Movie Review: My Mom's New Boyfriend

No Logic, Weak Story & Mediocre Performances

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Meg Ryan, Colin Hanks, Selma Blair and others
Director: George Gallo

This movie probably attracted audiences because of its impressive star-cast. I had heard a lot about this movie but was too lazy to go and watch the movie in the theaters. For sometime I was even wondering whether I was missing something, but after watching the movie I am more than convinced that it was not a bad decision at all.

The story line of the movie is something like this: Meg Ryan plays the role of an obese, drunken single mother whose son goes out of the house to get trained as a FBI agent. When he returns he sees a completely transformed Meg Ryan. A slim, svelte and sexy woman, she has a set of boyfriends that include a college dropout and a drunk Italian chef.

Quite naturally the son Henry (Colin Hanks) is worried about this mother's wayward life. The worries multiply when she bumps into Tommy (Antonio Banderas) in the market and starts dating him. Things get even charged up for Henry when he has to spy on Tommy, he has to bug his own home, and follow his mother. What happens thereafter and how things get sorted out forms the rest of the movie.

The screenplay is honestly quite pathetic. Other than the impressive star cast there is nothing in the movie. If you haven't watched it don't bother, if you have the opportunity to watch it free and don't have anything better to do, it would be a better option.

Movie Review: It All Started in Naples

Child Custody Battle leads to Romance

Starring: Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, etc.
Director: Melville Shavelson

Consider a successful American lawyer who has lost his wayward brother in an automobile accident, a beautiful Italian nightclub singer who holds custody of the departed brother's only son, in a tourist setting. The result is a war of wits and mettle over custody of the little boy and in the process the adults fall in love and take over joint custody of the boy. This in effect is the story of this movie.

What makes it worth watching for 120 odd minutes is the stellar performances by top stars Clark Gable (American lawyer Michael Hamilton) and Sophia Loren (Italian nightclub singer Lucia Curcio) which makes you laugh throughout the movie. Director Michael Shavelson has extracted great performances from both the stars and especially the young boy who plays Nandos.

The movie starts off with Michael arriving in Naples to take care of the estate of his brother who was killed in an automobile accident. The brother, who has borrowed $14,000 from Michael and squandered it away, so in effect there is not much money left. There is his young son Nandos, who at 8 doesn't go to school but smokes and drinks. Lucia, Nando's mother's unmarried sister has claimed him as her own and both are very attached to each other.

Michael is not happy with the way the boy is growing up and wants to give him a good education in an American school. Lucia is naturally not willing to give up custody and this leads to some courtship and finally to a court battle over custody. What happens at the end is quite predictable but how it happens is what you will have to discover by watching the movie.