Mother's Boys (1994)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Yves Simoneau

Writers (WGA):

Bernard Taylor (novel)
Barry Schneider (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 March 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

She left them three years ago. Now she's coming back... Whether they like it or not.

Plot:

Jude Madigan leaves her husband Robert and her three children without any explanation. Three years later...

Plot Keywords:

Handcuffs | Incest | Injury | Psychopath | Tied To Chair

Cast

Jamie Lee Curtis	...	Judith 'Jude' Madigan
Peter Gallagher	...	Robert Madigan
Joanne Whalley	...	Colleen 'Callie' Harland (as Joanne Whalley-Kilmer)
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Lydia Madigan
Luke Edwards	...	Kes Madigan
Colin Ward	...	Michael Madigan
Joey Zimmerman	...	Ben Madigan
Joss Ackland	...	Lansing, Jude's Attorney
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Mark Kaplan, Robert's Attorney
J.E. Freeman	...	Everett, Principal
John C. McGinley	...	Mr. Fogel, Teacher
Jill Freedman	...	Nurse
Lorraine Toussaint	...	Robert's Associate
Ken Lerner	...	Jude's Analyst
Mary Anne McGarry	...	Planetarium Woman

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:14 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R

Company:

CBS Productions

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In the VHS version, the dolly tracks are visible when Kes walks towards the bath with Jude is sitting in it.

Quotes:

Ben Madigan: I saw her Kes... i saw her at school
[swallows]
Ben Madigan: ... she didn't think i knew her... but i did

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Anus Magillicutty (2003)

Soundtrack:

THE LONGEST NIGHT - THEME FROM MOTHER'S BOYS

Yuck

Be warned if you're one of those people who looks at the cast credits of movies and says " hmm some fairly well known names there I think I'll watch this " then you don't know what you're letting yourself in for . On the surface the cast list is good with well known names like Jamie Lee Curtis , Joanne Whalley , Josh Ackland and Vanessa Redgrave along with a few familiar faces like John C McGinley and Peter Gallagher but it's vital to remember that good casts don't always make good films

MOTHER'S BOYS does get off to a highly entertaining start . Notice I said highly entertaining start and not a good start . It's down to the incompetence of director Yves Simoneau where we see a biology class full of children being asked to dissect frogs , so one young lad decides to give Mr Frog a damn good stabbing which causes his class mates to run around screaming . Remember the bit in NAKED GUN where OJ Simpson gets shot then he starts crashing into things ? Well we see a similar situation here where children knock things like mice cages over which contributes to even more panic . I was expecting someone to bang into a cage housing giant dinosaurs thereby letting loose a brontosaruas but sadly this doesn't happen . It's still very amusing though . As the story continues we eventually find out ( After about 40 minutes which is never a good sign ) that the plot involves divorcée Robert Madigan being stalked by his ex-wife Jude . So it's basically one of those psycho thrillers from the mid 1990s that we've seen far too many times

I should warn you though that my utter distaste for this movie isn't because it suffers from a worn out premise , I saw FEAR the previous week and enjoyed it immensely , no my problem with MOTHER'S BOYS is that it contains a scene where Jude walks around naked in front of her 12 year old son then asks him to bring the phone to her as she sits in the bath . Again I refer to the incompetence of director Yves Simoneau because this scene comes across as downright objectionable since it looks like Jude is trying to seduce her son and it's this one scene more than the clichéd hackneyed plot and poor storytelling that makes this a film to avoid