Mother's Day Movie Madness, Part II
Mother’s Day’s this coming Sunday! Here’s the wrap-up of some movie ideas that might bring a smile!
Youngsters’ Mom-Flicks
The Parent Trap (Brian Keith, Maureen O’Hara, Hayley Mills, 1961; Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, 1998)
Old favorite about sisters being reared apart by their divorced parents—sisters who are now plotting feverishly to haul the grown-ups back before the preacher-man!
Freaky Friday (Barbara Harris, Jodie Foster, 1976; Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, 2003) Here’s what happens when a fed-up mother-and-daughter pair suddenly switch bodies, and are then forced to see how the other half lives
Cheaper By The Dozen (Clifton Webb, Jeanne Crain, 1950; Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, 2003) Same title, two different zany plots surrounding two families with an even dozen children
Mr. Mom (Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, 1983) Keaton is laid off from his engineering job and must learn for the first time what it means to be the stay-at-home parent, to his enduring horror
And Now, From the Very, Very Bad Mommies Indeed Department:
Mommie Dearest (Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, 1981) Mom’s a legendary movie star with a now-legendary absence of parenting skills; the world is none the wiser ’til daughter’s memoir hits the shelves, and then the silver screen
Bloody Mama (Shelley Winters, Pat Hingle, 1970) Winters is utterly deranged in this lurid, Z-grade story of a mother-and-sons-driven crime wave across the 1930s Midwest. Please make sure Mom’s got a (truly bizarre) sense of humor before you trot this one out
The Manchurian Candidate (Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, 1962) Jessica Fletcher like you’ve never seen her before: Political subversive–power monger–kingmaker–MOM!
Throw Momma From The Train (Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, 1987) Dark but snappy, fast-paced nonsense about two angry men who wind up in a messy arrangement revolving around murder-as-personal-favor; with DeVito and Crystal, you can believe “mayhem ensues”
And, a final category of Mother’s Day motion pictures:
Adult Children Who Don’t Understand Why Mom Keeps Gigantic Blocks of Cheese in Her Kitchen Freezer for 11 Years While Insisting: “Have Some, Sweetie; Don’t Worry…It’s Still Good”:
Mother
(Debbie Reynolds, Albert Brooks, 1996)
If you’ve ever, as an adult, come to live with your mother for any time at all; if you’ve ever vainly struggled for hours, even days, to walk her through the handling of a new state-of-the-art appliance or entertainment module, only to turn to strong drink thereafter; if you’ve ever wondered why she has things in her deep-freeze that are older than you—see Mother without delay, for more laughs than you’ll be able to handle!
Happy Viewing, and Happy Mother’s Day!