Mama's Boy (2007)

Originally Written

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Jon Heder continues his string of mediocre films with the straight to DVD comedy Mama's Boy. Once again Heder plays his usual character a social outcast and loser named Jeffery Mannus, who's father died when he was very young, and ever since then he's been pampered my his mother. At the age of twenty-nine Jeffery still lives at home and shows no signs of growing up or fending for himself, he's a mama's boy and quite proud of it. His sarcastic attitude and rude behavior keeps him from having any real relationships and gets him fired from a job he was lucky to have for so long, but at least he still has his mother... for now.

Diane Keaton plays Jeffery's mother Jan, she meets a motivational speaker named Mert Rosenbloom (Jeff Daniels), and the two hit it off instantly and quickly become an item, but this poses problems for Jeffery who doesn't want anyone coming between him and his mother. So begins the battle between Jeffery and Mert to see which one can outsmart, outplay, and ultimately outlast the other. During his battle with Mert, Jeffery meets another odd character, Nora Flannigan (Anna Faris), who he falls for, but Jeffery's selfish nature and hatred of Mert causes him to put his possible relationship with Nora in jeopardy as he tries to drag her into his personal war.

Mama's Boy is made up of a pretty good cast, but where it fails is in its predictability and familiarity, it's a played out plot and the story is so mediocre that you quickly lose interest. Heder can't seem to pull himself out of this rut of typecast characters, and this film is another example of that. Mama's Boy isn't horrible, but don't expect more than what you'd usually find in am average direct to DVD comedy. If you're really needing something to watch it's not a total waste, but you shouldn't have much trouble finding something better.

5/10