Mom and Dad (2017) Film review

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Star – Nicholas Cage & Selma Blair My Rating 3/5 Genre – Horror Run Time – 1 hr 40 Minutes. Certificate – 18r Country – U.S.A Awards – 1 Win & 2 Nominations = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = I think it’s fair to say Nicholas Cage career has been a game of two halves. It began with a starburst of cool movies, peaking with two Oscar nominations, winning for Leaving Las Vegas, playing a drunk (ironically) and then his career crashing in that desert somewhere to be forgotten about like those bodies the mafia buried out there. This guy has movie genes though, born into the Coppola family no less, marrying a Presley and an Arquette. At 15- years young he tried to convince his uncle (none other than Francis Ford Coppola) to give him a screen test for his latest movie, cockily telling him "I'll show you acting."…but met with "silence in the car". Coppola, at that point had already directed Brando, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman and Robert De Niro. To avoid claims of that nepotism in the movie industry Nicholas changed his to Nicolas Cage, inspired in part by the Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage. It worked, going on to work in 109 films and still only 57 years old. Brian Taylor, who directed Cage in the ill-feted Ghost Rider movies, is behind the camera here for this rather tongue and cheek B-Movie horror, released in late 2017. • Nicolas Cage as Brent • Selma Blair as Kendall • Anne Winters as Carly • Zackary Arthur as Josh • Robert T. Cunningham as Damon • Olivia Crocicchia as Riley • Brionne Davis as Tanner • Samantha Lemole as Jenna • Lance Henriksen as Mel Ryan ==The Plot== In present day America some sort of biochemical reaction happens in human beings, urging them to kill their siblings, as happens in the animal kingdom. A mother calmly parks her car on the railway track and leaves their baby in the back, whilst parents gather at schools to get at their kids, mass slaughter on the football field aplenty. The attacks are spreading across America, adjudged some sort of terror attack, seemingly kicked off by TV and radio going to static and making a strange noise. Brent (Cage) is an angry man anyway and he and his wife Kendall (Blair) can’t wait to get at their kids, high school ‘hottie’ Carly (Anne Winters) and her little brother Josh (Zackary Arthur) hiding in the family home as the killing ramps up, and it’s not only younger parents coming after their siblings as grandparents across America tool up and attack their kids. ===Results=== Cage said this was the best fun making a film he has had in the last ten years. It cost $4m to make but did an excellent $165 million gross so word of mouth also strong. Some critics judged this by the Nick Cage rules and marked it down where as others got the joke and enjoyed it, as did I. I thought I wouldn’t but I did, although I do have more time for Cage as an actor. Its good fun, suitably gory and great to see two classy actors sending themselves up in a horror movie. It’s still quite shocking to see parents murdering their children of all ages in the film but done in a comic way so you go along with it and not too disgusted. No real reasons are ever given for why they are going nuts so not a Sci-Fi in any way but a polished B-Movie experience that the horror fans will enjoy. You can see the pure joy in Cages face as he gets to play something silly with no real expectations of it working. There are many mid life crisis hints here on what the film is really about but still sticks to the horror tropes to entertain. It’s not the best horror film in the world but not the worse and one to catch on your streaming movie package or normal TV for evening viewing. It’s definitely not one for the kids to watch with mom and dad. ===RATINGS=== Imdb.com 5.5/10.0 (22,234votes) Rottentomatos.com –75% critic’s approval Metacritic.com – 56% critic’s approval ===Trailer===