MOTHER'S DAY

MOTHER'S DAY (2010)
US
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman

CAST:
Shawn Ashmore - George Barnum
Lisa Marcos - Julie Ross
Patrick John Flueger (as Patrick Flueger) - Izaak 'Ike' Koffin

PLOT:
      The sadistic members of a villainous family return to their childhood home to terrorize the new home owners and their guests.

REVIEW:
      Anyone that really knows me, knows I bitch about Hollow-wood remaking movies from the 80's and turning what was hard 'R' rated movies into 'PG 13' dreck for the mass audience's overly sensitive brains which I think is pure bullshit on a massive scale. Most of the time the remakes screw the main point of the characters. Let us take the remake of Friday The 13th for example. Since when the FUCK does Jason keep a prisoner? I will say that the first 15 minutes of the movie were good, but after that is was just pure shit plain and simple. Also, when did he have time to build that complex of a underground living quarters? He's supposed to be mentally handicapped, not a fracking genius at building traps and warning systems. Okay, that rant is done. So, as you can tell Mother's Day has a lot to live up to.

     I have to mention straight out Rebecca De Morney. She just owned this movie as the mother from hell. She starts off all pleasant and apologetic, then out of nowhere she starts talking about how you have to punish those that misbehave. This is when you find out that her "children" are pretty much all screwed up, specially Ike, who after being slapped by Mother Koffin lightly for hitting one of the hostages starts crying about how he wants to be hit again. This pretty much explains the Koffin family dynamics straight out. Although she's not afraid to use threats and demeaning her family to keep them in line, you can tell she loves her family even with all of their flaws, in which one has more than the other three siblings combined. Yet she seems like the one character out of everyone that understands respect and devotion, though she is a complete psycopath. The only characters in the movie that are decent are Shawn Ashore's George, who Ashmore downplays everything which helps his character be the one grounded character in the film, and Deborah Ann Woll as the timid and afraid Koffin sister.

     Director Darren Lynn Bousman is starting to impress me again. I first saw his work with Saw II which freaked me out in one part so bad that I wanted to jump up and down in crowded theater thanks to that damn needle pit. He showed he could build tension and keep a movie moving and interesting. Then Saw 3 and 4 happened. All the abilities he showed in two were gone and I was bored through most of both movies (save for company I was with). I had about giving up on Bousman then he released Repo! The Genetic Opera and I was floored again by what he really can do. With Mother's Day, Bousman is back and more in control than he has been in a movie before. The tension once the Koffins get back to their old home never lets up, the camera knows when it should stay static, and when to move the camera to  create unease. Bousman has shown he has matured as a filmmaker.

     All in all I was pleasantly surprised by this remake. Everything was pretty much well thought out, as there wasn't any real stupid characters, and it gets more and more violent as it moves along.  It can be easily said that this movie truly shows what people are willing to do to survive, and how what can be considered the protagonist can easily become the antagonist giving the right situation, or wrong situation. I will say that I didn't like all the characters as some I felt were there to move the story along at a certain point, but all were fully fleshed out and have flaws. The violence when used, and it is used a lot, is there for a reason, just not for the hell of it, which is what became of the Saw franchise. Yet it's when the characters are one on one, whether it be talking or fighting, that the film becomes it's own entity that stands above what is put mostly in theaters, which it's a shame this one won't be, as it shows what a smart thriller can be without being dumbed down for the mass audiences that goes and sees movies.

BEST DEATH:
     The no-look shotgun blast through door brain pan remover.

BEST LINE:
    Let me tell you something, Lady. If you hurt anymore of my friends I'll let your son die right in front of you.

FUN FACTS:
     Filming of a post-bank robbery scene was interrupted by the Winnipeg Police Service, who were actually investigating a real-life robbery that occurred in the city earlier in the day. WPS actually pulled their guns on the actors who were filming not far from where the crew was shooting.

     Look for cameos by the original director and producer of the 80's version of the film, Charles and Lloyd Kaufman in the movie.

     Jamie King fractured her tail bone on her third day of filming.