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Variety's Good and Bad Mother's Day Films

 
 
Reply Mon 3 May, 2004 03:40 pm
Variety has selected their films to support Mom on Mother's Day and those that would be like pulling the rug out from under Mom:


MOTHER'S DAY



Don't you think the mom in your life deserves more than just the traditional Mother's Day brunch? Helping to keep the spirit alive beyond noon, Variety suggests some maternal movie morsels for the home viewing pleasure of you and your mother this Sunday.

'GOOD MOM' MOVIES


1. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
Teaming of Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson at their best makes "Terms of Endearment" an enormously enjoyable offering for Christmas, adding bite and sparkle when sentiment and seamlessness threatens to sink other parts of the picture.


2. FREAKY FRIDAY
One of the more pleasant surprises of a summer movie season littered with lumbering disappointments, "Freaky Friday" is a fleet and funny comedy with more than enough cross-generational appeal to draw auds far beyond target demo of teen and tweener females.



3. ON GOLDEN POND
Without question, these are major, meaty roles for Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, and there could have been little doubt that the two would work superbly together. Fact that Ernest Thompson's 1978 play backs away from the dramatic fireworks that might have been mutes overall impact of the piece, but sufficient pleasures remain.


4. RAMBLING ROSE (Laura Dern with mom Diane Ladd)
Calder Willingham's memoir of the South, "Rambling Rose" is a funny and moving tale of an oversexed young woman from the wrong side of the tracks. Rose (Dern) starts her life as maid to the family of Robert Duvall and Ladd in a small Georgia town in 1935. It turns out that rumors of her having been forced into prostitution at a tender age are true.



5. ALIENS
"Aliens" proves a very worthy followup to Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi shocker, Alien. James Cameron's vault into the big time after scoring with the exploitation actioner "The Terminator" makes up for lack of surprise with sheer volume of thrills and chills - emphasis is decidedly on the plural aspect of the title. Sigourney Weaver does a smashing job as Ripley while her ernstwhile charge Carrie Henn is very appealing as the little girl in danger.


'BAD MOM' MOVIES



1. CINDERELLA
Disney makes entertainment capital out of the animal world with clever drawing-board personifications of a quartet of mice doing battle with an ornery cat. The cartoon, in fact, has far more success in projecting the lower animals than in its central character, Cinderella, who is on the colorless, doll-faced side, as is the Prince Charming. The menace is supplied by the literally-drawn stepmother, who's a lineal descendant of the flint-hearted, evil-eyed witch in "Snow White."



2. THE POSITIVELY TRUE ADVENTURES OF THE ALLEGED TEXAS CHEERLEADER-MURDERING MOM
Title doesn't tell it all, but it's a good reference point: Latest HBO Picture concerns not only that bizarre story of Texan Wanda Holloway and how she supposedly tried to hire a hitman to knock off another woman, but what happened when bidding for film, TV and print rights began flooding folks involved in the affair. Full of daffiness, greed and dark-hued humor, whole package is a hoot.



3. MOMMIE DEAREST
This is Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford and the results are, well, screen history. Dunaway does not chew scenery. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, co-stars and all.



4. PSYCHO
Alfred Hitchcock is up to his clavicle in whimsicality and apparently had the time of his life in putting together "Psycho." He's gotten in gore, in the form of a couple of graphically-depicted knife murders, a story that's far out in Freudian motivations, and now and then injects little amusing plot items that suggest the whole thing is not to be taken seriously.



5. BLOODY MAMA
The story of Kate (Ma) Barker, who with her four killer sons terrorized mountain country in the Depression era, "Bloody Mama" is a pseudo-biopic starring Shelley Winters in one of those all-over-the-screen performances which sometimes are labeled as bravura acting.
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patiodog
 
  1  
Reply Mon 3 May, 2004 04:00 pm
Ah, I figured you just meant movies that might be in poor taste on Mother's Day -- like Sophie's Choice.

Hasn't anyone adapted Medea?
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Mon 3 May, 2004 04:09 pm
A TV movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095607/

The opera sung by Maria Callas is also available.

"Sophie's Choice" would be a no-no for a Mother's Day film. Laughing

What film would you pick that one could show Mom?
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patiodog
 
  1  
Reply Mon 3 May, 2004 04:13 pm
Hmmm. Last time I saw her, I made her watch Jackass. It didn't go over as badly as I'd hoped...
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Mon 3 May, 2004 04:17 pm
Oh, my -- you are a brave one.

Does that have a Mom in it?
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fbaezer
 
  1  
Reply Mon 3 May, 2004 04:20 pm
BAD MOTHER'S DAY FILM:

The Anniversary (Directed by Roy Ward Baker; Bette Davis as the mother).

A castrating mother celebrates, over her three manipulated sons, her wedding anniversary with her late father.
Black humor and one of the meanest mothers ever on cinema.
Bette Davis's character even had different eye patches to match with her clothes.
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doglover
 
  1  
Reply Mon 3 May, 2004 04:28 pm
A fabulous old movie that centers around the relationship between a mother and daughter is "Imitation of Life". Such a tear jerker. I remember watching that movie with my mother and us both crying our eyes out.

Made in 1959 it stars Lana Turner, Sandra Dee, Troy Donahue, John Gavin. The acting is supurb.
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Mon 3 May, 2004 04:57 pm
That one could be on the cusp, doglover.
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patiodog
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 11:51 am
Lightwizard wrote:
Oh, my -- you are a brave one.

Does that have a Mom in it?


Actually, yeah, and she's a major character. The movie's only through-line is that her son's going to get her to swear by the end of it. She's pretty prim -- it takes a live alligator.
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Lightwizard
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 11:56 am
'Fraid I missed that one so I'll try to catch it free on cable.
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patiodog
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 12:11 pm
Honestly, the three movies that have made me laugh the hardest and longest, in no particular order, have been Something About Mary, South Park, and Jackass. (Something of a disclaimer there. I used to have pretention, damn it.)
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hobitbob
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 12:48 pm
Good Mother's Day Films:

-Rosemary's Baby
-The Exorcist
-The Ringu Trilogy
-Mommy Dearest
-Nina Hartley's Mothers and Daughters


<ducks..prepares to run!>
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Letty
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 01:02 pm
Hey, Mr. Wizard. I found this and it sounds fantastic:

To Each His Own

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=113953
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doglover
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 01:05 pm
hobitbob wrote:
Good Mother's Day Films:

-Rosemary's Baby
-The Exorcist
-The Ringu Trilogy
-Mommy Dearest
-Nina Hartley's Mothers and Daughters


<ducks..prepares to run!>


You are one sadistic Mother F***er bob. Mr. Green
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hobitbob
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 01:07 pm
I should perhaps have added:
Wicked Video's Ready to Drop I, II, and III. Wink
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Raggedyaggie
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 01:23 pm
Do not, I repeat do not, take Mom to see "Mildred Pierce" (unless Mom is into masochism.)
Joan Crawford's daughter in that movie (Ann Blythe), is one of the most contemptible, spoiled, ungrateful daughters yet to appear on screen.)

But Mom, depending on her age, of course, will love the enduring strength and courage portrayed by Sara Allgood in "How Green Was My Valley" and by Jane Darwell in "The Grapes of Wrath".

Now, if Mom enjoys a good cry for all her sacrificing over the years, and what Mom doesn't, she'll love "Stella Dallas" or "Stella" and "Pocketful of Miracles" (Bette Davis as Apple Annie).

Or if Mom wants to see how "bad" some mothers can be, take her to see "Little Voice". They don't get much worse than Brenda Blethyn in that one.
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patiodog
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 01:36 pm
How about Rosemary's Baby? Hearkens back to early motherhood, no?
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sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 01:39 pm
I watched that for the first time when I was several months pregnant. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad idea...
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Raggedyaggie
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 01:45 pm
I've never seen the conclusion of Rosemary's Baby. PLEASE - someone tell me. Do you see the baby? Is it a little devil? Hey, I'm really serious about this.
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Letty
 
  1  
Reply Tue 4 May, 2004 01:50 pm
Raggedy, As I recall, it had tiny little hooves, but she picked IT up and and started mothering the little imp.

Aside to Raggedy--finished NYT puz, coz
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