Mean Mother

Mean Mother (1974)

* (out of 4)

Another patch job from director Al Adamson and producer Sam Sherman. This here was originally a Spanish movie directed by León Klimovsky but Sherman bought the U.S. rights but when he realized it wouldn't sell, he hired Adamson to shoot new footage and turn it into a Blaxploitation film. The story centers on two Vietnam men, one white and one black (Clifton Brown), who go AWOL and get into a life of crime, which adds up to nothing. Whenever you take one film, edit it down and then try to add new scenes around it, more often than not you're going to be left with some incomprehensible mess, which MEAN MOTHER certainly is. With that said, I've actually seen worst from Adamson who was used to mixing and matching movies since it was something he'd do throughout his career. I think what keeps this film slightly entertaining is the fact that both films are just so different yet seeing them together just as a unique and weird feel to it. I will also admit that I thought Adamson did a decent job at mixing the two together and especially when you consider how this type of thing should never be done and especially with these two stories. Still, the film is a complete mess with the typical low-budget bad acting, bad direction and bad cinematography. This is to be expected whenever the director's main job is to get a film in the can for cheap and not to be trying to make some sort of masterpiece. As awful as the film is there's still something that unique to the work of Adamson and it rings true here. I don't think anyone would consider him a good filmmaker but you've got to at least give him credit for trying anything to try and bring a film together.