Niki Caro’s tale of an assassin coming out of retirement to keep her daughter out of the crosshairs of some nasty people is the best kind of lean, mean fighting machine

| Aug 27, 2023

Jennifer Lopez makes, I think, a pretty good action star... This is sort of a generic action-flick that you may watch and forget about it about three minutes after seeing it.

| Original Score: 5.5/10 | Jul 24, 2023

Lopez is fit enough to handle the action scenes, but she just can’t sell the ruthlessness of the character. Apparently, it took no less than three writers to come up with this clichéd drivel.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 6, 2023

An exceptionally strong, emotionally-driven action-thriller...Directed at a cracking pace and with exceptional action-movie instincts by Niki Caro (Whale Rider; Mulan) [it's] a way-above-average thriller, with J.Lo at her finest.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 3, 2023

Maybe it is the repetitive middle or the structure of the movie, but it feels like it could have been paced more quickly and amped up the energy a little bit. I enjoyed this and would not be opposed to seeing Jennifer Lopez take on more roles like this.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 2, 2023

The Mother boasts an impressively weighty emotional core that ensures it hits hard when it needs to.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2023

With way too many flaws, a predictable plot, and generic and poorly developed villains, The Mother is an emotionless story and a waste of an action film. Unless you're a huge fan of J-Lo, I'd highly recommend skipping this one.

| May 26, 2023

The utterly predictable script suffers from a total lack of character development; the execution is ludicrous since JLo's hair and makeup are always flawless, perhaps because her expressionless face looks perpetually frozen.

| Original Score: 4/10 | May 26, 2023

[This] over-familiar actioner is forgettable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 24, 2023

What’s really depressing is the name behind the camera. “The Mother” was directed by Niki Caro, whose earliest efforts (Whale Rider, North Country) suggested a major talent in humanist cinema.

| Original Score: C- | May 24, 2023

The no-nonsense Lopez holds the standard issue together and the action, as directed by Niki Caro, clicks by with the rapid-fire confidence of Lopez’s mom on the trigger.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 24, 2023

The best modern iterations of this kind of movie are The Long Kiss Goodnight and Aliens. I wonder if my overall fatigue with the genre isn't a product of my searching for those highs again in the intervening, largely disappointing decades.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 24, 2023

...a decidedly erratic piece of work that fares best in its exciting, action-packed opening stretch...

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 23, 2023

But even her fierce prowess -- and unfailing good looks while fighting, chasing, and slaughtering -- can't quite save The Mother from feeling like an amalgam of existing action films.

| May 23, 2023

The Mother nearly works but there are gaps in the story, as though long sequences are missing, making for a movie that is as emotionally distant as its lead.

| May 22, 2023

This forgettable action thriller is thoroughly derivative.

| Original Score: 1/4 | May 22, 2023

A textbook example of a star vehicle, The Mother is competently executed and intermittently engaging, but is elevated only by Lopez’s presence.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 22, 2023

Lopez has more than earned the right to be the star, to put great men in supporting roles, and tell a story that unapologetically centers her.

| May 21, 2023

Despite well-choreographed action and a gritty performance from Jennifer Lopez, The Mother is not the Mother’s Day vehicle Netflix had hoped it would be.

| May 20, 2023

Lopez easily has the goods to do a late career segue into action hero mode, but would appear to need a new agent and/or manager to help arrest the piling-up of bad movie vehicles that waste her prodigious talent.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 20, 2023