the mother movie review 2023

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The “movie star,” that mysterious creature whose blinding charisma pulls everyone into its irresistible orbit, is becoming an endangered species. That makes Jennifer Lopez —a movie star par excellence —the onscreen equivalent of a majestic snow leopard. Lopez can easily carry a film on her own, and her latest project, “The Mother,” is lucky to have her.

That’s not to say that the latest film from director Niki Caro (“Mulan”) and a screenwriting team led by “Underground” creator Misha Green would totally sink without its star. Like most Netflix movies, “The Mother” would be a perfectly serviceable thing to have on in the background while you tidied the living room or answered emails on your phone. The spy-movie setup is generic enough to follow while doing something else, and the villains’ motivations are only as specific as the plot needs them to be, which is to say, not very specific at all.

“The Mother” was screened for critics in theaters, where the immersive setup makes the paint-by-numbers portions of the plot really stick out. A handful of odd stylistic choices also attract attention in this format: A recurring visual motif of wide-angle shots with blurred edges; odd, jumpy edits seem to compensate for a lack of coverage on set.

But the big screen also provides a bigger canvas for the film’s picturesque locations, like wild Tlingit Bay, Alaska, the sweltering streets of Havana—and, uh, Cincinnati, Ohio. (Every spy needs a place to hide out.) More importantly, it’s also more real estate for Lopez’s face.

For the most part, that billion-dollar mug is set into an expression of grim determination in “The Mother,” which opens with an unnamed FBI informant (Lopez) and her handler Cruise ( Omari Hardwick ) barely escaping from a bloody attack on an FBI safe house in suburban Indiana. The informant soon becomes The Mother, as the pregnant ex-spy gives birth to a baby girl while in the hospital recovering from her wounds. She has two options: Either escape with the infant and stay on the run forever or sign over her parental rights so her daughter can have a normal life. She chooses the latter.

She never signs away her emotional commitment, however. And she continues to watch expectantly from the sidelines, waiting for the day when her past will also shape young Zoe’s ( Lucy Paez ) life. And indeed, just after Zoe’s 12th birthday, The Mother’s friend and confidant, Jons ( Paul Raci ), comes by her isolated Alaskan lakeside cabin with a message: Zoe is in danger. It’s go time.

As with her celebrated turn as a pole dancer in “ Hustlers ,” much of the excitement in “The Mother” is watching Lopez in motion. She swings a knife in hand-to-hand combat. She jumps across the roofs of cars in an urban foot chase. Even the subtle movement of loading and cocking a sniper rifle while lying belly-down on a rooftop is thrilling when she does it. Lopez translates her background as a dancer into gritty action choreography with the ease of a seasoned professional.

The film shifts gears about halfway in, as Zoe and her mother retreat to Mom’s cabin for a hybrid bonding session and wilderness survival course leading up to the fiery action finale. “The Mother” is arguably too long at 115 minutes, but it’s difficult to say which scenes, in particular, could have been cut; in its quieter moments, both Lopez and her young co-star Paez give convincing performances as the gruff mentor and pouty student.

If anything, the film could have used more of these moments, which feel real and tangible compared to the cardboard cut-out bad guys played by Joseph Fiennes and Gael Garcia Bernal. Either of these men, we’re told, could be Zoe’s father, and it’s their obsession with The Mother that drives the rest of the narrative. Get in line, fellas.

On Netflix now.

Katie Rife is a freelance writer and critic based in Chicago with a speciality in genre cinema. She worked as the News Editor of The A.V. Club from 2014-2019, and as Senior Editor of that site from 2019-2022. She currently writes about film for outlets like Vulture, Rolling Stone, Indiewire, Polygon , and RogerEbert.com.

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The Mother (2023)

Rated R for violence, some language and brief drug use.

115 minutes

Jennifer Lopez as Mother

Joseph Fiennes as Adrian

Omari Hardwick as Cruise

Gael García Bernal as Hector

Paul Raci as Jons

Lucy Paez as Zoe

Writer (story)

Misha Green
Andrea Berloff
Peter Craig

Cinematographer

Ben Seresin
David Coulson
Germaine Franco

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‘The Mother’ Review: Are You My Sniper?

At the heart of this action-thriller, an expert killer, played by Jennifer Lopez, must rescue her daughter at all costs.

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Jennifer Lopez, in a dark parka, looks toward the camera. Behind her is a snowy forest.

By Lisa Kennedy

A movie called “The Mother” is sure to have a lot of symbolism and this action-thriller, starring Jennifer Lopez as a trained killer who must protect the daughter she gave up, has plenty.

In the opening scenes, Lopez’s character, known only as the Mother, is interrogated by F.B.I. agents who are trying to get information on two arms dealers she has worked, and slept, with. Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) is respectful. The other agent (Link Baker), not so much — and tells her so with a hectoring monologue. (One of the film’s guilty pleasures becomes anticipating when a mansplainer will get hushed.)

In Niki Caro’s fast-paced film, Agent Cruise assures the Mother she’s safe. “No I’m not,” she says. Guess who’s right? Mayhem ensues and, in an act, stunning for its swift violence, we learn the Mother is pregnant. The newborn, Zoe, is placed with a loving family, and the Mother retreats to Alaska where the fellow soldier Jons (Paul Raci) has her back.

This arrangement has kept the Mother and child safe for 12 years when Agent Cruise reaches out with news that Zoe (Lucy Paez) has been found by the Mother’s former partners: Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes) and Hector Alvarez (Gael García Bernal). Lovell is a nasty-smooth piece of work. As Alvarez, Bernal basks in some candlelit cruelty when the action shifts to Cuba.

What kind of resistance will the men encounter? Lovell trained the Mother as a sniper in Afghanistan. She also knows how to twist a blade.

They shouldn’t fool with the Mother’s nature. Apart from some deadpan exchanges between the Mother and Zoe, Lopez plays the role fierce. Even so, it isn’t always clear which gestures in the film should be taken seriously, and which make sport of the genre’s masculine posturing while offering an allegory about a birth mother’s sacrifice.

The Mother Rated R for gun and knife violence, some language and brief drug use. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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The Mother Reviews

Niki Caro’s tale of an assassin coming out of retirement to keep her daughter out of the crosshairs of some nasty people is the best kind of lean, mean fighting machine

Full Review | Aug 27, 2023

Jennifer Lopez makes, I think, a pretty good action star... This is sort of a generic action-flick that you may watch and forget about it about three minutes after seeing it.

Full Review | Original Score: 5.5/10 | Jul 24, 2023

Lopez is fit enough to handle the action scenes, but she just can’t sell the ruthlessness of the character. Apparently, it took no less than three writers to come up with this clichéd drivel.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 6, 2023

An exceptionally strong, emotionally-driven action-thriller...Directed at a cracking pace and with exceptional action-movie instincts by Niki Caro (Whale Rider; Mulan) [it's] a way-above-average thriller, with J.Lo at her finest.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 3, 2023

Maybe it is the repetitive middle or the structure of the movie, but it feels like it could have been paced more quickly and amped up the energy a little bit. I enjoyed this and would not be opposed to seeing Jennifer Lopez take on more roles like this.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 2, 2023

The Mother boasts an impressively weighty emotional core that ensures it hits hard when it needs to.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2023

With way too many flaws, a predictable plot, and generic and poorly developed villains, The Mother is an emotionless story and a waste of an action film. Unless you're a huge fan of J-Lo, I'd highly recommend skipping this one.

Full Review | May 26, 2023

The utterly predictable script suffers from a total lack of character development; the execution is ludicrous since JLo's hair and makeup are always flawless, perhaps because her expressionless face looks perpetually frozen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | May 26, 2023

[This] over-familiar actioner is forgettable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 24, 2023

What’s really depressing is the name behind the camera. “The Mother” was directed by Niki Caro, whose earliest efforts (Whale Rider, North Country) suggested a major talent in humanist cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | May 24, 2023

The no-nonsense Lopez holds the standard issue together and the action, as directed by Niki Caro, clicks by with the rapid-fire confidence of Lopez’s mom on the trigger.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 24, 2023

The best modern iterations of this kind of movie are The Long Kiss Goodnight and Aliens. I wonder if my overall fatigue with the genre isn't a product of my searching for those highs again in the intervening, largely disappointing decades.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 24, 2023

...a decidedly erratic piece of work that fares best in its exciting, action-packed opening stretch...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 23, 2023

But even her fierce prowess -- and unfailing good looks while fighting, chasing, and slaughtering -- can't quite save The Mother from feeling like an amalgam of existing action films.

Full Review | May 23, 2023

The Mother nearly works but there are gaps in the story, as though long sequences are missing, making for a movie that is as emotionally distant as its lead.

Full Review | May 22, 2023

This forgettable action thriller is thoroughly derivative.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | May 22, 2023

A textbook example of a star vehicle, The Mother is competently executed and intermittently engaging, but is elevated only by Lopez’s presence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 22, 2023

Lopez has more than earned the right to be the star, to put great men in supporting roles, and tell a story that unapologetically centers her.

Full Review | May 21, 2023

Despite well-choreographed action and a gritty performance from Jennifer Lopez, The Mother is not the Mother’s Day vehicle Netflix had hoped it would be.

Full Review | May 20, 2023

Lopez easily has the goods to do a late career segue into action hero mode, but would appear to need a new agent and/or manager to help arrest the piling-up of bad movie vehicles that waste her prodigious talent.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 20, 2023

Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

The Mother (2023) Review and Ending Explained – Lou + Peppermint x Winter Weather = Retread

After watching a couple thousand action films, I started The Mother , and it finally happened. Jennifer Lopez’s character chases a villain that would make Hank Quinlan blush. The man puts out a solid forearm and knocks over a sweet-looking nun dressed in crisp all-white friar and Cornette.

It’s that type of thriller that combines the sensibilities of female-led revenge thrillers like Peppermint and Lou that equals nothing more than another retread that studio executives call original. Most shockingly, it comes from Niki Caro, the director of The Whale Rider.

The mother (2023) review and plot summary, is the 2023 film the mother worth watching, the mother (2023) ending explained.

Lopez plays “Mother,” a former military operative and veteran of back-to-back tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with forty confirmed kills and an accurate sniper rifle from at least 1,300 meters away.

Just after her last military operation, Mother went to work for Hector Álvarez (Gael García Bernal) and Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes), illegal arms dealers who utilize her talents.

However, Mother wants out, and she is nine months pregnant. She tries to strike a deal with Special Agent Cruise (Omari Hardwick) and Williams (Edie Falco) to enter witness protection.

However, after her former employers find her location, she is almost killed. Mother then must give up her child for adoption and enter protective custody. She hides in Alaska with the help of her former commander, Jons (Paul Raci).

That’s the carrot, now here’s the stick — twelve years later, her old employers locate her missing daughter, Zoe (Lucy Paez), and use her as a pawn by kidnapping her in order to draw Mother out. With the help of Cruise, they travel overseas to rescue the daughter she never knew.

It’s almost shocking how inept and eye-rolling the material is here, considering the talent involved in this mess. Besides Niki Caro going for a straightforward payday, the script is written by some of the most talented blockbuster writers working today.

The original story was from Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green , who developed the script, along with Andrea Berloff, who wrote Straight Outta Compton . Then, inexplicably, The Batman , Top Gun: Maverick , and The Town scribe Peter Craig took a swing and missed wildly.

What went wrong? Well, the material is recycled. The writers fumble over any sort of theme that comes with vulnerable populations and animal rights. The plot is as obvious as they come, which comes across as bland and even pointless.

The story is a practically rudderless existence since the final two acts repeat themselves in vastly different settings.

At the very least, Lopez holds her own as an action star and gets back to her days in Enough , but the movie has very few thrills. The material is bad here. The villains are so over the top and give off the fun vibe that they’re so bad. And the booby prize goes to Fiennes. I’m not sure what he did to be stuck in a film like The Mother.

The star of films like Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth is cartoonishly menacing with little room to make the role interesting.

The Mother is a bad action-thriller with a good Jennifer Lopez wasted in the role. The story is a dull, stagnant, and futile exercise in streaming content.

There are much better films to stream on Netflix with strong and intelligent action heroes, like Kate and Gunpowder Milkshake . The Mother is worth watching with your mom on Mother’s Day if you are looking to enact some sweet revenge after a childhood filled with abuse and neglect. If you are a fan of mind-numbing, female-driven revenge thrillers like Peppermint and Lou , the Niki Caro film fits that description all too perfectly.

Is Hector Zoe’s father?

The question of whether Hector is Zoe’s father is never answered clearly by Mother. In the movie, the script states that Mother dated both arms dealers, including Adrian and Hector Álvarez. However, when Alvarez’s henchmen kidnap Zoe, the question is raised.

Mother and Special Agent Cruise can rescue Zoe, but Alvarez corners her with a gun and asks if the little girl is his. Mother replies, “Does it matter?” She ends up killing him to escape.

The Mother (2023) (Credit – Netflix)

Is Adrian Zoe’s father?

Whether Adrian is Zoe’s father is never answered directly, but there is enough evidence to conclude he is, in fact, the father. This all despite stabbing Mother in the stomach with a large, sharp knife to kill her and her unborn child. For one, at the 57:31 mark, Adrian attempts to kidnap Zoe after her initial rescue and holds her head in his hands lovingly.

At the 38:17 mark, Mother arranges for Hector and Adrian to work together. She challenges him that he cannot dance as well as Hector in a flashback, where Adrian then grabs her ass. She tells Cruise she became pregnant, which hints at Adrian being the father. It should be noted, though, at the 40:52 mark, Mother means Cruise that Zoe is not either’s, only “mine.”

What did Mother try to make a deal with the FBI?

After becoming pregnant, Mother discovered that Hector and Adrian were not only smuggling weapons but had also become human traffickers. Suspecting that there was more going on than just moving guns, she checked Adrian’s shipping crates.

In the first crate, she only found assault rifles in wooden boxes, but she heard coughing and whimpering coming from another container. Upon opening it, she found dozens of neglected children. Mother called the authorities and tried to strike a deal

How does Mother save Zoe?

Mother saves Zoe from Adrian in Alaska by shooting him in the head with her sniper rifle while trying to drive away from him. After being bitten by a wolf puppy, Mother takes Zoe to a clinic but gives the doctor her real name. Mother knows Adrian will be shown that information because it was put into a public database.

Mother leaves Zoe with her former commander, who lives nearby, but Zoe escapes and returns to Mother. Adrian’s associates then capture Mother, but after killing a dozen or so bad guys on snowmobiles, Mother gets her back. Adrian holds Mother at gunpoint, but Zoe shoots at both of them, trying to defend her biological parent.

The bullets, however, are packed with salt, which is used to scare away wolves.

Adrian is injured but grabs Zoe and throws her into a truck. From a couple of football fields away, with her arm injured, Mother takes a shot, killing Adrian and saving Zoe after the car stops.

Does Mother regain custody of Zoe?

No, Mother does not regain custody of Zoe. After rescuing her, Mother returns Zoe to her adoptive mother. However, the Mother rents an apartment where she can watch Zoe play outside at school. One day, Zoe stops skating and looks up at the apartment window, making a fake rifle-shooting sound with her mouth and hands.

Mother touches her heart, revealing a bracelet with the word ‘mom’ on it

What did you think of the 2023 Netflix film The Mother? Comment below.

RELATED: Who Plays the Daughter in The Mother?

Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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‘the mother’ review: jennifer lopez in niki caro’s enjoyably silly netflix action thriller.

Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, Gael García Bernal and Lucy Paez also star in this study of the maternal instinct under fire as a tough assassin emerges from hiding to protect her daughter.

By David Rooney

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Jennifer Lopez as The Mother in The Mother.

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‘The Mother’ Review’: Jennifer Lopez In Niki Caro’s Tough-As-Nails Action Movie That Strikes The Right Balance

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Lopez is a killer of a mother, and no doubt a mother killer along the way; she admits — or perhaps boasts — that she knocked off 46 people while on duty in the Middle East, and is not someone to ever back down and do any less than kick her opponent’s ass. That said, she is understandably obsessed with her daughter Zoe, but ultimately unduly so as far as the FBI is concerned; when the agency tells her that the only way to protect her child is to disappear, she obediently agrees, disowns the child, and takes off for Alaska.

But you can bet that The Mother is not just going to just give up and live with the polar bears for the rest of her life. Sure enough, the baddies kidnap the daughter (Lucy Paez), now 12 years old, from a school playground, after which the next stop is, of all places, Havana, a location that is doubled extremely well by an urban area of the Canary Islands.

The Mother is under constraints of one kind or another most of the time, but you know she won’t remain so for too long. As it enters its final laps, The Mother ultimately becomes the female bonding film it’s been threatening to become nearly from the beginning, and it’s a hard-earned goal in almost every respect. The story is something close to a fairy tale transformed into a contemporary hard-action melodrama with a very long arc. But fanciful as it all is, the toughness of the characters and the film’s grave but propulsive energy keeps the proceedings almost always intriguing and one’s expectations in a constant state of curiosity as to where this might all end up.

Lopez is a coiled wire that sets the tone for this tautly and tightly wound tale. Nothing that’s achieved by the characters here is easy and sometimes requires indefinite amounts of patience and fortitude. Lopez and Caro seem very much in sync as they relate the sprawling tale in a disciplined manner that maintains interest and curiosity, if not high levels of downright excitement. The filmmakers avoid cheap thrills and gratuitous violence that, in other hands, might have made this story possibly more popular with viewers. But Caro holds the reins tight and has keenly told a peculiar story that will likely stick in the mind.

Title: The Mother Distributor: Netflix Release date: May 12, 2023 Director: Niki Caro Screenwriters: Misha Green and Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, Gael Garcia Bernal Rating: R Running time: 1 hr 55 min

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DVD & Streaming
Action/Adventure

Content Caution

In Theaters

Jennifer Lopez as The Mother; Lucy Paez as Zoe: Joseph Fiennes as Adrian: Omari Hardwick as Cruise; Gael García Bernal as Hector; Paul Raci as Jons

Home Release Date

May 12, 2023

Distributor

Movie review.

She hasn’t lived an easy life.

She hasn’t always made the best choices.

But her life and her choices have shaped her into the skilled sharpshooter and soldier she became. They’ve also led her to where she is right now: alone in a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere with a letter in her hand and another choice to make

Some 12 years back, she was probably at her lowest point. She’d just come out of having affairs with two very bad men named Adrian and Hector. She was pregnant by one of them and surrounded by mostly belligerent FBI agents at a safehouse. (One was nice. He offered her water.) They only knew her as “The Mother,” and she was fine with that. For she had a dark story of illegal arms deals, human trafficking and murder to share. And the less the agents knew about her , the better.

But The Mother didn’t get far into her story before Adrian’s thugs—or maybe they were Hector’s men—hit the little safe house. They ripped into the place with military precision and slaughtered the agents as quickly as the men could draw their weapons.

Only she and a single agent survived—the nice one. And that was because of her quick wits and savvy choices.

The Mother’s child, a daughter, was born just after that brutal firefight. But she was compelled to give her up for adoption. It was the only way to assure the girl’s safety.

So she made a deal with Agent Cruise, the FBI agent whose life she saved. He agreed to keep tabs on the girl. And he promised to send a message if the girl was ever in danger. Only Cruise knew where The Mother was hiding. Only Cruise ever mailed her there.

Today she received a letter. And today The Mother has another choice to make. Will she stay hidden away where she is? Or will she go to the girl—an innocent who has never known her—and help her with all the skills acquired through years of hard living and difficult choices?

A mother can tell you, sometimes there is no choice.

Positive Elements

The story’s protagonist made an adoption plan for her daughter, Zoe. She believed that was the only way to insure her anonymity and safety. And, indeed, Zoe now appears to be part of a solid family. But when Hector and Adrian eventually discover the young girl’s identity, that forces the biological mom and daughter together.

The Mother isn’t exactly a model parent, but she does work tirelessly to protect Zoe. And she helps train the girl to take care of herself in dangerous situations. As painful and difficult as their pairing is (for both of them) they eventually grow to care for each other, their mutual affection growing throughout the story. “These have been the best months of my life,” The Mother tells Zoe by the end of their time together.

Zoe’s adoptive mom can’t blaze away at baddies to protect her daughter, but she is no less ferocious and protective. She fights for Zoe in the moment of the kidnapping. And she does whatever she can with authorities to assure her daughter’s safe return.

Ultimately, The Mother walks away with the knowledge that her child is part of a secure and loving family.

Spiritual Elements

When The Mother gets to Alaska, she meets with a former military acquaintance who volunteers to help her adjust to her new world. However, upon noting changes in her demeaner, he asks: “You find god or something?” The Mother assures her that she hasn’t.

We see a statue depicting an angel carrying a cross.

Sexual Content

In flashback, The Mother makes note of the fact that as she was coming out of the U.S. military, she chose to have affairs with two different men as a means of connecting their corrupt international dealings and assuring her future. Even she seemed to be unsure of which man fathered her child.

Violent Content

Hector grabs The Mother angrily and threatens to torture her sexually, “with no safe word.” He then talks of his arousal at the idea of this torment. One of Hector’s thugs kidnaps Zoe. And he tells The Mother that Hector plans to sexually abuse her. The Mother discovers a large shipping container filled with children and women being sent off to a human trafficking ring.

As you might have gathered by now if you’ve seen the trailers for this Netflix actioner, The Mother is a very intense film full of heavy military-style thumping and bloody shooting. Thugs and agents are shot in the head and body. An explosion badly burns a man’s face and sets a building on fire. Men are also chased, beaten, crushed by vehicles, sent flying by explosive mines and stabbed. A man’s gaping abdomen wound is pasted together with superglue.

The Mother unleashes her sniping skills on numerous occasions, usually with explosive, high-caliber headshots that splash blood on walls and windows. She also shoots deer and wolves in the woods near her Alaskan cabin. Upon capturing a thug with important information, The Mother beats the man repeatedly with barbed wire-wrapped fists. She also waterboards the guy and eventually kicks him over in anger. Someone’s neck gets impaled on a shard of glass.

The Mother teaches 12-year-old Zoe how to attack with a sniper rifle, a shot gun, a handgun and a knife. The girl eventually applies those practiced skills. She shoots someone with a shotgun, and she stabs a man with a knife hidden up her sleeve. But none of her attacks are lethal. Zoe is also dragged around and manhandled repeatedly by large men. And she’s bitten by a young wolf.

The Mother gets pounded and beaten misogynistically. Her face is bloodied and bruised. She’s stabbed in the stomach while pregnant. After one fall, her shoulder is dislocated, and she must painfully force it back into joint by ramming it up against a large rock.

Crude or Profane Language

The script includes two f-words, along with multiple uses of “b–ch” and “a–hole.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Hector has bottles of booze scattered around his room. One of his thugs snorts cocaine.

The Mother smokes cigarettes. And when Zoe attempts to pick up that habit, The Mother slaps the cigarette out of her hand, telling her not to do it.

Other Negative Elements

The Mother does whatever it takes in the spur of the moment to achieve her goals. That includes stealing a motorcycle and hitting an innocent man in the face with a helmet before stealing his car.

They say you should never get between a mother and her cubs. And that’s especially true if that angry mamma can also hit you from 1500 meters away with a bullet from an M-24 sniper rifle.

That’s the thrust of The Mother , a film that’s reminiscent of many past actioners and one that stars Jennifer Lopez in the role of the tough-as-nails mommy at its core.

In fact, this pic feels a bit like two action movies in one. The first half is mostly blazing-fast combat that cements the protagonist’s skillset bona fides. The second half is about a mother and her young daughter bonding and building to a slam-bam movie finish.

Over the top? Of course. That said, it’s also a taut story that emphasizes unconditional love and self-sacrifice. It also makes some nice statements about adoption.

Of course, I can’t let you go without circling back to my opening statement about a mom who can effectively splash someone’s brains on the back wall from a great distance. Because that is what will spatter your screen throughout this film. Bloody headshots. Slashed jugular gushes. Pregnant belly stabs. Flesh-crisping explosions. Gaping wounds. It’s all here and more. Add in a several obscene language potshots, and this pic’s R rating is well merited.

I should also note that if you show this flick to the cubs, well, Mom will justifiably growl.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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The Mother Review

Jennifer Lopez reminded us that she’s pretty handy with a weapon in Shotgun Wedding earlier this year. She gets multiple opportunities to showcase that once again in The Mother , a movie which sees her join the likes of Liam Neeson , Denzel Washington , and Bob Odenkirk in the annals of late-career action herodom. Directed by Niki Caro , it’s a slick if slight Netflix outing that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but does just enough to entertain.

Lopez easily convinces as a formidable woman who’s an expert in combat. And while the action scenes are not revolutionary, they do have a crispness about them. The punches feel impactful. The high point comes when Lopez's character (she is credited simply as 'The Mother') heads to Cuba to dispatch a house full of bad men with speed and decisiveness. The low point comes in a chase scene so over-edited that for a brief second, it feels as though you’re watching Taken 2 .

This is a film that’s first and foremost a showcase for its star.

For much of the film, Lopez cuts an intense and stoic figure. But inevitably, that hardened exterior is slowly pierced to reveal a beating heart as she spends more time with her daughter. Misha Green’s script leans a little too hard into a mother-wolf metaphor that would’ve been more effective as visual storytelling rather than being explicitly spelled out. But it also gives ample opportunity to Lopez and Lucy Paez to generate decent chemistry with one another.

As for the men, there’s not much meat on the bone for anyone here. There’s a hint that there might be something more than respect between Omari Hardwick ’s FBI agent and Lopez’s Mother, but it’s not explored enough for certain moments to hit as hard as they should. Meanwhile, Paul Raci’s Jons – a weapons specialist who served with Mother in Afghanistan – is little more than an exposition machine. Villains-wise, Gael García Bernal ’s Hector Alvarez is criminally underused, and Joseph Fiennes ’ scarred former SAS arms dealer remains one note throughout.

But this is a film that’s first and foremost a showcase for its star, and on that front it – and Lopez – deliver. The Mother marks her first significant action drama since 1998’s Out Of Sight , a career high point. Hopefully, it won’t be her last.

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Assassin mom tortures, kills for daughter; gore, language.

The Mother Movie Poster: Jennifer Lopez stars as a mother on a mission.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Mothers will do anything for their kids. You can t

The Mother sacrifices her own life for her daughte

Main actors in the film are Latino (Lopez) and Bla

Lots of blood and gruesome deaths and injuries fro

A woman was in a relationship with two different m

"F--k," "s--t," "hell," "bitch," "d--k," "balls,"

Some car brands are seen.

A man snorts cocaine off his hand. Adults drink al

Positive Messages

Mothers will do anything for their kids. You can turn your life around. Children should not be made to do harm to others, even for their own protection.

Positive Role Models

The Mother sacrifices her own life for her daughter and lives to protect her, but that means having no real life or relationships of her own and killing a lot of people. Other adults are equally loving and protective of Zoe. International criminals traffic arms and kids.

Diverse Representations

Main actors in the film are Latino (Lopez) and Black (Hardwick, as the upstanding FBI agent). The foreign actors, including Mexicans and a Brit, play international criminals with no moral code, willing to kidnap and traffic children.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Lots of blood and gruesome deaths and injuries from guns, crashes, stabbings, fires, and falls. A trained assassin uses what she learned in the military to torture and kill people. A mother is separated from her child, and the child is kidnapped and threatened with harm. Other kids are also kidnapped and trafficked for powerful men who presumably want something "not on the menu." Adult figures are killed or maimed in front of children who love them. A woman dislocates her shoulder and knocks it back into place. War veterans mention PTSD. Animals are killed, wounded, seen suffering, and attack humans.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A woman was in a relationship with two different men and got pregnant by one of them. Flashbacks show her dancing with one man, who puts his hand on her bottom, and flirting with the other. Upon reuniting with the latter, he mentions the "games" they used to play that involved "safe words." He says she is "so hot" that his "d--k" is "hard."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," "s--t," "hell," "bitch," "d--k," "balls," "Jesus."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

A man snorts cocaine off his hand. Adults drink alcohol. A tween starts to light up what looks like a joint before her mother knocks it out of her hand. The girl complains that her mother smokes it so why can't she?

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Mother is a bloody action film starring Jennifer Lopez with grisly scenes of torture and death, sometimes involving children. No kids are killed in the film, but they are kidnapped, trafficked, threatened with harm, trained to kill, forced to watch loved ones die, and put in potentially fatal situations. A mother is separated from her child at birth. Other adults are killed by guns, crashes, stabbings, and falls. A trained assassin uses what she learned in the military to torture and kill people. When she dislocates a shoulder, she knocks it back into place. Adults drink alcohol, are said to smoke, and snort cocaine. A tween starts to light up what looks like a joint before her mother knocks it out of her hand. The bad guys are mostly Cuban (played by Mexican and Latino actors), and the heroine is Latina. She's aided by a trustworthy Black FBI agent. A woman was in a relationship with two different men and got pregnant by one of them. Flashbacks show her dancing with one man, who puts his hand on her bottom, and flirting with the other. Upon reuniting with the latter, he uses explicit language to talk about their past relationship. Other language includes "f--k," "s--t," "hell," "bitch," "d--k," "balls," and "Jesus." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Close up of Jennifer Lopez's face as she rides a motorcycle with a fireball in the background

Community Reviews

Parents say (2)
Kids say (1)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Not impressed

One of the best movies of year, what's the story.

When THE MOTHER opens, a woman ( Jennifer Lopez ) is being interrogated by FBI agents, but she keeps warning them their safe house isn't safe. Sure enough, within minutes, shots ring out and seven agents are killed. The Mother helps save one of the agents, Cruise ( Omari Hardwick ), and manages to escape, but not without taking a wound to her pregnant belly. When the baby is born, the Mother gives her up for adoption for the child's own safety, making Cruise promise to provide annual updates and keep the girl, named Zoe, under his watch. The Mother, a military-trained assassin, bides her time, staying in shape to come to the girl's aide at a moment's notice. Fast forward 12 years, and Zoe (Lucy Paez) is suddenly the target of the same men the Mother was informing on to the FBI, international criminals Adrian ( Joseph Fiennes ) and Hector ( Gael García Bernal ). Now, the Mother must do whatever it takes to protect her daughter, even coming in from the shadows.

Is It Any Good?

Jennifer Lopez carries this movie in a physical role that asks her to tumble down hills, face off with wolves, and get hit by cars. But even her fierce prowess -- and unfailing good looks while fighting, chasing, and slaughtering -- can't quite save The Mother from feeling like an amalgam of existing action films. The scenario moves from Indiana to Alaska to Cuba to Afghanistan, and back again, but the exotic locations are ultimately interchangeable because secondary characters or any real local flavor are absent. In that sense, a car chase in Havana (actually shot in Spain) doesn't feel significantly different from a snowmobile chase in Tlingit Bay (actually Canada).

Lopez is the star here, let no viewer imagine otherwise. Her character is hard-edged and unable to emote, which makes for limited dialogue, but Lopez captures her maternal angst in protective actions and meaningful glances. Paez is defiant and often teary-eyed across her. Other actors -- Fiennes, García Bernal, and Hardwick -- appear only briefly and/or get killed off quickly. Expect lots and lots of blood. The sequences explaining the backstory are constructed out of clichés, but they do flesh out motivations. Action-packed and female-driven, with an emotional mother-daughter ending, The Mother will keep your attention at the moment, but it probably won't stay with you long after the end credits roll.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the idea that The Mother's love would compel her to sacrifice her own life, any semblance of normalcy, and kill repeatedly to protect her child. Does this seem realistic? Is it healthy?

How does the military come across in this film? What's your opinion of this portrayal?

Did this movie remind you of any others you have watched? Which ones, and why?

How is violence portrayed in this film? Do you think all of the explicit scenes of death and injury were necessary to convey the storyline and develop the characters? Why or why not?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : May 12, 2023
Cast : Jennifer Lopez , Omari Hardwick , Lucy Paez
Director : Niki Caro
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Latino actors, Black actors, Female writers, Black writers
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Thriller
Topics : Sports and Martial Arts
Run time : 116 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : violence, some language and brief drug use
Last updated : September 16, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Bourne Identity

Out of Sight

Best action movies for kids, thriller movies, related topics.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Mother’ on Netflix, a Jennifer Lopez Action Vehicle That Skids Too Far Off the Road

Where to stream:.

The Mother (2023)

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez’s Recent Run Of Increasingly Terrible Projects Proves She’s Totally Fine Being A Fading Movie Star — But Not A Great Actress

‘atlas’ ending explained: is smith alive at the end of jennifer lopez’s netflix movie, who voices smith in netflix’s ‘atlas’ movie meet gregory james cohan, stream it or skip it: ‘atlas’ on netflix, a generic a.i. sci-fi thriller starring a hysterical jennifer lopez.

In the true spirit of Mother’s Day, this weekend we get Jennifer Lopez gunning down a bunch of faceless bad guys in The Mother (now on Netflix). She also has A Moment with a mother wolf, you know, one of those moments where you lock eyes with a four-legged snarling anxious dangerous predator, and you both nod in unspoken acknowledgment of your shared instinct to protect your offspring at any cost. J-Lo is a credited producer of this ridiculous and violent genre outing, and teams up with director Niki Caro, who you’ll recall broke through with 2002’s Whale Rider and most recently showed some rock-solid action-movie chops via the battle sequences in 2020’s live-action Mulan remake. The Mother is the type of movie Stallone would’ve headlined in 1989, save for the feminine angle, which, fingers crossed, hopefully gives it a bit of depth. Let’s find out.

THE MOTHER : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: DAWN. AN FBI SAFEHOUSE IN INDIANA. A character only known as The Mother (J-Lo) is an informant on an arms deal and she’s telling the living shit out of the FBI agents that the bad guys know where they are and they’re coming and some of them are gonna die and that’s exactly what happens. This nasty-nasty named Lovell (Joseph Fiennes) backs her into a shower stall and this is when there’s a very highly dramatic reveal: She’s pregnant. Oh man. And how nasty-nasty is Lovell? He whips out a knife and stabs her right in the abdomen. But he can’t finish the job because her improvised explosive goes WHOOMP and burns half of Lovell’s face off.

Now, I’ve already tipped my hand with regards to what kind of movie this is, but this is the turning point, the tone-setting stretch of film that determines where it lands on the absurd-o-meter. The Mother awakens in the hospital. She’s OK. Her baby daughter is OK. And Lovell – well, he’s going to return with a mottled eye and really cool spiderweb of scars on his mug. Absurd-o-meter: we’re at about an 8. Edie Falco walks into the hospital room and informs The Mother that she’s far too wanted by the bad guys to keep the child, and here’s what she’s gonna do. She’s gonna sign the paperwork giving the girl up for adoption and then she’s gonna disappear and her days as a mercenary sniper assassin cold-blooded damn killer are over, and that’s that. She’s not happy about it but she takes one last look at the baby through the nursery window and we cut to her getting off a boat in Moosescat, Alaska. She holes up in a cabin and a subtitle reads 12 YEARS LATER and she’s still there.

Per the agreement, The Mother has been getting photos and updates on the girl. She’s been palling around with her pal and fellow war vet Jons (Paul Raci of The Sound of Metal ) and also killing her own food, so we know her shooting skills haven’t waned. Might she need them for any reason beyond hunting? Hmm. And wouldn’t you know it, just when she thought she was out, you know the rest. The bad guys are planning a heist, and The Mother’s daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez), who’s very happy with her adopted parents and sneakers with the skates in the heels, is the haul. The Mother and FBI guy Cruise (Omari Hardwick) get to work, chasing the villains – Gael Garcia Bernal turns up as one of them – all over hell and yonder to get Zoe back. The Mother shows what’s inside her when she tries to get the girl’s location by pummeling a thug with barbed wire wrapped around her fist. Donald Rumsfeld would be thrilled to learn that her controversial interrogation technique works, and she extracts Zoe and takes her to Alaska, where she trains the kid to shoot and stab and appreciate her fresh rabbit stew. Meanwhile, the girl shows a remarkable ability to not freak out about the fact that her birth mother is an utterly humorless badass slayer of men. There’s no time for psychotrauma when there’s several more action sequences to work your way through!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Mother is Taken meets the snowmobile chase in xXx meets the awesome lady action of Salt or Haywire .

Performance Worth Watching: Lopez hasn’t been this feisty since Enough . (She was even more feisty in Hustlers , but that movie is on an entirely different level than this genre fare.) Too bad the screenplay here is so thin and disinterested in character nuance, because she does her damnedest to give The Mother some depth when she has the rare opportunity to do so.

Memorable Dialogue: Jons sums up The Mother: “A woman like that – you gotta pay attention to what she does , not what she says .”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The Mother shows no ambition beyond being a collection of action set pieces strung together by a sloppy plot that really wants to be about the Protective Power of Momhood, but is far more invested in shootouts and chases. The lock-eyes-with-the-mama-wolf stuff is played dead-serious, and it ends up being deadly unintentionally funny. Same goes for the sequence in which The Mother apparently read ahead in the script so she’d know exactly when the bad guys would re-snatch Zoe, allowing her to skid into the frame on a Harley Fat Boy just in the nick. Style trumps sense every time – and although Caro’s muscular style exhibits moments of flair and vibrancy, it’s not savvy enough to distract us from this murky, slapped-together story.

So what we’ve got here is a boilerplate action saga starring J-Lo as a tanktop-ballcap-and-aviators asskicker who never smiles ever and is capable of gritting her teeth and slamming her shoulder into a rock to pop it back into the socket. What, they couldn’t fit in a scene where she cauterizes her own bullet wound with a hot knife or some gunpowder and a lighter? This movie is uncompromisingly silly, unbelievable and incredible in the sense that you won’t believe a second of it and none of it is credible, from the psychological contents of its characters to its abdication of the laws of physics.

The screenplay introduces and disregards supporting characters with abandon, gives Fiennes very little to do as the villain and renders our protagonist a boilerplate cliche of an action hero with one dangling thread of vulnerability to tug on. She kills and kills and kills and shows no remorse, no inner conflict. But because she’s The Mother, and so fiercely devoted to being that, we’re essentially asked to ignore the fact that she’s a sociopath. In that sense, the film is a throwback to simpler times, when action heroes just did what they had to do and put their mental health in a jar and hid it in the darkest corner of the pantry. Granted, not every piece of entertainment needs to be a grandiose statement about the tragedy of the human condition, but I like to think we’ve elevated our standards for thematic content in movies – or at least enough visual wizardry and storytelling finesse to be an adequately entertaining diversion, which The Mother doesn’t quite achieve.

Our Call: And on top of that, The Mother just isn’t as fun as it wants or needs to be. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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The Mother (2023) Review

After spending the last few years appearing in romantic comedies seen in Second Act (2018) as well as Marry Me and Shotgun Wedding (both released in 2022), it’s nice to see Jennifer Lopez playing a tough action role who has a very particular set of skills for a change in The Mother .

We learn that she’s a former military sniper-turned-FBI informant and when we first met her, she is in a safe house with other agents led by Cruise (Omari Hardwick). But it doesn’t take long before the unnamed protagonist’s killers ambush the place and shoot down most of the agents. From there, the movie reveals Lopez’s character is actually pregnant and the father could be one of her former arms-dealers lovers, Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes) or Hector Alvarez (Gael Garcia Bernal).

After barely survived from the bloody attack, Lopez’s titular character made a deal with the FBI Special Agent in Charge (Edie Falco in a cameo appearance) that she agrees to hand over her newborn baby girl to foster care. Doing so would not only keep her safe but also able to live a normal life with a new family.

Everything goes well as planned with the baby girl is now grown up as a 12-year-old teenager that goes by the name of Zoe (Lucy Paez). Cruise, who owes Lopez’s character for saving his life during the opening ambush sequence, has been looking after her daughter all this while. Unfortunately, when the bad guys from Lopez’s character’s past return and kidnap her daughter, she teams up with Cruise to get her back at all costs.

The Mother marks the return of Niki Caro, the New Zealand director behind the live-action remake of Mulan three years ago and of course, the acclaimed Whale Rider back in 2002. Having proved her worth in the action department seen in Mulan , the same can’t be said for her latest movie. The opening ambush attack alone is a letdown — all dimly lit to the point it’s hard to see what’s really going on with Ben Seresin’s murky cinematography ruined it the most. Except for the Havana-set (actually filmed on the Canary Islands) elaborate chase sequence revolving around Lopez’s character pursuing a bad guy on foot and later, on a motorcycle and finally, a car. It has the feel and tone of a Bond-like chase set piece but too bad this is the only action scene that I enjoy in The Mother .

Jennifer Lopez and Lucy Paez in Netflix's "The Mother" (2023)

The rest is as bland as they get with one of the shoot-out sequences taking place in a dimly lit building (again!) and this time, I’m not sure why Caro and Seresin figure it’s a good idea to add the odd-looking, partially blurry shots in some scenes. It looks as if such an ill-advised creative choice is to mask the lack of budget in this movie or it could be simply their intended decision after all. Either way, it’s visually distracting and certainly does little to elevate the moment.

The story — credited to Misha Green, Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig — is nothing more than a mother forces back into action to protect her daughter. It has shades of Taken and Jennifer Lopez’s no-nonsense persona proves to be the right fit for this kind of action movie. She does a good job in her physically-demanding role but the overall tepid screenplay undermined her character.

Not even the extended scene takes place in the Alaskan wilderness, where we see Lopez’s character sharing a mother-and-daughter bonding with Zoe in a remote cabin. We see the awkward and sometimes deadpan interactions between the two of them because the movie wants us to understand that Lopez’s character was from a military background. She’s been trained to kill and she’s good at what she does but it was the complete opposite when comes to motherhood, even though she shows some maternal instincts towards her daughter.

Unfortunately, the movie fails to establish a worthy, let alone emotional connection between Lopez’s character and her daughter, Zoe. Blame it on the lack of substantial character development and not to mention, it doesn’t help when the story drags longer than it should with poorly-conceived flashbacks while the story surrounding the possible father to Lopez’s character’s daughter is simply glossed over. Joseph Fiennes and Gael Garcia Bernal, who play Lopez’s character’s former lovers and also the movie’s antagonists are disappointingly bland as if they show up for mere paycheck roles. Fiennes fares the worst, looking all bored and disinterested each time he shows up on the screen.

Frankly, The Mother actually has the potential of becoming a solid action thriller and Jennifer Lopez could have joined the ranks of say, Charlize Theron ( Mad Max: Fury Road , Atomic Blonde ) and Halle Berry ( John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ) as one of the best female action stars breaking into the action-movie territory. It’s a pity what we have here is a largely dull and paint-by-numbers action thriller.

The Mother is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – The Mistress (2023)

May 1, 2024 by Robert Kojder

The Mistress , 2023.

Written and Directed by Greg Pritkin. Starring John Magaro, Chasten Harmon, Aylya Marzolf, Kat Cunning, Eddie Alfano, James Carpinello, Jake Sidney Cohen, Tina D’Marco, Alexandra Grey, and Paul Schackman.

Newlyweds move into their dream home where they discover a collection of 100-year-old letters from a young woman who committed suicide after being abandoned by the owner of the home.

Everything about The Mistress feels too concerned with the story and less about creating believable characters. That’s also a shame because writer/director Greg Pritkin is working from a solid concept in that newlyweds Parker and Madeleine (John Magaro and Chasten Harmon) settling into their dream home (an 1890 Queen Ann Victorian) began uncovering love letters from an unknown woman to the man of the household, where much of what unspools across that writing is often a parallel for what we are watching and a damning condemnation that things rarely change.

Parker appears to be a loving husband, as we learn at a small housewarming party, he was once (and might still be) saddled with a potentially dangerous stalker ex-girlfriend. There’s also a next-door neighbor, Kat Cunning’s Dawn, lonely and missing her boyfriend, showing up in suggestive clothing that instantly causes Madeleine to pull Parker aside and tell him not to hang around her.

Whether or not this is because Madeleine deems Dawn as trying to seduce Parker or doesn’t trust her husband is left for viewers to uncover, but the issue is that the script hasn’t written the neighbor as anything beyond sexy blonde temptation. There’s such a little character there one begins to wonder if she is the stalker, someone Parker knows, or if there is some supernatural element at play.

As for Parker himself, he is struggling to put together his next novel, looking to meet a traumatized man for inspiration regularly. When he is not doing that, he is haunted by a mysterious woman (Aylya Marzolf) that could be a ghost of the woman in the letters. Regardless of who she is, she is also trying to tempt Parker, who seems more than willing to go along with that. It’s also abundantly clear that Parker is hiding something about his past that will come back and bite him.

However, there also isn’t much to The Mistress beyond an admittedly clever idea of, for lack of spoiling anything, society and history repeating itself. Greg Pritkin adds some moody lighting to the spacious, appealing Victorian home, and there is one strong jump scare upon realizing what Parker has been interacting with (a term I use loosely to avoid spoiling anything). The performances themselves are solid, with John Magaro presenting Parker as the right mixture of seemingly decent and shady, gradually thrust into disarray from the spooky events that occur.

There’s also the lingering feeling that at 105 minutes, The Mistress is too long. A clever idea needs to be fleshed out with similarly compelling characters. Considering the film lacks the latter, the story feels underdeveloped and tedious, even if the ideas are intriguing. There’s also a late-game twist or two that come across as rushed and clumsily implemented. The ensemble almost holds it together, but this is mostly a disappointment that doesn’t fully capitalize on its smart concept.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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NEW YORK (OSV News) – The world’s most famous lasagne-loving, Mondays-averse feline gets a third big-screen outing with “The Garfield Movie” (Columbia). Director Mark Dindal’s animated adaptation of cartoonist Jim Davis’ long-running comic strip is generally amiable and family-friendly. Yet it’s only fitfully amusing and feels disposable.

Chris Pratt voices the gluttonous orange tabby cat. Kidnapped by Jinx (voice of Hannah Waddingham), a villainous female Persian, Garfield soon discovers that his abductor’s real target is his estranged dad, Vic (voice of Samuel L. Jackson).

Garfield believes that Vic abandoned him when he was a kitten, leaving him on his own until he was adopted by his human buddy, Jon (voice of Nicholas Hoult). Now, however, he must put away his resentment and learn to cooperate as together father and son endeavor to obtain the king’s ransom in milk Jinx is demanding.

So it’s off to a dairy farm where Garfield, Vic and Jon’s dog, Odie (voice of Harvey Guillén) — who doubles as Garfield’s best friend — receive training in tactics from Otto (voiced by Ving Rhames), a bull resentful over the treatment his beloved cow has received at the hands of the establishment’s managers. Cue a sequence mildly satirizing various action movie tropes.

There are a few moments of enjoyable comedy and some gentle sentiment. But the script’s lessons about not judging others too hastily and the value of teamwork can’t disguise the slapdash nature of the proceedings.

That said, there’s not much for parents to worry about along Garfield’s path to greater insight. Even the potty humor — seemingly inevitable in kids’ movies — is kept in bounds with only one sight gag and a single throwaway line of dialogue. Tots, however, might find some scenes of peril too frightening.

The film contains cartoon violence, characters in danger and a couple of mild scatological jokes. The OSV News classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

John Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @JohnMulderig1.

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Reviewed at Telluride Film Festival, Sept. 3, 2023. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 110 MIN.

Production: (U.S.-U.K.) An A24 release of an A24, BBC Film, BFI presentation, in association with Cinereach, of a Wild Swim Films, Gingerbread Pictures production, in association with Record Player Films. Producers: Helen Gladders, Ivana MacKinnon, Oliver Roskill. Executive producers: Eva Yates, Natascha Wharton, Elliott Whitton, Philipp Engelhorn. Co-producer: Tim Field.
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Janet Planet

In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visito... Read all In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet. In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet.

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84 Metascore
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Trivia Director Annie Baker and star Julianne Nicholson grew up in the same area, which is also where the film takes place. Neither of them knew this about each other until a random conversation.
Soundtracks The Littlest Worm Performed by Zoe Ziegler, Luke Bosco, and June Walker Grossman

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Hit man cast & character guide: who else stars alongside glen powell.

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Hit Man Review: Breezy Comedy Is Richard Linklater’s Cure For What Ails Movies

10 best parks & recreation episodes, ranked, where was hit man filmed glen powell comedy's filming locations explained.

Hit Man boasts a strong cast led by Glen Powell, offering a fresh take on undercover operations with hilarious aliases.
Hit Man's other main cast members include Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, and Retta.
Supporting cast members in Hit Man range from Sanjay Rao to Molly Bernard.

Richard Linklater's Hit Man sports a strong cast, led perfectly by Glen Powell. In comparison to many of Linklater's other movies, Hit Man 's cast is relatively small-scale. This could be because of the film's premise, which sees Glen Powell's titular Hit Man take on different aliases . Powell's eccentric personalities throughout the film mark a star turn for the actor and aids Hit Man in becoming one of the strongest 2024 films and one of the best movies in Richard Linkater's career .

Savor Hit Man, however you come across it - it's not every day the movies entertain us in this way at this level of execution anymore.

One of the best aspects of the film is that Hit Man is inspired by a true story . The film follows Powell's mild-mannered Gary, who lives alone with his cats and enjoys a relatively risk-free life as a college professor. Gary's main source of excitement comes from working alongside the New Orleans Police Department as a tech guy. However, Gary soon finds himself having to perform as an undercover mole, leading to Hit Man 's many hilarious aliases and opening the film up to the rest of the fantastic cast that stars alongside Powell.

Glen Powell as Gary Johnson

Date of birth: october 21, 1988.

Active Since: 2003

Actor: Glen Powell was born in Austin, Texas, and began acting in the early 2000s. Powell rose to prominence for his role as Chad Radwell in Scream Queens , before gaining further recognition in romantic comedies, including Hit Man director Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! and Netflix's Set It Up. Undoubtedly, Powell's most mainstream role came in 2022 when he portrayed Jake "Hangman" Seresin in Top Gun: Maverick , leading to him starring opposite Sydney Sweeney in the 2023 box-office hit Anyone but You . With Hit Man and Twisters on the horizon, 2024 seems to be the summer of Glen Powell .

Notable Movies & TV Shows:

Character: In Hit Man , Powell plays Gary Johnson. Gary works as a university professor and tech aid for the New Orleans Police Department. When the man responsible for going undercover is suspended, Gary is thrust into the role only to find he has a knack for pulling confessions out of unsuspecting, aspiring murderers. Interestingly, Powell plays several aliases in Hit Man, as Gary uses his people skills to figure out who targets will be more likely to confess to. Although Powell's aliases include characters named Ron, Boone, and a Patrick Bateman rip-off, he is credited as Gary Johnson.

Adria Arjona as Madison Masters

Date of birth: april 25, 1992.

Active Since: 2012

Actor: The secondary lead in Hit Man is portrayed by Adria Arjona, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Arjona began working in Hollywood in a series of small roles. Some of her earlier credits include The Belko Experiment, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Triple Frontier, and 6 Underground . Arjona received more widespread recognition for her main roles in TV shows like Emerald City, Good Omens, and Andor , the latter in the Star Wars universe. Other bigger Hollywood credits for Arjona include Morbius and an earlier recurring role in True Detective season 2.

Arjona will reprise her role as Bix in Andor season 2, expected to be released in 2025.

Character: Adria Arjona portrays Madison Masters in Hit Man . Madison, better known as Maddy, is introduced as one of the people ordering a hit from one of Powell's undercover personas. Maddy is introduced as someone with an abusive, threatening husband, with Gary's better nature leading him to suggest Maddy simply leave her relationship. Afterward, the two become romantically entangled, with Maddy only knowing Gary as Ron, a charming, suave alias of Gary's.

Austin Amelio as Jasper

Date of birth: april 27, 1988.

Active Since: 2010

Actor: Like Powell, Austin Amelio was born in Austin, Texas. Interestingly, Amelio's initial exposure came as a skateboarder before he was cast alongside Powell in Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! This came a year after his breakout role as Dwight in The Walking Dead season 6. This led Amelio to become part of the main cast of Fear the Walking Dead , appearing in over 30 episodes in seasons 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the spin-off. Other notable film roles from Amelio include Song to Song , Mercy Black , and Holler.

Character: In Hit Man, Amelio plays Jasper, the undercover cop responsible for posing as a hitman to gain confessions. After Jasper is suspended from the New Orleans Police Department, Powell's Gary takes over the role and becomes even more adept at stopping aspiring criminals than Jasper. This causes Jasper to have somewhat of an antagonistic presence in Hit Man , becoming bitter over Gary getting more plaudits and taking his job.

Retta as Claudette

Date of birth: april 12, 1970.

Active Since: 1998

Actor: Marietta Sirleaf, known professionally as Retta, was born in Newark, New Jersey, and began her career almost two decades later. Initially, Retta pursued stand-up comedy and appeared in minor film roles before being cast in Parks and Recreation. As Donna Meagle, Parks and Recreation proved to be Retta's breakout role , leading to bigger comedy movie roles in The LEGO Ninjago Movie, Father Figures , and Good Boys, and a starring role in the comedy series Good Girls .

Character: Hit Man sees Retta starring as Claudette, one of the members of the New Orleans Police Department's undercover crew. Claudette works with Powell's Gary and Amelio's Jasper and is one of the characters responsible for the former overtaking the latter as an undercover mole. Claudette works with Gary throughout the film, offering insights into the character arc of Gary.

NBC’s Parks and Recreation had dozens of incredible, hilarious episodes throughout its seven seasons, but some were better than others.

Hit Man's Supporting Cast & Characters

The supporting cast of hit man rounds off the ensemble.

As alluded to, Hit Man 's cast is relatively small. Aside from the aforementioned actors, there are only a handful of others who have any kind of role in the film. These other actors are lesser known than those above, though no less important to Hit Man 's story and the overarching themes of the film. With that in mind, here is a rundown of the other cast members in Hit Man , their roles in the film, and other notable works.

Sanjay Rao as Phil - Like Claudette, Phil is one of the other characters who helps with tech-related aspects of undercover sting operations. Phil and Claudette often come as a package deal in Hit Man , commenting on Gary's strength in his undercover roles. Phil is played by Sanjay Rao, whose other notable credits include Rob in Bad Romance and William in the TV miniseries Segs .

Gralen Bryant Banks as Sergeant Hank - In Hit Man , Gary and his team report directly to Sergeant Hanks. Hanks plays a minor role in the film but becomes important as Gary's romantic connection with Maddy as "Ron" leads to increasingly hectic scenarios. Bryant Banks is known for his roles in Prime Video's 2023 film The Burial and 2023's box office horror hit, Five Nights at Freddy's .

Evan Holtzman as Ray Masters - Ray is the husband of Maddy in Hit Man , whom the latter attempts to place a hit on early in the film. Ray appears as a cruel, abusive, derogatory man, leading to Maddy taking action against him. Ray serves an antagonistic role in Hit Man as he finds out more about Maddy's new boyfriend "Ron," a.k.a. Gary. Other roles for Holtzman include minor appearances in the TV series Messiah and an uncredited role in Alex Garland's Civil War .

Molly Bernard as Alisha - Early in the film, Gary reveals he is divorced though remains friends with his ex-wife Alisha, played by Bernard. Alisha implores Gary to find something more exciting in his life, as well as to find a new partner. This pushes Gary into finding "Ron" as an alias and subsequently leads to Gary's relationship with Maddy. Besides Hit Man , Bernard is known for her main role in the TV series Younger and recurring roles in projects like Transparent and Chicago Med.

From director Richard Linklater comes Hit Man, a 2023 action comedy film based on a Texas Monthly article of the same name. Undercover and trying to catch a group of criminals, a Houston police officer poses as a hitman until he falls for a woman on assignment. Finding himself diving deeper into the world of crime, the Houston officer finds it increasingly difficult to escape his new undercover persona.

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THE MOTHER (2023)
The Mother movie review & film summary (2023)
THE MOTHER (2023) Action thriller with Jennifer Lopez
The Mother movie review & film summary (2023)
The Mother (2023)
The Mother (2023)

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The Mother
The mother Movie Review
The Mother Movie Review
THE MOTHER
mother! --- Trailer
The Mother (2023 NETFLIX) MOVIE REVIEW

COMMENTS

The Mother movie review & film summary (2023)
The Mother. The "movie star," that mysterious creature whose blinding charisma pulls everyone into its irresistible orbit, is becoming an endangered species. That makes Jennifer Lopez —a movie star par excellence —the onscreen equivalent of a majestic snow leopard. Lopez can easily carry a film on her own, and her latest project, "The ...
'The Mother' Review: Are You My Sniper?
At the heart of this action-thriller, an expert killer, played by Jennifer Lopez, must rescue her daughter at all costs. Jennifer Lopez in "The Mother," a film directed by Niki Caro. One of ...
The Mother (2023)
A deadly female assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men. Director Niki Caro Producer Marc Evans, Elaine Goldsmith ...
The Mother (2023)
The Mother: Directed by Niki Caro. With Jennifer Lopez, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Joseph Fiennes. While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she left earlier in life.
The Mother
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2023. With way too many flaws, a predictable plot, and generic and poorly developed villains, The Mother is an emotionless story and a waste of an action ...
'The Mother' Review: Jennifer Lopez Anchors an Inflated Action Movie
'The Mother' Review: As a Military Sniper Who Comes Out of Hiding to Protect Her Daughter, Jennifer Lopez Anchors an Inflated Action Movie Reviewed online, May 10, 2023. MPA Rating: R. Running ...
The Mother (2023 film)
The Mother is a 2023 American action thriller film directed by Niki Caro with a screenplay by Misha Green, Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig, from a story by Green.The film stars Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, and Gael García Bernal.It is about a former US army operative (Lopez) who partners with an FBI agent to rescue her teenage daughter after she is ...
The Mother (2023) Review and Ending Explained
The Mother (2023) (Credit - Netflix) 1.5. Summary. The Mother is a dull, stagnant, and futile exercise in streaming content. After watching a couple thousand action films, I started The Mother, and it finally happened. Jennifer Lopez's character chases a villain that would make Hank Quinlan blush. The man puts out a solid forearm and knocks ...
'The Mother' Review: Jennifer Lopez in Niki Caro's Netflix Thriller
The Bottom Line Elevated trash. Release date: Friday, May 12. Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci, Gael García Bernal. Director: Niki Caro. Screenwriters ...
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck score a split decision with 'The Mother
One of Hollywood's most famous power couples score a split decision starring in separate thrillers hitting the market the same day, as Ben Affleck's lower-profile "Hypnotic" significantly ...
'The Mother' Review': Jennifer Lopez In Netflix Action Thriller From
The Mother is a mutha of an intimately scaled action film, a violent female-centric drama about a hardened combat veteran who has great difficulty adapting to being anything other than a tough ...
The Mother
The Mother discovers a large shipping container filled with children and women being sent off to a human trafficking ring. As you might have gathered by now if you've seen the trailers for this Netflix actioner, The Mother is a very intense film full of heavy military-style thumping and bloody shooting. Thugs and agents are shot in the head ...
The Mother
The Mother Review. People: Jennifer Lopez. Joseph Fiennes. ... Published on 12 05 2023. ... This is a come-for-Lopez, stay-for-Lopez endeavour, and she's on fine, movie star form in this ...
The Mother (2023)
Passable Revenge Thriller. azizsalhi-56473 12 May 2023. The Mother is an action film with hard edges and an emotional payoff. Jennifer Lopez plays a tough chick that is formidable, She is back in her element as the Tough Chick. It is a Netflix action thriller with a slightly silly plot.
The Mother (2023)
The Mother, 2023. Directed by Niki Caro. Starring Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, Gael García Bernal, Paul Raci, Lucy Paez, Fahim Fazli, Michael Karl Richards, Saif Mohsen, Yvonne ...
The Mother
3. TVJerry. May 25, 2023. Several variations on this plot have been released in the last few years: A skilled spy/agent (Jennifer Lopez) has to come out of hiding to rescue a loved one (in this case, her surly estranged daughter). This requires the usual action scenes, as well as tender drama moments.
The Mother Movie Review
Kids say ( 1 ): Jennifer Lopez carries this movie in a physical role that asks her to tumble down hills, face off with wolves, and get hit by cars. But even her fierce prowess -- and unfailing good looks while fighting, chasing, and slaughtering -- can't quite save The Mother from feeling like an amalgam of existing action films.
Jennifer Lopez 'The Mother' (2023) Netflix Movie Review: Stream It Or
The Mother (2023) Powered by Reelgood ... The Mother is the type of movie Stallone would've headlined in 1989, save for the feminine angle, which, fingers crossed, hopefully gives it a bit of ...
The Mother (2023) Review
The Mother marks the return of Niki Caro, the New Zealand director behind the live-action remake of Mulan three years ago and of course, the acclaimed Whale Rider back in 2002. Having proved her worth in the action department seen in Mulan , the same can't be said for her latest movie.
The Mother (2023)
She is prepared to go to great lengths to protect her child (played by an equally inquisitive yet naive Lucy Paez). Some of those great lengths include shooting up a children's playground, waterboarding people, and many explosions. Jennifer Lopez is "The Mother". This movie is a rush of quick cuts, bullets, and little explanation.
The Mother (2023)
The Mother stars Jennifer Lopez in a gripping action thriller, delivering Netflix's largest film opening weekend of 2023. By Jerry Mackenzie May 17, 2023 Movie and TV Reviews
The Mother (2023) Movie Review
Lopez definitely puts in the work and that must be appreciated. She disappears into a role that requires her to emote scarcely but emphatically. Lopez credibly maintains the hardened exterior and nails all of her action sequences, looking believable and menacing when on the move. Lucy Paez, though, is torridly miscast.
The Mistress (2023)
The Mistress, 2023. Written and Directed by Greg Pritkin. Starring John Magaro, Chasten Harmon, Aylya Marzolf, Kat Cunning, Eddie Alfano, James Carpinello, Jake Sidney Cohen, Tina D'Marco ...
The Garfield Movie
NEW YORK (OSV News) - The world's most famous lasagne-loving, Mondays-averse feline gets a third big-screen outing with "The Garfield Movie" (Columbia). Director Mark Dindal's animated adaptation of cartoonist Jim Davis' long-running comic strip is generally amiable and family-friendly. Yet it's only fitfully amusing and feels disposable. Chris Pratt voices the gluttonous orange tabby cat.
'Tuesday' Review: Julia Louis-Dreyfus Stars in Eccentric A24 Offering
Co-producer: Tim Field. Crew: Director, writer: Daina O. Pusić. Camera: Alexis Zabé. Editor: Arttu Salmi. Music: Anna Meredith. With: Lola Petticrew, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Leah Harvey, Arinzé ...
Janet Planet (2023)
Janet Planet: Directed by Annie Baker. With Zoe Ziegler, Luke Philip Bosco, June Walker Grossman, Abby Harri. In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet.
Hit Man Cast & Character Guide: Who Else Stars Alongside Glen Powell
Richard Linklater's Hit Man sports a strong cast, led perfectly by Glen Powell. In comparison to many of Linklater's other movies, Hit Man's cast is relatively small-scale.This could be because of the film's premise, which sees Glen Powell's titular Hit Man take on different aliases.Powell's eccentric personalities throughout the film mark a star turn for the actor and aids Hit Man in becoming ...
Morning Edition for June, 5 2024 : NPR
by Geoff Brumfiel, Michel Martin. 3 min. Searching for a song you heard between stories? We've retired music buttons on these pages. Learn more here. Hear the Morning Edition program for Jun 05, 2024.

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