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Serial Mom on DVD (1994)

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Average rating: 66%
13266201518311
3.0
from 878 members
 
Starring: Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, Suzanne Somers, Mink Stole, Matthew Lillard, Scott Wesley
Director: John Waters
Studio: PATHE DISTRIBUTION
Run time: 89 mins
Certificate: 18
Collections: 100 Feisty Females
User collections: Trash fans rejoyce, wierd and wonderful
Genres: Comedy
Languages: English
Released: 30/06/2003

Brief synopsis of Serial Mom

Happy homemaker Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) has a charmed life--a beautiful suburban home, a successful dentist husband (Sam Waterston), and two normal teenagers, Misty (Ricki Lake) and Chip (Matthew Lillard). But she also has a good deal of underlying rage waiting to escape....Just be sure to follow her rules: be polite to your neighbour, always recycle, rewind your videotapes, and never, ever wear white shoes after Labour Day. When one of her son's teachers speaks disparagingly of the boy at a parent-teacher conference, Bev runs the instructor over in the school parking lot. Suddenly she has an insatiable taste for murder. Six homicides later, the cops get wise to her crimes, which are committed with weapons ranging from a leg of lamb to a fireplace poker. A media frenzy ensues, turning an unrepentant Beverly into a media celebrity.
A serial-killer comedy mixed with courtroom-drama social satire, the raunchy SERIAL MOM was John Waters' return to R-rated fare after the sweet-natured duo of HAIRSPRAY and CRY-BABY. Suburban life is duly skewered here as the serenity of Beverly's upper-middle-class surroundings are continually sullied by her comedically disturbing acts of violence. Turner appears to relish the opportunity to play such an over-the-top role, and the usual Baltimore-based supporting players make welcome appearances.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 3 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Kathleen Turner is the archetypal cheerful Baltimore mother unless someone disrupts her orderly life. Then she turns into the homicidal housewife from hell! Didn't rewind your videotape? Wearing white shoes after Labour Day? Watch out! Cult director John Waters's darkly funny look at the murderer-as-celebrity phenomenon trashes American family values and sends up splatter movies while mining each target for maximum screwball outrage. While not as perverse as some of Waters's previous bad-taste epics, this Doris Day goes Psycho comedy still retains his trademark shocking edge. A truly tacky delight.

Time Out

Housewife Beverly Sutphin (Turner) seems to enjoy a life of domestic bliss. She has a loving husband (Waterston), two... Read more on www.timeout.com

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Mildly amusing one-sick-joke movie, given a little spark by Turner's comic turn as the killer mother.

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsJust don't annoy this lady!

gratton from Hants , 22/02/2004

With a cast that throws themselves body and soul into this send up of the great American ideal of happy families this film really goes for the jugular vein in humour, as surely as Mom goes for the jugular of anyone who crosses her!

The film also takes a side swipe at media excesses, people who will not recycle, collectors of cheap tat and more.

The plot soon becomes unreal but the pace is so fast that one is carried along and able to overlook the shortcomings.

Funny, delightful and with just the right amount of horror ... see it!

  9 out of 10 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 stars

BlueGirlFriday from East Yorkshire , 25/04/2004

I loved this film it was so far fetched it was unreal. The cast were brilliant Kathleen Turner the phycho mother who killed anyone who annoyed her, Ricki Lake played the daughter and a young Matthew Lillard (Scream, Thirteen Ghosts)

played the son. This is a must see movie. She is eventually sent to court where she ends up representing her self does she get off or doesn't she? Watch and see!!

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsSerial mom

Christopher Godfrey from Exeter England Uk , 01/05/2006

Enjoyed this film, was given to as a gift. Mom has the right idea !

  4 out of 7 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsFAB!

A customer from London , 01/11/2005

Has to be one of my favourite films of all time! Kathleen Turner is great, she is truely scary....Can you imagine you own mother to be like her! Watch it, you are sure to enjoy......

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 2 starsWeird and Boring

A customer from Grays , 17/01/2008

This was a weird movie which felt kind of like reading a comic / watching a stage play / watching a bunch of 1970s TV commercials - I know, I don't understand that either.

If you are patient enough to watch this to the end, there are some court scenes which prove to be mildly interesting. A couple of funny moments, several gory but not-to-be-taken-seriously scenes due to stabbings and one kid's obsession with horror movies.

Other than the above, not much else.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsSerial mom

Christopher Godfrey from Exeter England Uk , 01/05/2006

Enjoyed this film, was given to as a gift. Mom has the right idea !

  4 out of 7 people found this review helpful
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