Mother's Boys

What's this? Jamie Lee Curtis is the bad guy, not the victim? Yes, she really can act (not just scream). This movie can be summed up in one word: predictable. If you've ever seen Fatal Attraction, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, or any other film of that ilk, then you've pretty much seen this one, too. Still, it's worth watching, if for no other reason than to see Jamie Lee in the role of the psychopathic killer.

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.

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

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.

MOTHER'S BOYS allows Jamie Lee Curtis to showcase her bad side as Jude Madigan, a crazed, psychotic mum determined to take her estranged family back.

To Jude, the fact that she abandoned her husband and two sons for three years is immaterial. She simply must have her family back at all costs.

Uh oh!

It seems that dad has a new girlfriend. This sets up a perfect opportunity for Ms. Curtis to sink her teeth into some insane antics.

MOTHER'S BOYS is a fairly tense, nearly bloodless thriller. The real fun comes from watching Jude grow increasingly reckless, dangerous, and homicidal.

FANS OF MS. CURTIS TAKE NOTE: She doth display her birthday suit. Well, some of it anyway. In a bubble bath, where -Gasp!- a boobular is shown...