It had all the attributes that could make for a really good movie, a promising opening, and a well known cast; but My Mom's New Boyfriend was missing something major a good story and a sense of humour.
Heading up the cast is Antonio Banderas an acceptable leading man with a variety of blockbuster movies firmly under his belt. Then you have Meg Ryan once one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, to give familiar ground Colin Hanks (son of Tom) whose father worked with Meg on a number of movies weighs in as a nice but younger replacement. And finally you have the wondrous Selma Blair a familiar actress crying out for a leading role, in a movie of meaning. This was not the movie for Selma.
Sometimes known as Homeland Security, My Mom's New Boyfriend is a movie so painful to watch knowing the stars history in acting, had you not known anything about the actors you could easily believe this was their first movie. This is the sort of movie you might find in your local bargain bin, on late night television, or free with the most downbeat seedy Sunday paper you can think of.
Ryan begins the movie in a fat suit as Marty the mother of Henry (Hanks). When Henry heads off to University she has a revelation about her life. Several years later and Henry returns home to find a hot and sexy woman laid by the pool; obviously rather dull Henry has not been home for a major amount of years and has a rather poor communication with his mother, because the hot lady by the pool is his mother, Ryan now free of fat suit. From this rather unbelievable plot area things in this movie go from bad to worse.
I really cannot describe how bad this movie is, what I knew was that while I watched it I found myself becoming more and more annoyed, if annoyed is the correct word, maybe disgusted would be a better word.
I had the unusual circumstance of seeing the movie prior to seeing the first trailer; this is how fresh the movie was from the press at the time of viewing. Had I seen the trailer first I certainly would not have watched the movie, because rather unusually instead of finding all the best bits of the movie in the trailer, all the worst bits where chucked in; as I watch the trailer again I have to ask if anyone really wanted the movie to be seen.
I need to point out rather quickly that the actors are not at fault in anyway other than excepting to appear in this turkey of a movie. Each of the four leads performs well, Banderas as the art/jewel thief won over by the beautiful Ryan, who I must add looks stunning. In a kind of double edged sword approach boyfriend and girlfriend couple Hanks and Blair are a pair of FBI types who are already investigating Banderas' characters crimes, without knowledge of the impending relationship between he and Henry's mother. All the characters do what they are meant to do, it's almost like they are overplaying fully aware of the commitment they made when signing to the movie, and I guess to pull out would prove expensive, just look at what happened when Kim Basinger pulled out of Boxing Helena, financially it ruined the actress, and Helena like this movie is a relatively low budget offering.
I think the biggest failure of the movie is that it does not even seem to try and be funny, but obviously is designed with humour in mind. About the funniest moments happen in the first five minutes, and that's Ryan in a fat suit and Banderas left in a glass cage by his fellow thieves. Beyond that I really cannot find any humour anywhere.
You could say I was alone in my views, some rather excited work colleagues were invited by myself to see the movie, there was a bit of a buzz because none of them had ever seen a movie prior to release, I think they thought they were being invited to see the next big thing, although I had not played up the movie as other than the cast I knew nothing about it. Forty five minutes in, my colleagues and I by general agreement, and to use a stronger word "Disgust" walked away from the movie, unable to tolerate any more. In a party of four, often one might find a movie acceptable; we all found the movie equally as offensive. When I asked for a sound bite if you like of the movie one replied "S*t!" another replied "F*g s*t!"
I saw the movie some months ago, believing it would never see the light of day and judging on the views of others. But to my horror I noticed today in an e-mail of upcoming releases this title, and rather unsurprisingly First Look as the releasing company. First Look have a tendency to disappoint with their releases often casting fallen from grace actors in roles to achieve higher audiences.