Rating: 
Summary: Oedipus wrecks
Review: a must for Albert Brooks fans and those with "overbearing" matriarchs; everyone else will have to settle for the sporadic one-liners (on the unlikely prospect of his ex-wife fleeing the state: "She's divorcing me - she has nothing against the land."); as mother and son, Debbie Reynolds and Brooks are adorable together; script won the New York film critics honor that year.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful comedy that mothers & their children will enjoy!
Review: Albert Brooks has the kind of comedic style that sneaks up on you. He is the straight man delivering zingers at every comment. Debbie Reynolds is unforgettable as the Mother we all have and hope we will not become. There is even great acting from the supporting actors in this film. It will let you know what an "orange foot" really tastes like! :)
Rating: 
Summary: Mom and son still bickering after all these years
Review: Albert Brooks is trying to figure out why all of his marriages are failures, and his tentative conclusion is that it is his mother's fault. Mom, Debbie Reynolds, was always hyper critical of him. Therefore, he is a mess with women. Actually not a bad analysis. It avoids Freudianism, which is off in the clouds somewhere as it is, and gets right down to truth. If your parents constantly put you on the defensive, it is bound to unavoidably impact on your later relationships. Even with this insight, I didn't like the movie. The first half is too annoying. There is too much bickering between mother and son. The jokes aren't funny. How do you make a movie about an unpleasant topic without annoying people? Well, Albert Brooks fell into that trap. I can't stand all that bickering. By the end it got a lot better, as the mother and son started to relate better and learn about each other. But that was too late for me. I can't stand bickering in real life, and I don't want to be subjected to it in the movies.
Rating:
Summary: If only every neurosis were so simply cured
Review: Albert Brooks plays John, a 40-something science fiction writer who decides he will never be able to have a successful relationship with a woman until he figures out his relationship with the first woman in his life. So he moves into his mother's (Debbie Reynolds) house and reconstructs his old bedroom. They spend their time gently bickering over grocery shopping and the strange characters that appear in John's books, embarrassing each other in front of strangers, and exacerbating the rivalry between John and his brother. Eventually, he manages to get the beginning of a realization that Mother is also a person with a life of her own.
Rating:
Summary: Not my favorite Brooks, but still worth seeing
Review: Albert Brooks, in my opinion, has not made a bad film (a claim that not even Ingmar Bergman can make). He continues that streak with "Mother", a movie you should not miss. (Note: I have not yet seen "The Muse".)In all his films, Brooks plays a character who doesn't quite know himself. Here, he plays a twice-divorced writer who questions why his relationships with women never seem to work. As a bold experiment he decides to move back in with his mother (played by Debbie Reynolds) to see if he can find some answers. The premise is filled with comic possibilities, and Brooks mines some of them. There's a giddy excitement when Brooks tells his disbelieving brother of his plan. And there's a terrific scene where he redecorates his room as it existed in the 70's, complete with "Barbarella" and Jimi Hendrix posters. But the video is not merely silly. There's a very serious undercurrent as Brooks finds out why his mom has always seemed more critical of him than his brother. And why he has gravitated towards the wrong women. "Mother" is well writter by Brooks and co-writer Monica Johnson (they shared the Best Screenplay Award from the prestigious New York Film Critics). Part of why I think I like this film so much is mother/son relationships are hardly rare and yet (for some reason) there doesn't seem to be a lot of films about them.
Rating:
Summary: Risking Mom
Review: Albert performs his self-absorbed/deprecating L.A. weasel/writer schtick. The theme song, twisted from a classic, is mighty cute. Many of the gags fail. But Debi Reynolds (Mom) is genuinely interesting, as permitted, & Brooks allows himself a few straighter-than-usual moments, particularly as he discovers/peruses Mom's pre-Mom writings. Brooks is not stupid or sentimental here, makes an appropriate distinction honest vocation & hack career (Dad had it no better than Mom, usually, when we liked Ike? Often worse?) by adding a superficially respectable but finally sad/neurotic "successful" younger son/brother to the mix. Mom does NOT necessarily love her baby boy best, though the Albert character IS relentlessly difficult. "Mother" doesn't conclude with the full-blown marriage &/or NEAT mother/son reconciliation (considerable confusion about WHO is blocked/frustrated/angry remains, as it should) a more NORMAL high comedy might provide. It ends (before the closing theme spoils the titles) a bit better than that. Won't spoil, but will recommend a good book that treats the real subject of the movie, something about risking (or not) human expression, the spilling of the [family] secrets, with more grace/humor, less nervousness/wit. If you enjoy[ed] "Mother" at all & like to read, DO try the funny/sweet/smart novel "Yo!" by Julia Alvarez.
Rating:
Summary: Looking in the mirror
Review: Almost every guy in the world will be able to relate to this movie. No, most mothers won't be as exaggerated and ridiculous as the character Debbie Reynolds plays in this hilarious Albert Brooks comedy, but the idea is the same; you love your mother, and she loves you, but the little arguments and fights you get into are inevitable as well. All of these aspects are portrayed in an extremely funny Brooks script.
Brooks continues to be an underrated comic genius, and after seeing movies like this, I'm left wondering why he doesn't have a much bigger following than he does.
Rating: 
Summary: Albert Brooks is a real Genius.
Review: And Debbie Reynolds is also brilliant. This movie had my friends and I laughing so hard it almost hurt. This isn't the first Brooks film to do so. If you haven't seen Lost in America you are missing a real classic. His humor is sort of exclusive, I mean some people don't seem to "get it". But the amount of laughs is almost continuous.
Rating:
Summary: Debbie Reynolds IS the universal Mom!
Review: Debbie Reynolds should have won the 1996 Academy Award for "Best Actress" for this film. I saw it when it opened in theaters with my own mother, and as the situations unfolded, watching Miss Reynolds' performance, I couldn't help thinking, "My God, they're twins!"
Rating:
Summary: Debbie Reynolds IS the universal Mom!
Review: Debbie Reynolds should have won the 1996 Academy Award for "Best Actress" for this film. I saw it when it opened in theaters with my own mother, and as the situations unfolded, watching Miss Reynolds' performance, I couldn't help thinking, "My God, they're twins!"
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