  He does that throughout the whole movie.  Its the one thing that made me laugh and facepalm.  Why? Because after a while, its hilarious and so unnecessary and at a certain point, its just, I know this movie is bad but there are some guilty pleasure aspects and then some “so bad its good” aspects.  I’m serious, his facial expressions are really too much…and to think, the dark side of human nature was about him and his crazy mind games.  I don’t know…not very convincing.

Next up, Lindsay Lohan.  I had a lot of love for her and I really want to keep having love for her.  The only issue is that she reminds me of all the shit she did to herself and how lost she got.  Its a shame because looking at her, it makes me want to go back and watch Mean Girls.  Don’t get wrong though.  If anyone did a good job in this movie, she did a pretty good job.  It proves that she still has it.  She just traded in those teenage, innocent roles almost 10 years later for a sexual and very exposing role.  I mean exposing as she has a lot of boobs shot.  Do you want to see her boobs up close and personal? Well, maybe thats another reason to see this, or..just search it up on Google.  Seriously though, her character didn’t bother so much.  She put a lot of emotions into it.

It would be unfair if I didn’t put in a little bit about this dude here.  This is Nolan Gerard Funk and he plays Ryan.  I recognized him from Riddick.  Not a huge role but still, I like the guy.  I think I am able to pick out Canadian actors more and more, don’t know why? Anyways, seeing this guy makes me want to get back into catching up with Glee.  I dropped off I think 2 seasons ago.  I actually think Nolan Funk does a good job.  He probably can do better and he’s a decent looking guy. He had the supporting role in this and well, I don’t really have much to say but at least he didn’t overact and he was convincing as Ryan.  The actor who is acting in his own life, and realizing that everyone is apparently doing it also including Tara, Christian, etc.

The more I write this, the more I see the things I want to talk about.   So, now that I’ve cooled off from the rant about the director treating us stupid? The second biggest thing I absolutely despise in a movie is meaningless endings.  I literally went “WTF?!?!?!” when the movie ended.  I have no idea what it was trying to say or what was the point of it.  I especially don’t like movies making me feel like I wasted my time.  And then I thought, maybe if this was more porn and had more thorough sex scenes it wouldn’t be so much of a waste of time…just a thought, you know?

Okay, its sounded extremely negative.  So, one thing about this movie that I enjoyed was that they put awesome music in the background for the scenes.  That helped the mood of the movie.

After all that write up, yeah, this really wasn’t a good movie.  I said average up there? Its below average for sure.  I’m not recapping all that but if there are reasons to see this movie, Lindsay Lohan, Nolan Funk and the soundtrack.  Or maybe you really want to see what I mean about James Deen’s overused facial expressions.  That thought always makes me smile 😉

How many of you have seen The Canyons? What do you think of Lindsay Lohan now?