 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Mom and Dad • Year: 2017 • Country: USA • Director: Brian Taylor • Main cast: Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Lance Henriksen • Runtime: 123 minutes • Production company: Armory Films, Zeal Media • TRAILER |
Mom and Dad has all the ingredients to become a public favorite movie. If you look at it from the comedy side, it has lots of very funny moments. If you look at it as an action flick, violence is portraited in the correct measure and the stunts are effective. But if you want to watch a movie that makes you think, Mom and Dad has a strong critic speech against the deconstruction of the families in these modern times, especially in the USA. But then, what is wrong with this movie? In fact, is there anything wrong with it?
Perhaps, if there is a problem to find in this movie is that the filmmakers have chosen to focus more on the comedy, almost forcing it into a surrealistic and parodic level, than with the social criticism. Therefore, after watching the film one can have the feeling that a good opportunity has been missed to make a really transcendent movie that could be in the mouth of people for years. But hey, they made it in the name and fun and entertainment, so that’s good!!
Mom and Dad is written and directed by Brian Taylor, a filmmaker that has been proving his immense talent in high octane entertaining films since his debut title Crank (2006), starring then upgrowing action superstar Jason Statham. After that, the mandatory sequel where he exploited his crazy ideas and fast pace music video style action with Crank: High Voltage (2009). His latest movie until date, and last one with his fellow co-director Mark Neveldine, was Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), that awful comic adaptation where he met the star, Nicolas Cage. And it is Cage who is in charge to star this new film Mom and Dad.
Okay, let’s talk about Nicolas Cage. The man should have a review of his own. There was a time in the late 1980s and 1990s where he almost (and I say almost) became a respected actor. But then shit happened. Lots of shit, in fact. And here he is now, being a parody of a parody of himself. And it doesn’t matter if we love him or hate him, but we always want to see his movies. Even when we know most of the time they are going to be utter crap. I have to look back in time and do some painful memory exercises, but I think Mom and Dad is the most “Nicolas Cage movie” he has done. The constant references to his most popular impossible faces, the insane urge in humiliating himself, the fact that not one single shot where his face is on can be a serious shot. I have no idea how the shooting went. I can imagine the director shouting “Nick, do your magic like there is no tomorrow!”.
But although Nicolas Cage obviously eclipsed the rest of the cast, the performance for all the actors involved is perfect for the effectiveness of the movie. The starring trio is completed by the always delicious Selma Blair and the young actress with a bright future ahead Anne Winters. It is also remarkable the cameo by veteran Lance Henriksen, a man that can always light up any production with his sole presence.
Who said that growing up is easy? All your aspirations and dreams fade away in responsibilities as years pass by. Kids nowadays are unable to understand the sacrifices their parents have to make in order to provide them a good education, all sorts of activities, and all this endless collection of technological gadgets and fashionable clothes that seem to be so very vital noways. And yet, those spoiled brats dare to tell their parents how much they hate them. Did those kids really ruin the parents’ lives? If so, what would happen if the parents decided to put an end to the source of their oppression and kill their offsprings? That is the plot for Mom and Dad, and this little thought in the hands of a filmmaker like Brian Taylor has become one of the funniest irreverent action movies of the last years.
My final advice for the dear audience: Watch it. Maybe you find it super dumb, or perhaps you have a blast. But one thing is for sure, Mom and Dad is one cool piece of entertainment.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5462326
