Netflix: Mother's Day (2023)
If you recently saw the Netflix action movie The Mother with Jennifer Lopez, you might have been a bit disappointed. Well, a very similar movie called Mother's Day has hit the platform, but this time it's from Poland and it feels a bit more like Taken.
In this movie, we are faced with a character by the name Nina, who is a secretive ex-NATO special operations agent, and she must use all her lethal skills to save her son who has been kidnapped by ruthless gangsters.
So the story is fairly thin on character development and even plot. And just like it said the synopsis, this woman named Nina had her biological son kidnapped from his adoptive parents in a ploy to get revenge by villains who have a vendetta against Nina from when she was in spec ops. Now, we don't know much about the son or really even too much about why Nina gave up custody of the boy, who's now an older teen.
And the bad guys are really bad guys who are into drug smuggling, weapons and human trafficking. And because they've kidnapped this young man, they're certainly worth rooting against in the story arc. The thing that works really well in this relatively short movie is the action.
So many of the action sequences are filmed as one shots, where we have the camera spinning and rotating around the characters as they battle it out. And so much of the time there aren't quick cuts in the editing, so we're able to see all of the fight choreography as it plays out. Sometimes slow-mo is used, but thankfully it's not over-utilized.
So when there are the moments the filmmakers use it, it ends up accentuating the actions rather than becoming distracting as an overused gimmick. We also get to see some top-down shots, and those are equally as fun and engaging to watch. And again, we get to see all of the well-planned out moves as the actors and the stunt people maneuver around the space.
And there's a bunch of excitement that's created in these action scenes. And more than a couple of times I was laughing out loud because of how abruptly violent some of the moves were. And there is some impressive violence that's displayed.
One fight in particular ends very poorly for a couple of dudes, and the camera, it is right there to show it all. But as awesome as a lot of the action sequences are, there are some that just fall short of impressive. And mainly those have to do with what we're not shown.
We'll see the beginning of an action, and then the scene will cut to after the battle has been resolved. And really, because the story isn't that deep or even interesting, I wanted to see every bit of action that the show could squeeze in. I really enjoyed the lead actress in this, Agnieszka Graczowska.
Although, she looks tired and bedraggled, getting progressively worn out, but also fed up with just having to work her way through the wretched hive of scum and villainy on her way to rescue her son. And while she shouldn't survive half of what she endures, she does effectively give off the vibe that she's barely hanging on and only just has so much left before she completely peters out. And this adds a bit of believability to the video game-like quality of some of the actions and the situations.
Now, the movie is only 94 minutes, so it is a really quick watch. But while the action is the high point, the story is the weakness. It feels like we're missing a lot of the plot, that there's a bunch more backstory that we've just not been made privy to.
And I'm OK with some mystery to keep the protagonist in enigma. But when she's just random ex-special forces mom who goes to get her son, it feels very much like a version of Taken, without some of the story beats to really engage us to care about all of the players. Something else that only semi-works for this are the villains themselves.
There are a bunch of henchmen we meet, and they're just nameless obstacles for Nina. But there are a couple of bosses that she goes up against, and one in particular becomes more comical than menacing. He walks around half the time in a pseudo-Borat type of swimsuit outfit, and it's like a glorified jockstrap.
And I think it's to make him look utterly deranged and psychotic. Even some of his mannerisms feel like they're channeling a bit of Alex DeLarge. But here, he's just more silly.
There are also some other antagonists in the story, and they too feel goofy rather than sinister or even scheming. So much of their inclusion felt out of place, and probably a lot of that has to do with the lack of character development and backstory. Maybe there is actually more on them, but we're just not made aware of it.
But as it stands, the bad guys are just kind of meh, and they don't bring much to the table in terms of tension or complexity. So overall, while Mother's Day is way better in terms of action than that other mother-themed movie on Netflix, the story suffers from a lack of connection with the players due to skimpy character development. The action is impressive, and the fight choreography becomes enveloping with the use of one-shots to place the audience right in the middle of the fray.
The film is quite a short watch and does great for a quick action movie, but in my opinion it's not not really worth being among the top of your watch list. Left to me, I'll give the Mother's day 2 out of 5 stars. The movie does contain some sex scenes, a bit of nudity, a bunch of profanity, and a ton of bloody violence.