Brian Gilbert
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
When both Millie and the Butcher wake up the next day (on a Friday the 13th no less), it’s obvious that they have switched bodies, and the clock is ticking for Millie to find the notorious killer who’s hanging out in her skin so they can switch back before it’s too late and they’re forever stuck in this very Vice Versa-esque scenario.
The filmmaker continues that mash-up trend with "Freaky," yet another slasher offering but this time where the killer and his would-be victim end up switching bodies a la the likes of "Like Father, Like Son," "Vice Versa" and, yes, this film's namesake, "Freaky Friday," among others.
In a world with “Freaky Friday” (1976, 2003), “Vice Versa” (1988), “All of Me” (1984) – and please don’t forget “Big” (1988) and “13 Going on 30” (2004) too – a deranged sicko switching bodies with a self-esteem-challenged teenage girl is a textbook case of out-of-the-box thinking.
If the idea of watching two grown men act like children - oversize, shouting, stomping, mouth-full-of- Cheez Whiz 12-year-olds - was actually comedy gold, Tom Hanks would be on his fourth "Big" sequel by now and Judge Reinhold would have rode a "Vice Versa" train all the way to retirement.
In addition, the eventual disclosure of the murderer's identity and reasons for the crime aren't anything particularly amazing or noteworthy, while the introduction of Stephen Fry ("A Civil Action," "Wilde") as a buffoonish, Clouseau-type inspector feels out of place.
When his corpse is discovered later in his study, comically incompetent Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry, "Wilde") arrives and seals off the house.
Therefore, this revival of a hero whose last cinema outing was Adventures Of Captain Marvel in 1941 (before lawyers took away his name) is as much an entry in the kid-in-a-grown-up-body genre ( Freaky Friday , Vice Versa , Big ) as it is yet another addition to the currently crowded roster of superheroic spectacle.