Rating: 
Summary: Makes a Great Halloween-time Picture!
Review: I remember reading "Mommie Dearest" when I was nine years old (my parents were pretty liberal about that stuff), and really looking forward to the motion-picture version. I was disappointed after seeing it in the theatre in 1982, but now I own it on video and appreciate it for what it is. Faye Dunaway plays Crawford like a monster, only in a "Friday the 13th" kind of way, and like those movies you feel like you should be afraid or distressed but all you really want to do is laugh. This is a great movie for this time of year; Dunaway's hair and makeup make her look like she's wearing a latex "Joan" mask a la Richard Nixon (check out the eyebrows!), and if you didn't know it was Dunaway you might mistake her for a drag queen!
Rating: 
Summary: Read The Book
Review: While I found "Mommie Dearest" to be an entertaining hoot, I read the book long before there was a movie. The problem with movies based on books, is that in 2 hours, it's impossible to capture acurately all of the characters involved. What you end up with is charicature. The book delved more deeply into the tortured nature of both Joan and her adopted children. The movie does not mention the fact that Joan Crawford came from an impoverished background. She became obsessed with not returning to poverty. I'm sure if someone asked Christina what she thought about the movie, she would tell you to read the book.
Rating:
Summary: I'M NOT MAD AT YOU. I'M MAD AT THE DIRT...
Review: This movie had so many flaws, mostly in the script and a director who dropped the ball. Faye Dunaway does definately do a deranged and disgruntled Joan Crawford way over the top, BUT so did Joan. Yet, this film is supposed to be the reason that Dunaway's career derailed, C'mon. I think that Faye herself overuses this tired excuse. A lot of actors actually like HER performance and can see where things went wrong. Besides, a lot of other actresses have actually been terrible and other adjectives in movies and it doesn't take almost twenty years to recover. It is Dunaways off-screen behavior that makes her intolerable.
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Summary: No Fire Island beachhouse is complete without this one
Review: For me, it's a toss-up between "Mommie Dearest" and "Valley of the Dolls" for BEST MOVIE FOR GAY MEN TO POP IN THE VCR TO CONVERT A GUY ON THE FENCE WHEN YOU HAVE THE APARTMENT TO YOURSELF.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, overacted AND underacted
Review: This was an entertaining movie, meaning that it did manage to keep me watching, but in hindsight I can't give it any more than two stars. I agree with the one reviewer who said that the actress playing the adult Christina came across as a zombie. I don't think I've ever seen worse acting (her name is Diana Scarwid I believe). I like Faye Dunaway, but to say her acting was overdone in this film is an understatement. The scene where she becomes so enraged that her eyes cross and just stare was so ridiculous I cringed.Also, so many of the reviewers seem to take Christina's book as the absolute truth. But, let's not forget that this book was written after Joan Crawford's death. Am I the only one who is suspicious of personal accounts written after the death of the subject? Why wait to write the book until the person in question can no longer defend theirself? Why should anyone, without question, believe Christina's account of what happened? Anyway, while maybe worth a one-time look, this movie is definitely not worth purchasing.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't tell me Faye Dunaway took this role seriously. . .
Review: because I think that she is smarter than that. But I don't know her, so how should I know? But tell me: if you were a good actress, could you look at yourself in that macabre Joan Crawford pencil-eyebrowed makeup and not laugh, thinking of what fun you were going to have with this role? Dunaway is by far the best thing in this movie. She never acts when she can overact. "Is this a girls' school or a teenage BROTHEL!?" she declaims to the headmistress of Christina's school. I think Dunaway was sucking the energy out of everyone else in this movie, especially the woman who played the adult Christina. She moves and talks like a zombie; when she does try to show some emotion, it comes out fake and robotic, like the scene in which she and her mother are fighting. "Because I am not one of your fans!" she bites out, s-l-o-w-l-y. I guess speaking as if your mouth is full of glue is an effective way to act out repressed anger. If you're a bad actress, that is!
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Summary: I only cried.
Review: This movie was great because it taught me a lesson very early on: behave myself or face the wrath of my mother. I have been on my best behavior ever since.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed and I laughed until I cried.
Review: Oh it is just the best movie ever. I took my little twin girls when they were little so they would see what a good mom I was. It worked!!!
Rating:
Summary: Faye Dunaway is spectacular!
Review: Faye Dunaway makes this film great. Her acting was incredible. Diana Scarwid (the adult Christina) was pathetic, though. The other actors weren't much good, either, but Faye makes up for the rest of them. Some of the scenes are funny, especially the scene in the Pepsi-Cola board room when Joan lashes out at all those executives. Dunaway brilliantly captures the neurotic, talented, disciplined, self-obsessed Crawford beautifully.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not over-reacting, you are under-reacting!!
Review: I remember having watched this movie during my teenage years and forgot about it after. Now many years later and a mother myself, my heart goes out to Christina and her brother, Christoper. After having watched the movie again on HBO last night, I would have to say, that I disagree with the numerous reviews about "Mommie Dearest" being a bad movie. I am no expert to say if the script was a good one or bad one or there was not enough "oomph" in Diana Scarwid's portrayal of Christina, etc... Nevertheless, it would be careless to overlook the underlying message here - how Joan Crawford adopted the children for all the wrong reasons, and hence treated them in the manner that she did. And tormenting a child over wire hangers, etc... is no laughing matter, even if it appeared like that in the movie to some. This other side of Joan Crawford was a manifestation of her addiction to ostentation, insecurities, fear, work stress, non-maternal instincts, power hungry, calculating ways. There was no real depth to her love for the children. She was self-centred and so everything she did revolved around that. Again, I am no expert on Joan Crawford, infact she was before my time, but my maternal instincts tell me she was wrong!!! This movie reminded me of Snow White where the wicked queen was always scheming against her stepdaughter. Whatever Christina's reasons were to expose her mother in this tell-all movie, it was an eye-opener and a chilling one too and I hope that the "scarring" and torment Christina endured have healed over the years. The moral of the story: Fame and fortune are not cure-all remedies. If taken in high doses, can cause death.
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