Product Details

• Actors: Albert Brooks, Debbie Reynolds, Kimiko Gelman, Isabel Glasser, James Gleason (II)
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: April 7, 1998
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304502362
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,260 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

When Albert Brooks cast Debbie Reynolds to play his mother in this acclaimed 1996 comedy, the veteran singer-dancer-actress hadn't had a leading film role in nearly 30 years. Brooks had to pour on the charm to persuade her to make a comeback. The results were triumphant for writer-director Brooks and his on-screen mom, who earned some of the best reviews of their respective careers. The movie's about a science-fiction writer named John (Brooks), who's just weathered a second divorce and blames his failure with women on his dysfunctional relationship with his widowed mother (Reynolds). He decides that the best way to improve his romantic future is to move back in with his mother and resolve their simmering differences--a wild leap of logic that seems outrageous to John's brother (Rob Morrow), who has always been their mother's favorite son. As this domestic experiment unfolds, Brooks uses hilarious dialogue to convey a wealth of observant detail about familial tensions and annoying quirks of behavior. Mother is a movie about people who know how to push each other's buttons--all the wrong buttons--and the comedy will be recognized by anyone who's ever been exasperated by one or both of their parents. That means just about everyone, doesn't it? --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's the little things..., June 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mother [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is absolutely my favorite movie of the 1990's. In my opinion, there are few things as precious as a good, smart comedy, and this is one of the best. I first saw this movie in the theater with my mom, and I laughed so hard I missed huge chunks of it, so of course I had to rent it and watch it again and again. It never gets old. Reynolds really hits her mark with her subtle glances, sighs, and sub-breath comments. While some people may be annoyed by what they see as "bickering" in this movie, I find hilarious, because it's the little things that make us laugh. It's the shared experiences that you don't realize are so funny until they're up on the screen in front of you. Jerry Seinfeld and George Carlin are two comedians who have made careers pointing out those little things in life that are funnier than you first realize. Albert Brooks does that same thing in this movie. The movie has a bit of a slow start, but once it's going you'll be rolling on the floor with laughter. Let's have the DVD already!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Universal Problems, May 3, 2001

By 

lasher (Space and the Great Beyond) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother (DVD)

When you first watch this movie, you aren't quite sure what you are going to get. As it slowly reveals itself you find it as funny as it is discomforting.

I think Albert Brooks did a wonderful job with this film. Portraying all the odd little things that happen in our relationships with our respective mothers. We all have those moments where we look at her and can't believe that we were spawned from her loins. The ways that at any age, she can reduce us to about 9 years old and completely humiliate and embarrass the hell out us at a moments notice.

Debbie Reynolds is magnificent as the mother, she has that maniacal sense of motherly perfection that all of our mother's, at the very least, attempt to portray.

Rob Morrow is also hilarious as the jealous younger brother. Every scene between him and Brooks is a laugh riot, because they both seem to regress to their younger days when they would fight over toys and the remote control.

All in all, I think this film is something everyone can relate to on some level. We have all had one or two of these wretchedly embarrassing moments with our mothers, and it is more than likely that they will happen again.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mother and Child Reunion, February 12, 2004

By 

Gregor von Kallahann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother [VHS] (VHS Tape)

You would think any movie entitled MOTHER would either have to be the ultimate schmaltzfest or the penultimate psychodrama. Surprise! Albert Brooks film is neither. In fact, Brooks' specialty seems to be taking potentially weighty themes and making smart, but still lighter-than-air films on them. What DEFENDING YOUR LIFE did for the afterlife, MOTHER does for family relations. And that's a good thing.

Brooks has a deft, understated comic flair. You chuckle more often than you laugh out loud. Contrary to what others have posted below, Debbie Reynolds "Mother" character is not a black and white character at all. She's as conflicted and complicated--and as it turns out, just as smart--as her neurotic son(s). That's the beauty part. Brooks allows all his characters their humanity. He doesn't oversimplify things (frustrated son vs. castrating mother). Mother had her own issues--dating back to her own childhood and adolescence. Brooks' writer character John finally makes that realization and, in a very real sense, it proves liberating for him. But that almost makes MOTHER sound like more of a "message movie" than it ever was intended to be. In the end, MOTHER makes a gentle plea for self-realization for all. But that message just kind of sneaks up on you. What makes Albert Brooks kind of refreshing is that he doesn't have to lay it on with a trowel.