Mother's Boys (1993)
7/10
A nice psycho thriller worthy of VHS
26 November 2005
As some people view this movie as "horriable" because it doesn't compare to blockbusters such as Scream - which is excusable, seeing as to who is the sociopath here - let's view this on its own merits, and not compare it to the "good" movies which score a 7 out of 10 on IMDb anyway.

The story is deliciously freaky. Jamie Lee Curtis as a sociopath mom who returns after three years, and tries to squirm her way into the life of what used to be her family. With plenty of Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot moments, such as the forehead-scene and the bathtub scene, people who will look no deeper than the superficial outer layer will, as clearly demonstrated before, mistake this movie for a flick of the same level as Nemesis III. The trick to understanding what it is about, is paying good attention to the actors, which brings me to my next point.

Acting is nice. Luke "Kes" Edwards, gives a great performance, writing whole books with his eyes. His behavior throughout the movie is excellent. The bath-scene shows how uncomfortable he is being lured in by his mother. Colin Ward and Joey Zimmerman are kids. They don't act as good as the teenagers/adults do, but hey, at least it's not Jake Lloyd, right? Jamie Lee Curtis. Let's set her apart. Let's not make remarks about "how she was better in movie x" or how bad blonde looks on her. Let's talk about how she performs in this movie specifically. To be short: her sociopath role bleeds out of her. She's doing just fine. In the beginning she's appearing a little odd at best, but as the movie progresses, she's just getting creepy, in a way you're looking for in this movie.

Atmospheres are set fine by the lighting and camera-work. The "creepy" parts are set by dark blue lighting and closeups, so you can read the maniacal tension from the eyes. One scene where the boys are secretly conferring among each other, is put down quite nicely as well. On their height, and up close, as if the viewer is part of the select group. These little touches make it nice. The music doesn't have a lot other than scary music. What's there is good, but it's not much, and that's something one can certainly miss.

In short, if you feel like being freaked out over someone's behavior, this is a nice movie to see. The ending consists of something unexpected in the plan of the bad girl, which gives it a nice twist, although the final part of the ending is a little anti-climactic. The final shot does it, though. It's those eyes again that will leave it up to your fantasy what will happen in a few years.

Even though the story is well acted out, it is still kind of old, and you just know how it's going to end. Nevertheless a nice movie to rent if you coincidentally to bump into it.
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