Rating: 
Summary: "Why can't you give me the respect....
Review: I can get from any stranger on the street?" Oh, this movie is the campiest thing I have ever seen. I give it 4 stars not for the acting, oh no, but because I laughed all the way through the movie. Although I am sure Dunaway's intentions were not to make us laugh, her acting is so over the top I found myself reaching for the comet cleanser to scrub my bathroom when she yelled "Scrub Christina, Scrub!" In all seriousness, the story line is sad and I feel for what the young Christina has to live with and go threw, but if you are looking for heart felt sympathies... read the book. If you want a laugh, watch this movie!
Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME
Review: When "Mommie Dearest" hit the theatres in 1981, I literally couldn't stop seeing it! During its initial run, I found myself going into the theatre unplanned, over & over again. I've never done that for any other movie. I've never enjoyed a movie as much as "Mommie Dearest". Hilarious, vivid, absurd, surreal, fabulous. Faye Dunaway is incredible. Diana Scarwid is wonderful. This movie is filled with unforgettable lines, such as Greg's farewell to Joan: "If you're acting, you're wasting your time. If you're not, you're wasting mine". And there are so many others! MOMMIE DEAREST IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning performances by Dunaway and Scarwid
Review: Say what you want, but I love this film. Faye Dunaway WAS Joan Crawford, and she just went for broke in this role. I don't think that the child abuse sequences were funny, but it did illustrate very well how insecure and deranged Crawford had to be. My favorite scene from the film is when Joan shouts at the teenaged Christina: "Why don't you give me the respect I deserve?" And Christina answers back through gritted teeth: "Because--I'm--not--one--of--your--fans! " And Joan just starts screaming like a banshee and attacks Christina...in the middle of an interview for REDBOOK Magazine, yet. The reporter had to break up the fight! Whoa! Very engaging film.
Rating:
Summary: Then Don't Push On It.
Review: This has been one of my absolute favorite films for years! The lines just race through the mind. And the scenes can be taken out of context for viginette fun! The wire hanger sequence. Everyone knows the scene. Joan (played to death by Faye Dunaway) beats poor little Christina with a coat hanger, while her brother (does anyone know why he was strapped into his bed as if he were being launched into orbit?) is only a few feet away. But the best moment in that sequence, in my opinion, is when Christina is sitting on the bathroom floor, covered in powdered cleanser, lost in her particular brand of pathos. Absolutely hysterical! Also, the tree. Look at Christina's face when Joan screams, "TINA! BRING ME THE AXE!" Would YOU give that woman an axe? And the bloody steak. And the swimming contest ("I'm bigger and stronger and I will always beat you."). And the underlying "tension" when the radio personality asks the kids on the air what will happen after he and his crew leave. You can almost feel Christina wanting to say something about cans of Comet and raw meat. Those responsible may well have set out to make a serious film. One can only speculate. What they have given us is some the best comedy this side of the Atlantic. An absolutely great movie, made better by the Faye Dunaway's over-the-top performance (William Shatner can't even play on this woman's field), that will stand as the perennial Mother's Day film for the ages.
Rating:
Summary: In defense of Diana Scarwid's performance...
Review: I feel I must add to the previous reviews: I really do feel Ms. Scarwid is an exceptional actress (She's outrageously funny as Cher's beautician lover in Silkwood! ), and that she does justice to Christina Crawford's life--or, at least, the cinematic version of it. I don't see how else the performance could be played. It has to be that low-key, because Faye Dunaway is taking up so much space, with her virtuouso turn as Joan Crawford. Also, as Pauline Kael noted in her excellent review of the film, "Scarwid has good low tones in her voice which suggest the ordeals Tina has been through, and she brings the role a twinkle, a gleam of rude humor, that seems to sustain Tina through her mother's most fiendish persecutions." At the end of the film, her character's unresolved anger and sorrow is especially pungent to me. And all of you who feel that doesn't ring true aren't being entirely honest about your relationships with your own parents! Maybe viewers who appreciate the film only as a "camp classic", don't really want to acknowledge the tragic realism of the material? It IS funny, but then it's horrifyingly funny, and worse that that. This film may be one of only a handful to suffer from a feminist double standard: I wonder how many members in the audience would kick up their heels and laugh about it if a father was doing the same things to his kids onscreen?
Rating:
Summary: I Loved It
Review: I loved the movie. Can someone please tell me what soap opera Christina Crawford stared in?
Rating:
Summary: Christina Christopher Dammit!
Review: Totally one one my favorite films of all time.The lines areclassic. The clothes .The hair. The makeup.WOW! ...Way camp,and a lot offun. "What are wire hangers doing in this closet" I can't wait for dvd. One movie that is a must have.
Rating:
Summary: "Discipline mixed with love is such a good recipe."
Review: How can you not love this movie? The entire screenplay is worth quoting over and over. Every line is a classic. Aside from the many already quoted here in reviews, here are some other classic examples: 1. "Christina! Bring me the axe!"
2. "If you can't do something right, then don't do it at all! "
3. "I might as well have 'property of M-G-M' tatooed on my backside!"
4. "I can handle the socks."
5. "Downtown restaurants."
6. "Who wants to go swimming?"
7. "You're always looking at yourself in the mirror!"
8. "God, I hate this night!"
9. "Mayer should know the price I pay!"
10. "Leave it to you to know where to find the booze and the boys!" Buy this film. I can't wait for it to be released on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: YOU CALL THIS CLEAN ?
Review: This movie is the ultimate camp classic. I remember seeing it when it first came out and was disgusted and bored. I now realize that I took it seriously and this "drama" is successful only as a comedy. In fact, this film is full of laughs from start to finish. Faye Dunaway's overacting is legendary..and Diana Scarwid is shamelessly bad as Christina. The biggest laugh for me: "You call this clean..this is not clean..this whole place is a MESS!" Then watch the cross-eyed, possessed look on Faye's face as she finishes this scene. The other great line: "Don't F%CK with me Fallas!"
Rating:
Summary: It may be a sin but I LOVED this !
Review: I feel a bit guilty for my positive reaction to a film that depicts such horrible child abuse. But as a movie it was true 'camp' heaven! The decadent glamour of old Hollywood, the weird over-acting, the ridiculously stylized "tragic" breakup scene between Joan and her first husband, mobs of reporters and enough flashing light bulbs to cause a seizure every time Joan appears in public; the creepy Christmas party where Joan (seated in front of a white artifical tree and looking like Dracula in drag)) talks about holiday warmth in a cold smarmy voice that will chill your bones. And lets not forget the wire hangers and the midnight bathroom cleaning sessions! I just ate it up like candy. Faye Dunaway is a true goddess. The screen sizzles with her dark, glorious energy.
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