The 1976 Freaky Friday and its 2003 remake nailed a timeless concept: mutual respect born from walking in each other’s shoes. The 2003 version wasn’t gunning for Oscars with its breezy script or lofty ideas, but it had enough charm, heart, and relatability to make it a go-to for mothers and daughters. It was silly, fun, and just poignant enough to hit home. Enter Freakier Friday, where the writing team—whose combined five credits include gems you’ve never heard of—completely fumbles the ball.

The swap, once a driver of meaningful growth, is now just a flimsy excuse for a barrage of low-hanging gags, mostly poking at the fact that the 2003 actresses, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, are now 20 years older. The humor leans heavily on their age for cheap laughs. Curtis’s character swaps with her soon-to-be step-granddaughter, a girl she barely knows, with no real conflict to resolve through the swap. Lohan swaps with her daughter, but their only tension—a half-baked plan to move to London post-wedding—feels like a shrug. The real clash, between Lohan’s daughter and her soon-to-be stepdaughter, who spend 99% of the film as selfish, narcissistic brats hurling petty insults at each other, gets no swap-driven resolution. Unlike the 2003 teen with legitimate gripes, these girls are so unlikable that you’re rooting against them. Their eventual truce comes from forced time together and shared goals, not from any profound perspective shift. The swap is pointless, a lazy plot device for juvenile humor.

Speaking of humor, who’s this movie even for? The bulk of the film centers on Curtis and Lohan, inhabited by teenagers, delivering childish gags and simplistic jokes that might tickle tween girls. But are tweens clamoring to watch two actresses now in their 40s and 60s joke about incontinence? Meanwhile, fans of the 2003 film, now 20 years older, likely won’t vibe with the relentless silliness aimed at a younger crowd. The target audience is as muddled as the rest of the film.

The performances don’t save it. Characters, when there's been one or two minutes without a gag, forget they’re in bodies decades older or younger, despite days spent as one another and plenty of moments that should’ve cemented the reality. That’s on the writers. More baffling is Jamie Lee Curtis, an Oscar winner, playing a 17-year-old girl like a nine-year-old with brain damage. It’s jarring, but something that director Nisha Ganatra should have caught and put a stop to.

Add in stray subplots—like a cameo from Lohan’s ex from the 2003 film—that go nowhere or are for easy and unearned third-act conflict, a pile of easy resolutions, and a dragged-out 1-hour-51-minute runtime, and Freakier Friday is pure nostalgia bait with no substance. It banks on your love for the original while serving a confused mess of goofballery that doesn’t know who it’s trying to entertain.