2.5 stars (out of 5)
Old pro comedy director Garry Marshall’s latest cheese-drenched wannabe-crowd-pleaser forms a sort of trilogy (for the moment) with his Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve, and again features a series of interconnecting plot threads populated with name stars all at their icky-yukky best.
The title suggests that this is going to be all about Mums, sorry, Moms, and that’s precisely what we get, and the characters herein include: harried Sandy (Jennifer Aniston), who’s divorced from Henry (Timothy Olyphant) and realises that she’s soon going to have to share their two sons with his new and absurdly young and chirpy missus Tina (Shay Mitchell); sisters Jesse (Kate Hudson) and Gabi (Sarah Chalke), who have been long-alienated from their dreadful senior parents (Margo Martindale and Robert Pine); Kristin (Britt Robertson) and Zack (UK comedian Jack Whitehall), who have a baby daughter and are in love but Kristin can’t commit to marriage because of, um, clichés; grieving Bradley (Jason Sudeikis), whose life is basically frozen a year after the death of his military missus, as his daughters rebel; and a shopping network celeb named Miranda (Julia Roberts), who seems to have no real connection to the main plots… but probably does.
For a movie so women-focussed it’s odd that the main blokes here are the standouts, with Sudeikis pleasantly restrained and Whitehall almost funny (and there’s got to be an in-joke at play too, as his Zack is a struggling stand-up sort but in actuality Jack is a major comedic star back in the UK). But they, just like the girls, drown well before the end in a flood of treacly conservative goo, and you’re left wondering what notable calendar dates are left for Marshall to spin a dopey comedy around (and how long he can keep on doing this nonsense at the age of 81). Labor Day? That title’s taken. Groundhog Day? And again. Friday The 13th? Um… hey yeah, that could work!!!
I Wake Up Screening 