Mother of Tears
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.70 You Save: $10.23 (69%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.25 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Mother of Tears
Movie Review: Oh My...
Summary: 3 Stars
Which pretty much sums this up. I've never felt compelled to write a review, and as a writer with a number of books on Amazon with varying reviews, I tend not to pay too much attention, but this was an important film to me in many respects-the emphasis being on "was."
I write at night, and religiously watch all of Argento's works at least 3-4 times a year to keep myself entertained. I consider the man a genius, and even thanked him in acknowledgments in one of my books for keeping me so entertained through the years. I had been awaiting this film for several decades, admittedly with unrealistically high expectations but always in the hope that the brilliance and cinematic flair that marked so much of Argento's work would again resurface. Now, after 3 viewings, I am forced to admit that the film is not only a disappointment but is easily outshone by any other number of his works. My problem stems not from Asia Argento's performance, which was adequate, but rather from the film's look and from its plot. I would have loved an attempt to stylistically recreate some of the master set pieces from Suspiria or Inferno, the deep saturation of color, the flowing camera work of Tenebrae, the Grand Guignol atmosphere of a house of evil. It was all missing here. A few colored lights, a few filters, a few dolly shots, and more concentration on the house in Rome as a center of evil, with a malignant atmosphere-any of these things would have gone some distance in setting a tone that matched the first two parts of the trilogy. Critics of Argento like to argue his lack of plotting, but certainly the first two parts were strong in the vital issue of relating a story-and I wonder how much, if any, input Daria Nicolodi may (or may not) have had with this new film, as one suspects her grasp of the magic that so made the earlier films come to life might have helped immensely here.
So many missed opportunities, and even the echoes of previous films-of the pit of human remains from Phenomenon, of Varelli's book from Inferno-seemed pedestrian; I even thought I sensed nods to La Chiesa and to Torso, and it pains me to say that both are better, more satisfying films than this work. The only consolation is Dario's mention of a possible prequel-something I can only hope he does, and does by slavishly returning to form, even if that form is thirty years old and he might regard it as outdated. There is a reason Suspiria is a classic (like Deep Red), and Argento still has a chance to do justice to the story as I know he can do.
The ultimate test, as a truly die-hard fan of Italian horror and of Argento in particular, is Will I keep the DVD? Will I watch it often? It's a yes to the first, but a no to the second, and it saddens me to say that I even find a film like Sleepless or Stendhal Syndrome superior to Mother of Tears. It is definitely worth a watch but a watch with lowered expectations.
Movie Review: Mother of Tears is no Suspiria - it's not even an Inferno for that matter
Summary: 3 Stars
After releasing a string of films in the early '70s, Italian writer/director Dario Argento made a huge splash in the horror world when he released the 1977 witch-filled cult classic Suspiria, as well as the subsequent 1980 sequel Inferno. Three decades - and a string of not-so-well received horror movies later, Argento is back with the finale to the trilogy begun by the two classic films. To grasp the full space of time between Suspiria and Mother of Tears, consider that the film's lead (Argento's own daughter, Asia Argento), was only two years old when the first film was released. Much has changed in the world of horror - and in Argento's directing style, since the late '70s.
And while Mother of Tears still packs a pretty decent punch when it comes to standard horror fare, Argento is no longer a leading voice in an expanding genre, instead he's a legend returning to his masterpiece a bit late in the game to see what he can salvage. Much like Stephen King's Dark Tower series finales or George Lucas' Star Wars prequels, Argento doesn't quite have the touch he had when he began to bring this final movie up to the level of its predecessors. In order to compensate for a general lack of continuity and relative drop in quality, Argento has settled back on what most horror directors start out with: excess gore and gratuitous nudity. Luckily, Argento manages to present both in impressive ways so though Mother of Tears is no Suspiria - it's not even an Inferno for that matter - it still stands on its own as a horror film.
The plot is pretty straightforward: an ancient urn is uncovered and sent to an art museum in Rome where American art student Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento, with an obvious Italian accent) is working. Sarah and a coworker proceed to unwittingly unleash an "unimaginable evil" by opening the urn. Destruction and mayhem descends upon the city and Sarah is called upon (by her mother's spirit) to realize the hidden power within herself and to confront the powerful Mother of Tears before she regains too much power.
Along the way a few unfortunates are disembowelled (one choked with her own intestines in the goriest scene I've ever seen in a film) and many others are murdered. There are enough scenes of well-done violence for Argento to remind viewers that he's still capable of orchestrating a fright-fest, but by the time the finale is reached - and the CGI emerges - it's clear that Argento's budget wasn't enough to pull the film along. Argento fans will rejoice that he's finally completed his trilogy, but those clueless to the history behind Mother of Tears may find themselves wondering what the fuss is about in this fairly standard B horror movie.
Movie Review: La Terza Madre
Summary: 3 Stars
LA TERZA MADRE (or MOTHER OF TEARS) is the third and final film in Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy. Dario's daughter Asia Argento stars in the film as Sarah Mandy, an American student working in a museum in Rome, Italy. Rome is the last city where the last witch Mother of Tears resides in.
When an ancient urn is located, it is sent to the museum in Rome where Sarah and her boyfriend Michael (Adam James) works. Unbeknownst to them, Sarah and her co-worker Giselle (the stunning Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni) breaks the seal to the urn and unleashes an unspeakable evil. That evil is the last and final witch Mater Lachrymarum (Moran Atias). With her powers restored, she and her followers plagues the city of Rome with violence, murder, rapes, and suicides. To say that all heck broke loose would be putting it mildly. When Sarah finds out about her family ties to the Mother of Tears witch, it is up to her to destroy her once and for all.
The violence was over the top and a visual eye candy for those who love their horror films to be gory and bloody. The first ten minutes of the film was an indication of what was to come through out the film. For me, the violence was a bit much but I will give Dario credit for giving his victims an interesting and colorful death. It is easily one of the most memorable death scenes I have ever seen which is a good thing. The performances were campy and over the top but then again what performances aren't in the horror genre? Still I did like the camp value in the actors' performances especially Udo Kier, who makes a cameo appearance in the film. As much as I liked the film score, film score was obnoxious and distracting. Sometimes less is more, and I think this film would have benefitted from that concept. For all the gore in the film, it was not bad in comparison to the stupid anti-climatic ending which left me thinking "is that it?!". I wished Dario could have come up with a better scenerio than what he did in the film. Another flaw with the film is the scenes between Sarah and her deceased mother (Asia's real life mother). They were unbelievably corny and too Obi-Wan Knobi-ish. And if Sarah was supposed to be a witch, why was she only given the power of invisibility? Talk about lame.
I may not be into horror films as I once was as a teenager but to see a Dario Argento film in the theatre and not on dvd was a real visual treat for my eyes. MASTER OF TEARS is definitely not for the casual horror fan. The death scenes depicted in the film is graphic and cringe-worthy at times. For fans of today's brand of horror fans or Dario Argento's films, this is definitely worth seeing in the theatre if you can.
Movie Review: 3 Stars
"Mother of Tears" does not have the arresting genius of "Suspiria" or "Inferno"--Argento has become far too gore obsessed for that--but, for all that, it has some echoes of those two masterpieces that make it worth watching. You'll have to get through babies thrown off bridges by mothers under the spell of the "true" Mother of Tears (who lacks any mystery at all); and assorted scenes of fetid corpses passionately making out.But any movie where Udo Kier plays a priest has to be seen to believed, and boy, this movie has to be seen to be believed. Argento has the audacity of the Marquis de Sade/Edgar Allan Poe hyped up on occultism and imaginative amphetamines.
The plot, what there is of it, goes roughly like this: when the opening of a long-buried urn containing several ancient artifacts occurs, an apocalyptic plague is unleashed on Rome (of all places!) and everything gets buck wild. Sarah (Asia Argento) is an art student, of course, and happens to receive the accursed urn. In a simultaneously amusing and horrifying scene, a fellow student who sees the urn is butchered by two mysterious gloved hands and a monkey--a real monkey--who jumps on her head and just won't let go.
There are some visually brilliant moments here, recalling the hypnotic magic of the first two (the Vatican's courtyard turns into "Dawn of the Dead" when Sarah's real mother, her "spirit guide" through this distasteful ordeal appears) and her trips through apocryphal alchemical libraries are haunting as always.
My big issue with this is how half a**ed Argento portrayed the Mother of Tears. She's just this lady with wild hair, naked, who stands in hell screaming with corpses surrounding her. Part of what made the first two films so hypnotic was the concealment of the head honchos' true identity. The ending was a total disappointment, with Sarah spearing the Mother and everything becoming right again. Then, after crawling out of a sewer, she laughs, just as Jessica Harper did in the first film after destroying Mater Suspiriorum. But the sense of pressure and terror isn't there. Argento lives in that idiosyncratic world of the true artist, and he never realized that this series is what more or less makes and breaks a certain percentage of his fan base. Still, he gives us ashes of the supernatural terror he delivered in the first two, and for that we must thank him...kinda.
Movie Review: Argento's Comedy of Terrors
Summary: 3 Stars
Dario Argento is the greatest director in the entire horror genre. There's no debating it, the films speak for themselves. But, since 1998, when the man unleashed his worst creation (PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, hands down), his output has been shaky and there've been undeniable misfires. This is important to know because, for this period in Argento's career, MOTHER is a step forward. While not as good as his first season contribution to the MASTERS OF HORROR series; JENIFER, MOTHER takes Argento's new style (kind of a Lucio Fulci version of an INDIANA JONES film, especially the LAST CRUSADE installment) of archaically grotesque, adverturistic, anarchic comedy into much more overt areas, causing me to laugh out loud several times. No, it doesn't seem to be played for comedy, but a truly good horror comedy doesn't have to play silly music and have one-liners to be funny. But rather, Argento sends MOTHER so over the top, it becomes pure comedy. With elements like Udo Kier playing some kind of Priest, a cult of trendy witches hanging out at airports and terrorizing the boarding and disembarking passengers by shrieking at them, and mothers throwing their babies over into rivers... Get ready to laugh. Even though it's not funny, it is anyway. What other purpose does that score serve whatsoever? Big and boring orchestral numbers only highlight the absurdity, Cgi creations that actually made me smile rather than groan, the always stylish sex symbol Asia Argento (the director's daughter, again disrobing in one of his films) is completely hypnotic to watch, and her mother (and the director's ex-wife) Daria Nicolodi puts in an amusing appearence as a telepathic spirit. Hell, if nothing else, the film is better and more enjoyable overall, than John Carpenter's apocalyptic turkeys PRINCE OF DARKNESS and IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. That factor alone makes the film worth checking out. If you've already sat through those, you'll suffer less watching this. Some of it is pure retread, and feels like Argento trying to be Lucio Fulci (clearly his inferior), but it's bizarrely mesmeric somehow.