Mommy (1995)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Yes, it is low budget, and yes it is shot on video for the direct to DVD market but I've seen much, much, worse. I can only imagine that the critics of this movie went into it with the wrong expectations.Patty McCormack is great as the deranged Mommy, her performance is definitely over the top, just as it should be in this kind of movie. She's acting as hard as she can and it is not a role which calls for subtlety. Rachel Lemieux may not be the most accomplished actress in the world - but she's less annoying than most children in low budget films. It's also nice to see Brinke Stevens in a (more or less) dramatic role.If you are looking for a high quality movie with lots of drama, gore, and topless Brinke Stevens, this is definitely not it. However, if you're looking for something kind of campy which you can enjoy making fun of (in an MST3K kind of way) then you could do a lot worse than this.

Oh my goodness. I bought this film as a part of a 10 horror movies for $10 deal. I can now see why this one was included in the deal. Nobody would pay more than a dollar for this would they? Well some people obviously would else the votes would be on 1 not 5. The little girl was a good actress but the "Mommy"? Wooden. It was so lame. There was not much tension at all until the very end when she tried to kill her daughter. That was about the only time I cared what was going to happen. The story was OK but the whole film could have been so much better. What was with that janitor lady? We almost turned it off but as "Mommy 2" came with the movie pack we carried on watching so that we would not get lost in what will be a very complex plot in "Mommy 2". Avoid this film, it's not worth your time.

I do realize this film was made on a limited budget, but they could have made it so much better. The shots were grainy, the lighting was bad, and the widescreen dvd version was hardly widescreen at all. Apparently Patty McCormack has forgotten how to act, because she was quite good in the Bad Seed. The supporting cast does the film no better. The apparent parallels to the original only act as an insult, especially since the modern counterparts pale in comparison to the characters in which they were based (ex. the janitor at school trying to play LeRoy) The effects were terrible, especially the gun shot scene, and the soundtrack was annoying. Why Patty McCormack passed up other offers before deciding to make this one is a mystery to me. It may have been a good idea on paper, but was executed poorly. This film can only be enjoyed for its camp quality, which in itself is hardly enough.

Forget Blair Witch or the flavor of the month at the nearest artsy film festival. This is the definition of Independent. Shot on a shoestring in Muscatine, IA, this semi-sequel to The Bad Seed (Mommy is never named, but the parallel is obvious) is a character-driven study of a young girl discovering her perfect mother is just plain evil. The casting is clever, especially scream queen Brinke Stevens doing an about face as Mommy's "Plain-Jane" sister Beth. I highly recommend Max's novelisation, which fleshes out the back story. Also look for Max and his band playing at the dance.