Review of Mother's Day (2016) by Patrick L — 17 Aug 2016

"Why is Garry Marshall killing holidays with terrible ensemble comedies?".

Movie Review: Mother's Day.

Date Viewed: May 7 2016.

Directed By Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, The Flamingo Kid, The Princess Diaries, Exit to Eden and Raising Helen).

Screenplay By Tom Hines, Anya Kochoff Romano and Matt Walker, Story By Tom Hines, Lily Hollander, Garry Marshall and Matt Walker.

Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Jason Sudeikis, Britt Robertson, Timothy Olyphant, Sarah Chalke, Loni Love, Hector Elizondo, Cameron Esposito, Margo Martindale, Shay Mitchell, Robert Pine, Jack Whitehall, Aasif Mandvi, Lucy Walsh, Jon Lovitz, Sandra Taylor, Ella Anderson, Grayson Russell, Matthew Walker, Kate Linder, Paul Vogt and Jennifer Garner.

"Mother's Day" is about as exciting as changing a baby's dirty diapers for four hours straight. It is completely dated, manipulative, overly sentimental and misguided. Why is Garry Marshall killing holidays with terrible ensemble comedies? "Mother's Day" is his third holiday-themed ensemble comedy after "Valentine's Day" and "New Year's Eve", both of which weren't any good. This movie is an itch better than "New Year's Eve" because it doesn't have a trillion stars in it. "Mother's Day" maybe less star-studded than the previous two films but it's still a pretty terrible movie. "Mother's Day" is not a celebration of mothers, it's a celebration of mommy flick hell.

Once again, we are stuck with multiple interconnecting storylines, we first meet Jennifer Aniston as Sandy, a divorced mother of two boys (one of whom has asthma) who is shocked and enraged to learn that her ex-husband, Henry (Timothy Olyphant) recently got remarried to a young bombshell named Tina (Shay Mitchell). Sandy's best friend, Jesse (Kate Hudson) and her sister, Gabi (Sarah Chalke) never see their mother (Margo Martindale) because she and their father (Robert Pine) are borderline racist, homophobes. Jesse and Gabi remain distant from their parents because Jesse is married to an Indian man, Russell (Aasif Mandvi) and Gabi is married to her longtime partner, a woman named Max (Cameron Esposito).

Meanwhile, Julia Roberts plays Miranda Collins, a famous home shopping guru who gave up her only child years ago to focus on her career. Britt Robertson plays Kristin, a cocktail waitress who's the mother of a young infant and her English boyfriend, Zack (Jack Whitehall) is a very untalented comedian. The reason he's not funny is because he doesn't have actual jokes to tell. Kristin never knew her mother because she was adopted. Gee, will Kristin be reunited with her birth mother? You probably wouldn't care because this movie is a fiesta of crap.

Then we meet a Mr. Mom named Bradley (Jason Sudeikis), he is a recently widowed father with two daughters and works at a health club where his friendly female customers encourage him to find a new girlfriend. Bradley's deceased wife, Dana (Jennifer Garner) was a Marine lieutenant who was killed in combat in Afghanistan and try to guess which mom Bradley hooks up with at the end, could it be Sudeikis' co-star from "We're the Millers" and the two "Horrible Bosses" movies?

With a running length at nearly two hours, "Mother's Day" felt like a deep eternity for me. This movie is entirely sappy and predictable from beginning to end. We never believe for one second that these characters are real people. Why is Kate Hudson still doing chick-flicks? She has to move on to more creative projects instead of brainless ensemble comedies and awful rom-coms. Julia Roberts in "Mother's Day" has one of the worst haircuts I've seen on film, it looks more like a peach bowl than a wig. And Jennifer Aniston come on!, we all know you can do way better work than this.

I think it's time to start a petition to ban Garry Marshall from murdering holidays all for the service of making terrible movies. Marshall was also one of the five writers credited in the screenplay, that's right people it took five people to write the screenplay for Mother's Day. Is making a good movie too difficult for you now Mr. Marshall? There was a time when Marshall was on top of the world with "The Flamingo Kid" and "Pretty Woman" but now those days are far gone.

I love my mom so much but for the sake of saving her $10.00, she has to skip "Mother's Day".