Reviews & Ratings for
Mother's Boys More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 3:

[1] [2] [3]

Index

25 reviews in total

---

8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
An unusually fine thriller, 28 January 2000

Author: Lenny Nero (reckinhavok@aol.com) from Dallas, Texas

"Mother's Boys" was released quietly in theatres in 1993 before heading to video hell, where it is largely forgtten. This is unfortunate because this movie is a fine, quiet thriller, evoking a sense of mystery and horror that few films achieve.

The credit goes to the director, Yves Simoneau, who directs the film with a trance like grip that gives the movie a dream like effect. His use of colors, from warm, brown and red hues connected to the happy family, to the cold blue and grey that surrounds Curtis's bitter mother, are perectly used, as is the wonderful score by George S. Clinton. The acting is solid, with jamie Lee Curtis and Joanne Whalley Kilmer giving excellent performances as the mother who wants her family back and the girlfriend striving to piece her life together. Peter Gallager, Vanessa Redgrave and Like Edwards are also memorable as Curtis's abandonded family.

"Mother's Boys" is a film the Brits used to make in the olden days, a tense, psychological thriller that offers no easy answers. There is no real villian or hero here and that's what makes this movie stand out. I may be reaching too far here but "Mother's Boys" is a movie Hitchcock would be proud of.

---

7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Very Entertaining and well acted, 15 February 2001

Author: Stormtrac2

I disagree with many people on this film's quality. I thought the movie was great and I enjoyed watching it. The directing is good, the writing is better. Jamie Lee Curtis is great in this film, but she looks awful with blonde hair. Vanessa Redgrave is just as good as Curtis, and it's nice to see a familiar face in this film besides Curtis. Peter Gallagher is okay. Joanne Whaley and Luke Edwards give good performances. The cast is great in this film. Jamie Lee Curtis did not do this for the money. I saw it on Encore on evening, and the movie previewer said that Curtis said she took the role because this film allowed her to be the terrorizer instead of the terrorized, which is what she did mostly in the 70's and early 80's. I don't see what is so bad about this film. I give it a 7 out of 10

---

8 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Tries too hard to shock, 3 July 2008

Author: James Hitchcock from Tunbridge Wells, England

This is one of the numerous "…..from Hell" movies which came out in the late eighties and early nineties following the success of "Fatal Attraction" (one-night-stand-from-Hell). Others in the genre include "Pacific Heights" (tenant-from-Hell), "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" (nanny-from-Hell) and "Single White Female" (flatmate-from-Hell). "Mother's Boys" controversially presents us with Jamie Lee Curtis as the mother-from-Hell.

Robert Madigan is a single father with three young sons. The reason he is single is that three years ago his wife Judith ("Jude") left him without explanation and disappeared from his life and that of the boys. Robert now has a new girlfriend, Callie, whom he intends to marry as soon as his divorce from Jude can be finalised. Jude, however, has other ideas. She reappears in Robert's life as abruptly as she disappeared from it and wants to resume their life together. When Robert makes it quite clear that he wants nothing more to do with her, Jude reacts with fury, mostly directed against Callie. Although Callie did not come into Robert's life until after Jude had abandoned him, Jude irrationally blames her for breaking up her marriage and comes to see her as the only obstacle standing between herself and her husband. Jude tries hard to win back the affections of her sons as part of a scheme to get revenge on Callie, even posing naked in front of her eldest boy, eleven-year-old Kes. (This tasteless scene, with its implications of paedophile incest, has come in for much well-deserved criticism. I understand, however, that in Bernard Taylor's source novel the incest was more than just implied. It will not be anywhere near the top of my list of required holiday reading this year).

The first part of the film is reasonably interesting, and could have been the basis of a much better film. The two female adversaries are well characterised. (Robert, the main male character, is little more than the prize the two women fight over). Callie, played by the kitten-faced Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, is the cute girl-next door type, far more motherly than the boys' biological mother. (She works as the assistant principal at their school). The home she and Robert intend to share when they are married (the film makes it clear they are not cohabiting before marriage) is a spacious, comfortable house in the country, made of solid wood and stone. Jude, by contrast, is played by Curtis as a seductress, all high heels, tight mini-skirts and bleached-blonde hair, glamorous but hard and brassy. By contrast to Callie and Robert's Country Living style, Jude is a metropolitan type, living in an expensively over-decorated city apartment in an Art Deco block. Her talent for alienating people is such that even her own mother takes Robert's side against her.

Whalley-Kilmer was at one time tipped for Hollywood stardom, especially after her fine performance in "Scandal", but never quite seemed to make it. Appearing in too many films like this one was probably the main reason. Jamie Lee, however, quickly bounced back from this setback; her next film was the highly successful "True Lies", in which she once again got to show us just what a fine body she had for a woman in her mid thirties. Peter Gallagher, as Robert, makes a rather bland hero, and Vanessa Redgrave, as Jude's mother, looks as through she can't really understand why she signed on for this film in the first place.

From about halfway, however, the film starts to deteriorate and declines into lurid melodrama. I won't set out all the plot turns, but can say that they become progressively nastier and more implausible. Anyone familiar with the moralistic vice-punished-and-virtue-rewarded conventions of this particular genre will be able to work out the broad outlines of the ending. If you want to know the full gory details you will have to watch the film itself, but I doubt if you will find them very edifying. Like several unsuccessful "….from Hell" movies (the more recent "Swimfan" is another example) "Mother's Boys" fails because it tries too hard to shock. 4/10

---

15 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
Why Was This Crap Of A Film Even Made?, 8 March 2003
Author: babyboytoy2001 from Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Jaime Lee Curtis is one of my favorite actresses, but this movie is truly terrible. I was all excited when I saw it was coming on cable, but I couldn't believe my eyes within only 20 minutes.

In the movie, Curtis plays a woman who abandons her husband and children and comes back, hoping to be welcomed back into thier lives with open arms. But she soon discovers that her husband has moved on with a new woman and wants a divorce. Then the movie gets really stupid, with childish pranks, as when Curtis spray paints "whore" on the side of the other woman's car. She begins stalking the family and is even able to manipulate her oldest son into helping her. There is one awful scene where her son watches her walking around naked with "lust" in his eyes. The movie almost tries to imply incest between a woman in her late 30s and a child in his pre-teens.

I won't spoil the ending for you, but it's so stupid that you'll wish I'd warned you first.

---

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Mediocre and not terribly well acted, 27 December 2001
Author: lorenellroy from United Kingdom

Jamie Lee Curtis established her career playing the victim of homicidal maniacs,now in "Mother's Boys"she gets a chance to play the killer She plays a mother who walked out on her husband and children and now wants them back.The problem is that her husband is petitioning for divorce and is having an affair with a local teacher,played by Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. She sets out to try to re-capture the affections of the kids,virtually flaunting herself at the elder child and seeking to poison their minds against Dad and his new paramour. The film is predictable and the performances curiously lacklustre,even from artists of some quality. Redgrave steals the movie as the kids Grandmother but even she seems on cruise control

Nothing special and for Curtis completists only

---

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
The psycho version of "Kramer vs. Kramer"., 26 July 2007

Author: Boba_Fett1138 from Groningen, The Netherlands

Just imaging "Kramer vs. Kramer" gone extreme and you've got "Mother's Boys". The movie uses exactly the same concept of "Kramer vs. Kramer", of a mother who abandoned her family for 3 years but has now returned to reclaim her kids from the father. It was someone was simply saying; Hey that "Kramer vs. Kramer" movie is a good one, lets turn it into a thriller!

It's not like the concept of the movie is a terrible bad idea but however the execution of it is. The movie offers too little big surprises and the movie surely could had used some more tension and other thriller elements. The movie is filled with some missed opportunities, they could and should had made the mother character far more psychotic and evil. She basically now gets too little psychotic to do in this movie, which causes the tension and mystery of this movie not to work out.

Surprising to see how big the cast of this movie is. It's perhaps also the only reason why this movie still remains a watchable one. The actors still make the movie interesting and worthwhile to watch. Although Jamie Lee Curtis and Peter Gallagher aren't even in the same league! Jamie Lee Curtis totally outclasses Peter Gallagher so much, that at almost becomes embarrassing to watch. Jamie Lee Curtis plays a great role and she handles it just right. Joanne Whalley also pulls off alright and there are some fine supporting actors such as Vanessa Redgrave, John C. McGinley, Joss Ackland and Paul Guilfoyle but their roles are unfortunately all way too small.

It's not a terribly bad movie but it's also not really one that ever surprises or leaves a big impression on you. A real lackluster and filled with many missed opportunities and wasted potential. Therefor I also can't really recommend this movie to anyone.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

---

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Thriller, 30 December 2011

Author: franksiegle from Manhattan, Kansas

I quite agree with positive reviews. Apparently they were not among the majority. This appears to be a movie you either love or you hate. Jamie Lee Curtis turns in a fine performance, not over the top more than necessary, full of quiet menace that explodes with enough underneath to make her psychopathy believable. On the surface, she seems in the beginning a normal person. A tic here, a turn of the lip, a set of the eyes, betrays the sickness inside her. The rest of the cast is quite good, though Peter Gallagher is less than stellar, but basically competent. Joanne Whalley is quite believable as was Lynn Redgrave.

The one big problem I have is that Luke Edwards as Kes is turned to Jamie's side too quickly. His role is key, but isn't sufficiently developed. It's sketched instead, which is too bad because, in a sense this is as much his movie as Jamie's. For once, perhaps, a film was under rather than over written.

The movie deserved better than it got.

---

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Nightmare Scenario, 17 March 2008

Author: jtpaladin from U.S.A.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Here's the situation: Your wife leaves you alone with three young boys, you move on with your life, you find a beautiful woman who takes care of those boys as if they are her own, your mother-in-law takes your side, but then the mother of your children returns wanting you and the kids back into her life.

Jamie Lee Curtis plays the psycho mother who beguiles her eldest son into acting as a unwitting tool in getting her back into the family and getting rid of Dad's girlfriend.

Curtis does a surprisingly good job at playing the whacked out psycho mother using her children as leverage to get the father back and reclaiming her position in the household. Curtis' character is a culmination of various real women that the screenwriter no doubt pulled from newspaper stories.

Curtis' character will stop at nothing to achieve her goals including putting her children in harm's way.

This was an excellent film and one that you don't see too often. Normally, we are shown the father as the one who plays the deranged character leaving the mother to have to defend her children. Of course, the truth is that wives/mothers demonstrate similar despicable traits and the fact that this is revealed in the film probably disturbs people in the way that feminist's were outraged by Glenn Close's character in "Fatal Attraction".

All the actors played believable roles and the suspense was quite good and to the point. This is definitely a must see for any father/husband who has had to deal with a lying deceitful wife and a justice system that automatically sympathizes with the mother, short of her being a crack-addict. I would have liked to have seen the film expose this outrageous injustice that fathers face on a daily basis. Even so, if you liked "Fatal Attraction", this film is a must see.

---

Crikey, 28 March 2011

Author: Neil Welch from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Imagine a drama about a woman who abandoned her husband and children. The husband rebuilds his life with a good new woman. Then, years later. the errant wife returns with no warning, expects life to continue as it had done before, and takes it extremely badly when the husband makes it clear that she has no place in his new life.

Imagine this scenario presented on screen as a fine, gripping drama. And now forget it, because that that's not what you're getting here.

No, what Mother's Boys gives us is the most lurid melodrama imaginable, topped off with a performance of hysterical malevolence from Jamie Lee Curtis.

The whole thing is so overblown, particularly the climax (which can, with justification, be called something of a cliffhanger), that hindsight encourages one to view it as, perhaps, something of a comedy - whether deliberate or inadvertent is open to debate.

Overall, it's rather fun. But it's not subtle.

---

Hey Jude, Don't Make it Bad, 21 February 2010

Author: wes-connors from Earth

After three years traveling, sexy psycho mom Jamie Lee Curtis (as Judith "Jude" Madigan) wants to move back in with handsome husband Peter Gallagher (as Robert Madigan) and their three cute young sons. But, Mr. Gallagher has proposed to new mate Joanne Whalley-Kilmer (as Colleen "Callie" Harland), an assistant principal at the kids' school, who is ready for bed. But, Ms. Curtis will not to go quietly into her marriage's final good night; she demands visiting rights to "Mother's Boys", and casts her wicked spell over the lads and their dad.

Emotionally disturbed twelve-year-old Luke Edwards (as Kes) is old enough to remember his mother's mean streak; but, Curtis decides to seduce her son into helping mom get rid of Ms. Whalley-Kilmer (as in Val). Little brothers Colin Ward and Joey Zimmerman are manipulated into assistance. The distinguished Vanessa Redgrave, playing Curtis' mother, takes a tumble while trying to help stop her daughter's nasty plan. Mainly, the story revolves around Curtis and young Edwards. They do well with their roles, but story is lacking.

A sequence wherein Curtis strips to show Edwards her Cesarean scar and joins her young son in bed, may be considered offensive; but, it certainly fits Curtis' character. The real problem with "Mother's Boys" is that many of the characters are made to do really dumb things in the most stupid ways. The story structure renders it most unconvincing. Still, the unintentional laughs, a few exciting scenes (directed by Yves Simoneau), and nice cinematography (by Elliot Davis) make the film more entertaining than not. But, be prepared to giggle.

****** Mother's Boys (3/18/94) Yves Simoneau ~ Jamie Lee Curtis, Luke Edwards, Peter Gallagher, Joanne Whalley

---

---

Page 1 of 3:

[1] [2] [3]

Add another review

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Plot synopsis	Ratings
Newsgroup reviews	External reviews	Parents Guide
Plot keywords	Main details	Your user reviews
Your vote history