Mother's Day is by turns wonderful and frustrating, a true '..but...' film, e.g. this is occasionally nearly brilliant, but... The first third is terrific: fast-paced and edgy, with the manic unpredictability of the bank-robbing psychos and tight direction creating a real grip on the viewer. However, once the mother (a masterful Rebecca De Mornay) turns up and settles in, the momentum falters and a couple of narrative mis-choices (such as the pathetic nail-gun attack) undermine the seriousness and tension, as increasing daftness sets in and gender issues veer so wildly that it seems like the impending tornado in the movie (which never materialises) has hit the screenplay. Nevertheless, Mother's Day is an effectively old-fashioned home-invasion potboiler with pleasingly unpleasant physical gore effects and a lot of terrific performance work by a talented cast amongst the histrionics (Warren Kole and Shawn Ashmore in particular) . The film does manage to pull off one unique 'punishment' which - as members of the audience started to realise what was about to happen - got a strong and vocal reaction before, during and after its on-screen action!
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