Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Well acted (Jamie Lee Curtis does a great job) and with a plot (and jump scares) that will leave you grabbing your sit, this thriller may be a bit too much for some people, specially considering that incest and pedophilia are among its themes.A disturbed woman returns to her family after being gone without any explanation for 3 years. She now wants her husband back while using her oldest son (the only one she seems to connect with) to achieve her goals.Manipulative, violent and cold as ice Curtis plays that disturbing role of this mother who seems she couldn't care less about her kids, only wishing to get back into bed with her husband. Not wanting to reveal too much here, I'll just say that I didn't find the ending completely predictable (was expecting worse, from the direction the movie was going). All in all, this was a very tense and at the same time entertaining movie. I'd advise any thriller fan to give it a try, always keeping in mind that it was done in the 90's.

Jude Madigan abandons her husband Robert and her three sons without any explanation. Three years later, she returns to reunite her family. However Robert and his new lover Callie see Jude for the true person she is, and try their best to protect their family. Jude embarks on a campaign against the family, and even seduces her eldest son into committing her acts of violence....In the spate of psycho movies to hit cinemas in the early nineties (Unlawful Entry, Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Basic Instinct, etc), it was inevitable that the original scream queen would sell out, and thankfully, this was one of the last of this sub genre, and the least entertaining.So she comes back with new hair and attitude, and that's about it.But obviously there has to be some auto-eroticism in these movies, so she gets naked in front of her son, has a bath, and he becomes a judge in one scene and ties up Joanne Whalley.Peter Gallagher spends the movie looking concerned and perplexed, sometimes at the same time, and as usual, a couple of seasoned actors turn up in extended cameos to add some kudos to the movie, and to warn the characters of the impending psychopathic ending.Its very flawed, boring, and thank heavens Curtis had True Lies a couple of months later, to cleanse her CV's palate.Its really a dog of a movie, stylish, but still barking from the very upstart.But its the best film ever to feature Curtis falling to her death and not making a sound. Doesn't everyone scream when they fall to their deaths in movies?

This movie is a great example of why a guy who's gone through a bitter divorce should not try to make a Fatal Attraction-style erotic thriller. I don't know if it was the writers, the director or some studio executive, but I know that somebody vital to this production was really ticked off at his ex-wife. It's the only possible explanation for this misfire.Robert (Peter Gallagher) is a successful architect with a girlfriend (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) and three sons. He also has a wife who left him three years ago and is only now returning because Robert has finally started divorce proceedings. Why he waited three years to do that is a whole 'nother story that isn't even touched on in this film. Judith (Jaime Lee Curtis) is fairly intense and everyone, including her own mother (Vanessa Redgrave), acts like there's something wrong with her. However, for the first 45 minutes of Mother's Boys, Judith more or less behaves like a normal woman who made a terrible mistake and wants her family back.After that first 45 minutes, Judith goes from 0 to crazy in less than 45 seconds and the rest of the story is about how she tries to turn her favorite son Kess (Luke Edwards) against Robert and his new girlfriend as part of a Rube Goldberg-esque plan to kill the girlfriend. The problem is that after that first 45 minutes, the movie could have revealed that Robert was crazy, his girlfriend was crazy, his sons were crazy or Judith's mother was crazy and it would have made as much sense as what actually happened.Mother's Boys automatically assumes the audience is going to identify Judith as the bad guy and sympathize with Robert and his hot girlfriend, so it does nothing in its first 45 minutes to establish or validate that dynamic. Characters react negatively to Judith without any justification for those reactions presented to the viewer. And while she does go eventually crazy and retroactively prove those reactions accurate, it feels arbitrary and forced. Only if you're inherently biased against the mother in divorce proceedings will you connect with the outlook in this film.Now, there's a bunch of other garden variety dumb stuff here, like Robert letting Kess spend the weekend with Judith AFTER she fakes a violent attack on herself and blames Robert's girlfriend. Judith takes a broken piece of glass and cuts her own face, yet Robert has almost no hesitation in sending his son to be with such a psycho. And Robert's the one we're supposed to be rooting for? There's also the fact that both Robert and Judith apparently thought it was okay for their very young children to play around with real handcuffs. Who lets kids play with real handcuffs?Fundamentally, though, it's the prejudice against the wife/mother character than dominates this movie and warps it into something silly and superficial. This could have made a good story but only if it was told by somebody that wasn't already angry at his ex-wife.There is some female nudity here, but mostly from an obvious body double with only a nip slip from the sensual Jamie Lee Curtis. An oddly oblique incest reference also crops up.Mother's Boys might have some use as a Rorschach Test for women dating a recently divorced guy. If he thinks this is a great film, he's probably still got a lot of rage to work out. As general purpose entertainment, it's a failure.

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.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/