Ever the full-service publication, Variety offers the top 5 "good mom" and top 5 "bad mom" movies in the run-up to Mother's Day. Your mileage may vary.
'GOOD MOM' MOVIES1. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
Teaming of Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson at their best makes "Terms of Endearment" an enormously enjoyable offering for Christmas, adding bite and sparkle when sentiment and seamlessness threatens to sink other parts of the picture.2. FREAKY FRIDAY
One of the more pleasant surprises of a summer movie season littered with lumbering disappointments, "Freaky Friday" is a fleet and funny comedy with more than enough cross-generational appeal to draw auds far beyond target demo of teen and tweener females.3. ON GOLDEN POND
Without question, these are major, meaty roles for Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, and there could have been little doubt that the two would work superbly together. Fact that Ernest Thompson's 1978 play backs away from the dramatic fireworks that might have been mutes overall impact of the piece, but sufficient pleasures remain.4. RAMBLING ROSE (Laura Dern with mom Diane Ladd)
Calder Willingham's memoir of the South, "Rambling Rose" is a funny and moving tale of an oversexed young woman from the wrong side of the tracks. Rose (Dern) starts her life as maid to the family of Robert Duvall and Ladd in a small Georgia town in 1935. It turns out that rumors of her having been forced into prostitution at a tender age are true.5. ALIENS
"Aliens" proves a very worthy followup to Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi shocker, Alien. James Cameron's vault into the big time after scoring with the exploitation actioner "The Terminator" makes up for lack of surprise with sheer volume of thrills and chills - emphasis is decidedly on the plural aspect of the title. Sigourney Weaver does a smashing job as Ripley while her ernstwhile charge Carrie Henn is very appealing as the little girl in danger.
'BAD MOM' MOVIES1. CINDERELLA
Disney makes entertainment capital out of the animal world with clever drawing-board personifications of a quartet of mice doing battle with an ornery cat. The cartoon, in fact, has far more success in projecting the lower animals than in its central character, Cinderella, who is on the colorless, doll-faced side, as is the Prince Charming. The menace is supplied by the literally-drawn stepmother, who's a lineal descendant of the flint-hearted, evil-eyed witch in "Snow White."2. THE POSITIVELY TRUE ADVENTURES OF THE ALLEGED TEXAS CHEERLEADER-MURDERING MOM
Title doesn't tell it all, but it's a good reference point: Latest HBO Picture concerns not only that bizarre story of Texan Wanda Holloway and how she supposedly tried to hire a hitman to knock off another woman, but what happened when bidding for film, TV and print rights began flooding folks involved in the affair. Full of daffiness, greed and dark-hued humor, whole package is a hoot.3. MOMMIE DEAREST
This is Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford and the results are, well, screen history. Dunaway does not chew scenery. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, co-stars and all.4. PSYCHO
Alfred Hitchcock is up to his clavicle in whimsicality and apparently had the time of his life in putting together "Psycho." He's gotten in gore, in the form of a couple of graphically-depicted knife murders, a story that's far out in Freudian motivations, and now and then injects little amusing plot items that suggest the whole thing is not to be taken seriously.5. BLOODY MAMA
The story of Kate (Ma) Barker, who with her four killer sons terrorized mountain country in the Depression era, "Bloody Mama" is a pseudo-biopic starring Shelley Winters in one of those all-over-the-screen performances which sometimes are labeled as bravura acting.
And remember: No wire hangers!
