User reviews

Yet another vanity project for Lopez, this time as an action hero with fur coats, and the same hair and makeup in pretty much every scene, even if the scenes are 12 years apart. This film needed a more versatile actress, one that would lose the long hair locks and have it messed up, one that could handle - and look convincing, with some dirt and scratches on her face, one who can show some facial expressions relevant to each scene, not the constant "ya I'm tough" expressionless look and tone.

Next we have a story that took three prolific writers who've written some great films and series in the past, to come up with a monotonous, repetitive, cliched and underwhelming screenplay with bits from many better films in this genre. The poorly paced nearly two-hour runtime felt much longer with many dragged out, unnecessary and predictable scenes. You know exactly what's going to happen, and you waste time watching it happen stretched out for so long, you can just fast-forward and not miss a thing. Top that all off with a director that decided to use a blurred fish-eye lens effect in some scenes, I thought I was having migraine episodes.

Had a more convincing actress been cast, it may have made the dull filmmaking a little more bearable, but combined all together, it's not the gift any mom would want for Mother's Day. It's a pass from me, and a very generous 6/10, all for the young Lucy Paez as Zoe, who was the only one that shined in this dull action thriller.

The trailer is deceiving.

It led me to think I was gonna watch something to the tune of NOBODY. Instead we get this bad-ass lady (by way of narration by a law enforcement officer as to her past accolades) who does bad ass things early in the movie and suddenly, seemingly it all finished. Then soon audiences are reminded oh wait another bad guy still has his portion to get through.

Plotholes, cliches, mentorship in badassery to her kid that doesn't pay off and just poor writing makes for this incoherent action flick.

Sure Lopez has done some (better) action flicks in the past but this won't be the one she will be remembered by.

Jessica Chastain does a better job, Jennifer Garner, heck even Michelle Rodriguez too at being an onscreen bad-ass chick.

The only badass scene here really is when she rode that HD 48.

Such a dissapointment.

It seems like every six months we get a regurgitated Netflix "original " film with a seasoned empowered female actress fighting off perpetrators. It's everything you've seen before. Can't imagine even the demographic it's aimed at will find anything new to enjoy about this. Netflix continues to dumb down its "original" content . At least conceive some kind of a ambitious script or do something. They literally think they can just put an actress In a C level John Wick rip off script and it will work out every time. At this point I don't think JLo star power is enough to overcome this blatant cliché offering.

I'm surprised that so many people dislike this movie so much. It wasn't AMAZING but it was fairly entertaining throughout with some beautiful scenery and lots of action.

The acting wasn't bad and we had no problem following or getting into the storyline. Some parts were a little "yeah as if", but that can be said of almost any action movie.

Considering how many terrible movies are on streaming services right now I dont think this movie deserves the level of low ratings it is recieving.... It wasn't my favorite, but I genuinely wanted to see how it ended (instead of turning it off 15 mins in like so many other movies).

The mother tells the story of a hardened ex war veteran on the run from a dangerous past lover, only to be forced out of action to protect the daughter she was asked to abandon.

The big issue with this movie is it feels like it is straight of out 1993 without any 90s charm. It is filled with cheesy "poetic" one liners, uninteresting and indestructible characters, and a lame uninspired ending. The bruises shown don't match the violence we see.

The pacing is fine and the actors do what they can with what they are given. Jennifer Lopez is honestly acting her butt off in my opinion-the movie is just terrible and I only fault her for doing this movie in the first place. There are some really good action scenes, but also some that made me audibly laugh out loud. It wants to be grounded in reality sometimes but then takes us completely out of it at others. The lack of consistency is just one of many issues.

The crazy thing to me is I am just not sure how it took three writers to come up with this movie. It is uninspired, unoriginal and a another failure from Netflix.

The Mother

This is a movie we've all seen before. Clichéd and formulaic, The Mother rides lazily on action movies before it, without offering anything tangible or new to the genre, and it's such a shame that three prolific writers were involved in making the plot.

Jennifer Lopez's acting is good, but with the material she had to work with, it's a dud. Lucy Paez as Lopez's daughter is a revelatory performance, and this should be a career launcher; her facial mannerisms also remind me of Sydney Sweeney.

The Mother has nothing new to offer, but even with the cliches it's still a watchable flick.

5-6/10.

I Wouldn't have been surprised if Steven Segal just showed up and did a sit down flight scene with J-Lo.

It didnt take me long to realise the kind of film I was watching, and truthfully I only made it past the first act. Some scenes were straight up rip offs of other Hollywood films that did the same sequences much better. J-Lo got very annoying very quickly with her "Im a badass boss" attitude that didnt waiver long enough for me to get to know any other traits of her character. One straight face monotonous performance that got very cold very fast.

Netflix is smart, because they dont care about reviews, they know for a fact people are going to click on this film because its a click away, they know they will prolly make some money from this barely passable film.

This really wasn't a bad movie at all. It was full of action, they were even a couple parts that brought me to tears. I found it to be very entertaining, and I took it for what it was. No comparisons.

Honestly, there are very few movies like this so that is why I found it enjoyable.

Some of these people criticizing need to give credit where credit is due!

Please don't get me wrong, I rated it an 8, because of course it was a little predictable; which was to be expected by the title and the synopsis. The acting wasn't terrible, and her character was believable.

I am not a Jennifer Lopez superfan or anything, but it really wasn't that bad.

The basic storyline is a little bit out there, but not totally incredible, as some reviewers accuse it of being. I don't agree with those who say J-Lo can't act, and this role may have been what she needed to show her abilities. She just isn't portraying an unbelievable badass as some of the younger stars routinely do these days, so viewers looking for that will be disappointed.

The villains are a little cartoonish and the portrayals of their activities aren't credible, I agree, but J-Lo's role isn't too bad. The connections between her and an FBI agent who somehow stayed in touch with the Zoe character are thin and not the best way to reduce the casting demands, but this is a movie-length feature, not a series. The extended connections between characters that could be developed in a limited series had to be truncated to fit the budget. So it goes.

All of the needlessly vicious ratings came from reviewers who can't spell or express their views coherently. This isn't a terrible movie, and it isn't a great movie, but it's not bad enough that I would try to discourage anyone from giving it a try. Reviewers who do that mystify me.

As "The Mother" (2023 release; 117 min.) opens, J-Lo's character, later known as "The Mother" is highly pregnant and being interviewed in an FBI safehouse in Indiana, but things go wrong quicky, and she barely makes it out alive. She delivers a baby girl but for safety reasons, the girl is placed in the care of an adoptive family. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is an almost all=female production, directed by Niki Caro ("Mulan"), written by Misha Green ("Lovecraft Country", and produced by and starring Jennifer Lopez. J-Lo returns to her "bad-ass" persona, playing a one-woman army who will stop at nothing to protect her daughter. The movie is plot-heavy so the less said about that, the better. I will say this: I was genuinely shocked how solid and entertaining this movie turned out to be. The first hour is almost perfect, with perfect pacing, lots of well-staged action scenes, and an overall gritty and determined atmosphere. The movie's second hour is not quite as solid, but certainly not bad either. Joseph Fiennes is a decent "baddie". Bottom line: I was more than pleasantly surprised by this movie. Perhaps I started watching this with low expectations, but who cares.

"The Mother" has been pushed in the weeks leading up to its release. It started streaming on Netflix this weekend. If you are in the mood for a solid action-packed and gritty movie, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

The storyline is one of the usual action thrillers, but it's a well made and crisp movie, most of which is picturized on the protagonist aka the mother aka Jennifer Lopez, who impresses to the T.

She plays a practical non-empathatic loner with superb survival techniques. Living in the shadow of her past of being in military forces and then in arms cartel, she lives all alone in an old cabin in an ice capped Alaska region and hunts animals for food.

She bears all of this hardship to stay out of radar of her two ex arms ring associates cum lovers who are presently out for her blood.

She sacrificed the joys of motherhood and agreed to put her daughter in foster care, right from birth, so that she stays safe.

However, when upon turning 12, the daughter is no more safe, the mother comes out of her seclusion and leaves no stone unturned in destroying the enemies and ensuring her child's safety, not once but twice.

Before the second attack, she even trains her daughter the survival techniques required to stay alive and safe.

The direction is crisp. The production designing is impressive. The cinematography of the vast ice capped region is beautiful.

And so is the mother-daughter bond during training and henceforth. It's different from the usual mushy ones.

Jennifer Lopez looks sharp, fit and realistic in combat scenes. She ably conveys controlled emotions for her daughter upon meeting and spending time with her, only after she has turned 12!!

She doesn't resort to hysteria or unnecessary dramatics or any other emotion display that is impractical for a hardened loner assassin.

Overall, the movie is a good tribute to the recently concluded Mother's Day.

This is not the best movie ever made, but it's definitely worth a watch. It's an action movie for sure, but for some reason the writers felt the need to add a child to the mix. I don't see why the bad guys couldn't come after the good guy without there being a child to protect. That is unless you can't envision a woman being a badass on her own account, then of course she must be maternal.

Jennifer Lopez does a better job than I thought she would, and definitely plays a tough guy very well. I hope she plays this kind of role again, but maybe without having to be maternal next time. Just being a regular assassin is enough for Jason Bourne, it should be enough for Lopez. But aside from that, sure, it's a decent watch. Not awesome, but not horrible. Just a regular action movie. For those of us that like action movies, it's worth a bag of popcorn.

Take that in every way that it is meant:

1. WHY, J-Lo; WHY do you keep making movies?

2. Why, oh why J-Lo, out of all available actresses?

3. Why J-Lo as a viewing choice?

Do you know of anyone, ever, who you can recall saying: "Hey, let's go catch the new J-Lo flick that just came out". I don't.

There was a television show I caught once with J-Lo starring, and it was not bad. It wasn't very memorable either, however, since I don't remember what it was called. A FILM star, no matter how many films she is in, she will never be. (Of course, just watch her win some acting award in twenty years and prove me wrong). :)

The best description for this latest cliched borefest, The Mother, would best be: FORCED. Forced plot; forced acting; forced self-funded(?) vanity project to stay relevant? Not sure about the last one, but my head can't wrap around how it is that she is still cast in films.

Lastly, I know it sounds as if I am placing the entire blame for this film not being particularly watch-worthy on J-Lo's shoulders, and that is not what I intended. The film drops the ball in almost every area.

Sorry :(, but this one is a suggested 'skip'.

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Oh, and lastly, those who are downvoting those of us who are properly rating this a 4-or-below, REALLY need to go watch the TV SHOW "Silo" so as to let Rebecca Ferguson treat them to a Master Class in what ACTING should be.

This might not be the best film ever made, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was an interesting twist on the 'assassin gets drawn back in to their old life' genre. The acting wasn't exactly RADA, but it was sound and the scenery alone was worth a few stars on the rating scale. J-Lo gave a decent account of the physical side of the role and the relationship with her daughter was engaging. I found myself rooting for the daughter as she grew closer to her mother and whilst the end was fairly inevitable, it was a nice story. I don't see how people can rate anything as a '1', but this film was certainly worth a watch.

Look...people write these reviews about movies like this one, as if they have to be Oscar worthy. Well...they don't. I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. The story line is very familiar and yes, it has probably been done two dozen times. However, that doesn't mean it has to be a bad movie just because we all know the plot...and even the outcome. I mean...what do people expect, all the good people to die in the end? Yeah right, that has never happened in ANY movie. And people love to write, "so predictable". Well...how many action movies aren't predictable? I mean really! I really enjoyed this movie and thought it had just a tad bit more to offer than your typical, "kidnapped child revenge movie".

Such horrible acting, J Lo especially, has not been seen in a while on tv screens. Also, whoever directed this amateur flick needs to give me my money back for time wasted. I wanted to give up on this amateur-job after 15 minutes, but I lasted about 50 all-together. When JLo pulled her daughter with one hand onto a speeding bike on a wet road, which is not possible without loosing balance and trashing yourself on the ground, i yelped in agony and despair. Such cheap action flicks full of "glitches" and general disconnect from real life situations, should be banned from production as they do nothing else but insult the audience and alienate the actors. Avoid at all cost.

I don't know why but, since a decade now, and more than fifteen years after Luc Besson's NIKITA, back in 1990, no one can deny that there legions, batches of action flicks showing female fighters, fist, gun fighters. Women playing men's roles. Of course this kind of scheme was common in the American Indie industry during the seventies, remember the Grindhouse movies, destined for drive in audiences, Grindhouse or psychotronic, exploitation features taking advantage to the women's liberation movements that spread all over the country and even beyond.... Hollywood could not affaord to approve, so the independant movies did it instead. And also women's prison movies. It stopped during the eighties, for one decade, then it came back for a short while before appearing again since the 2010s and especially since the Harvey Weinstein affair and the feminist fashion that rapidly followed,spreading all over the world. Only now, the quality is a bit better, with once in a while a prestigious cast; here Jenny Lopez or a couple of years ago Jessica Chastain - AVA.... This movie is surprise less but efficient, a excellent time waster despite an expected ending.

Yep, it's a formula movie, but it's a formula that I enjoy. Jenny from the Block gives it her all and serves the genre as well as anyone, having first showed her mettle in this kind of thing in Enough. So refreshing to see a woman step into this kind of kick butt role. I've always thought that she's a better actress than she gets credit for, but I'm from the Bronx so I may be less than impartial. In any case this was as much fun (and better acted) as anything with Jason Statham, who I happen to like. And why should (the divine) Liam Neeson have all the fun? I've certainly seen worse movies on Netflix. My take: plenty entertaining.

It's a nice action movie, again I think all the hate is because is a woman and this woman is Jennifer Lopez and people just love to hate powerful women.

Is not a great movie, again is just entertainment, but I do think Jennifer Lopez did a great job and was good acting. The movie might have been a little long for my taste but I liked it.

If you are looking to just see an action movie to past the time, this is ok, there will be car chase, guns, blood, dead and some suspense, if you don't mind the main character is a women it will be fine, so give it a chance with the right expectations is not a great work of art.

Netflix pumps out these cheapo action films with 90s stars on a weekly basis now. The trailer for this one looked okay, so against my better judgement I thought I'd give it a chance. The red logo of shame rarely fails, but every now and then there's a watchable film. This isn't one of those.

The failings here are evident even on a production level. The entire movie is color graded badly, as if the editor didn't know how to grade log footage. Also the director of photography apparently thinks he's Zack Snyder and shot several scenes with a very short focal length, so that much of the shot is out of focus. Even wide shots.

What's worse is the use of digital edge blur and even vignettes in shots where it makes zero sense. For example there. For example 14 mins into the movie there is a shot of a hawk circling in the sky. Not only are the highlights crushed to hell, there is a giant vignette around the shot - in a shot of a blue sky. Several nature shots have this effect. It's absolutely idiotic and ruins what could have been some really nice scenic on location shots.

There's another scene with Jennifer Lopez and an agent in a car. They overlayed various reflections on the car window, but none of them make any sense. As the camera angles change mid conversation, you get entirely different reflections. They start at an airport, then there's woods on one side and a truck depot on the other, suddenly highrises, then the shot ends with them driving away from the airport again. It's like the digital effects artists were trolling the studio.

There are some good scenes and nice edits here, and Jennifer Lopez gives it her all. She's never had much of a range as an actress, but she tries her best with the bad material she's given.

The violence here is pretty brutal. Lots of headshots, a pregnant woman is stabbed in the belly with a hunting knife. Kudos to Lopez for going along with all that, but the violence never feels earned, since at no point does the script take the time to actually make us care about the characters.

Once again, it's frustrating how netflix cares so little about their productions. This could have been good, with better photography and a more refined script. Netflix doesn't suffer from lack of budget. A producer like Roger Corman or the Cannon people would have made cinematic gold with these budgets.