Body changing comedies
Body switching comedies have been around for years. It started in the late 1970s with the Disney hit Freaky Friday and enjoyed a minor popularity ten years later. The list contains all of those comedies.
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- DirectorGary NelsonStarsBarbara HarrisJodie FosterJohn AstinA mother and daughter find their personalities switched and have to live each other's lives on one strange Friday.This is the movie that started it all. Jodie Foster plays Annabel Andrews, a teenage girl who has a tumulous relationship with her mother. One Friday both say that they wished that they had the other's life and BAM! they get their wish. Each one learns important lessons about what teh other person has to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Jodie Foster has since gone on to star in films like Silence of the Lambs and Panic Room, while Barbara Harris continued to act in supporting roles in films like Grosse Point Blank and Peggy Sue Got Married.
- DirectorRod DanielStarsDudley MooreKirk CameronMargaret ColinA mysterious potion switches the personalities of a buttoned-up doctor and his laid-back son.This was the year where studio execs rediscovered the body switching comedy. So sure were they that the world wanted more of these types of movies they released three almost right on top of each other. By far this is the best of those three. Dudley Moore plays stuffy doctor Jack Hammond, who thanks to a magic potion switches bodies with his son Chris (Kirk Cameron). Hilarity ensues as Moore's character has to adjust to high school and Cameron's character learns a bit more about what his father does. In the end each learn powerful lessons about the other.
- DirectorBrian GilbertStarsJudge ReinholdFred SavageCorinne BohrerDivorced executive Marshall and his 11-year-old son Charlie casually touch a magical Tibetan skull, releasing a mysterious power that transfers Marshall's mind to Charlie's body and vice versa. Their problems have just begun.Of all of the body switching comedies that came out between 1987 and 1989, this one has to be the worst. Judge Reinhold is the snooty dad and Fred Savage is the kid. The instrument that causes the switch is this artifact that Reinhold's character brings back from the Orient. If you've seen Like Father Like Son skip this turkey.
- DirectorPaul FlahertyStarsCharlie SchlatterGeorge BurnsTony RobertsAn aging ruthless businessman swaps bodies with his grandson in the wake of getting into a car accident.While this one lacked the spark of Freaky Friday and Like Father Like Son, it is still worth viewing for two reasons. First it is one of George Burns' last performances on the silver screen. Burns does not get a lot of screen time, but does a the voiceover when the character is talking to himself. The other is the engaging way that Charlie Schlatter channels George Burns after he switches bodies with him. I was always surprised that Schlatter never made his way to the A-List. He has however carved a respectable niche doing voice work for many animated shows.
- DirectorMarc RoccoStarsCorey FeldmanJason RobardsCorey HaimAn accident puts the consciousness of an elderly dream researcher into the body of a bratty teenager. The problem? The kid prefers dreamworld limbo to real life.Of all of the body switching comedies, this is the film where the switch is most ambiguous. After Corey Feldman and Meredith Salenger collide with Jason Robards and Piper Laurie while they were doing a meditation ritual, Robards' character ends up inside Feldman's body. While you get to see Robards as Feldman you don't get to see Feldman as Robards. Instead, Feldman's character only appears in dream sequences. Of cours in the end it all works out. This film is also notable for being the only body switching comedy to earn a sequel (skip it) and for being the last commerical success for the two Coreys.
- DirectorMelanie MayronStarsShelley LongGaby HoffmannCatlin AdamsEllen and Annabelle have a hard time getting along with each other. On Friday the 13th, they both wear magical necklaces that make them switch bodies for the day.Okay, I will admit that even I did not know about this movie. Apparently Freaky Friday was remade into a TV-Movie with Shelley Long playing Ellen (this time Mom got a first name) Andrews and Gabby Hoffman played Annabel. If you've seen the original you probably don't need to see this one.
- DirectorMark WatersStarsJamie Lee CurtisLindsay LohanMark HarmonAn overworked mother and her daughter did not get along. When they switch bodies, each is forced to adapt to the other's life for one freaky Friday.What creature on Earth has the shortest memory? If you said movie studio executive, then you are correct. Eight years after Shelley Long and Gabby Hoffman appeared in a remake of Freaky Friday, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan appear in ANOTHER remake of Freaky Friday. Here Curtis (herself, a '70s scream queen) and her daughter Lohan (herself, a poster child for celebrity kids gone wild) and a magic fortune cookie causes them to switch bodies. Trivia: Curits and costar Mark Harmon would later appear on NCIS together.
- DirectorBurr SteersStarsZac EfronMatthew PerryLeslie MannMike O'Donnell is ungrateful for how his life turned out. He gets a chance to rewrite his life when he tried to save a janitor near a bridge and jumped after him into a time vortex.Many will question this entry, but I feel that it fits into the body switching comedy genre. Here Matthew Perry plays a middle-aged loser who has lost his job and whose wife has just kicked him out for blaming her because he didn't go to college (she found out that she was pregnant right before his big basketball game). One day he wakes up and he is...Zac Efron. Efron plays Perry's younger self, who goes back to high school in order to relive his glory days and do things right the second time. A good movie all around, but this really is Efron's movie. Perry appears briefly in the beginning and at the end, so if you want to see this film to see what Matthew Perry has been up to it is best to skip it.
- DirectorDavid DobkinStarsJason BatemanRyan ReynoldsOlivia WildeDave is a married man with three kids and a loving wife, and Mitch is a single man who is at the prime of his sexual life. One fateful night while Mitch and Dave are peeing in a fountain, lightning strikes and they switch bodies.Dumb, but funny body switching comedy. This time there are no fathers and sons or mothers and daughters who switch bodies. This is the story of Dave and Mitch, two best friends who crave the other's life. One night after peeing in a fountain, (yes you read that correctly) the two switch bodies. Now Mitch has to learn responsibility and Dave has to adjust to being single, while they track down he fountain to reverse their condition. not the most original movie, but I have to give this film high marks for finding an original body switching method.