Unknown's Movie Review of Mother's Day (2016)

Cynical Holiday Cash Reaper
Unknown - wrote on 05/30/16

'Mother's Day' is director Gary Marshall's third holiday themed celebrity smorgasbord of pretty faces all taking part in the most phony, annoying, stupid sitcom-like collection of mini stories. I was lucky enough not to be subjected to his last major debacles: 'Valentine's Day' and 'New Year's Eve'. But, from what I hear, this one is actually the worst of the three. 'Mother's Day' is a trite, soulless, money grabbing exercise meant to cash in on a holiday based only on it's title and abundance of recognizable attractive people. If that wasn't evident by the film's poster, then the absolute horrid writing of the screenplay is the next HUGE indication. I don't know where to begin with this awful mess. As I stated before, all of the stories could be described as hollow vague impressions of sitcom situations blown out of proportion to the highest level of annoyance. I don't believe, or want to invest in, a single one of these fake characters. All of their "problems" occur due to each one's personal stupid logic. Most are just passively dumb and void any kind of meaning, but the story involving Kate Hudson's dilemma with her family is downright aggravating with it's insensitive nature. Her and her sister lie (for YEARS) to their parents about being married and having children with a foreigner and a lesbian, respectively. The parents are portrayed as the most obnoxious bigoted stereotypes imaginable and their cartoony antics include spouting offensive racial/homophobic slurs around in meaningless one-liner sitcom style fashion. I was enraged by this film's incompetent excuse for humor. All of the other stories have humor on the same level, with supremely annoying side characters being overtly ridiculous even in serious moments. The attempt at drama is so phony. Each of the resolutions are forcibly willed by the most contrived situations. Even the obvious trying efforts of Roberts, Aniston, and Sudeikis aren't enough to overcome the terrible writing. They can make their scenes at least tolerable. That's the only thing close to a positive I can say about this cynically made product. Films before have taken the notion of a holiday's meaning and gave us something of value through an emotionally affecting drama. 'Mother's Day' is the exact opposite of that conceit. Two hours of insult to our collective intelligence.