Boa Noite, Mamãe!

This is a very strange "Amazon Original" movie. I was anxious to see it because of Naomi Watts, I like her and she usually picks excellent projects. But my wife watched the trailer and decided she would skip.

Two boys, twins, are played by real-life identical twins, I figure they were about 10 or 11. Cute kids but pretty mediocre actors. Their father is bringing them back to mommy after a visit but she does not greet them on arrival. The boys go inside, the home is rural with a barn and fields, and eventually they find her with a full-face bandage-mask that closes in the back with Velcro. They are puzzled, they had no advance knowledge of this. And very soon, only about 17 minutes in, they see and hear things that make them suspect the woman isn't really their mother. And that is essentially what the movie is about, the boys trying to solve this riddle.

The last 20 minutes or so, and the ending, reveal a number of things, but not everything makes sense, when you think what was shown in the first half of the movie. When it ended I believe I figured out what was going on, a twist that seems to negate most of what was presented, but it is done in a way that isn't very clear.

So I can't rate this movie very high, the script and acting are just so-so, I watched the whole thing because I was curious to see where it was heading but when it was over I found it to be mostly unsatisfying. My wife made a good decision to skip.

At home, on Amazon Streaming movies.

A shockingly dumbed down version for American audiences of an outstanding Austrian thriller, that lacks the impact, the brutality, the shock factor and the intelligence of its original. Instead you get the cinematic clichés, the sentimental overtones, the cheap musical dress-up and the spoon fed explanatory breakdown of a Hollywood style second class thriller. Watts is getting dangerously close to being typecast as the go-to actress for remakes, which can't be good for her legacy. The performances are fine overall nevertheless, are not sufficient however to even soften the crush that is the comparison between the two films. If you haven't seen any of them, do yourself a favour and watch the original without getting spoiled by this mediocre attempt of a crowd-pleaser.

Wowzer¡ I just watched this tonight. It's not a horror film but definitely a big ole thriller. I didn't know what to expect from one scene to the next as it was pretty intense 10 minutes into it.

All the acting is great. Even the children actors were good, which isn't usually the case. I found the adults acting to be on spot and stable through out. I especially liked how the police weren't portrayed as total jackomoes too. It was a pleasant surprise.

Then there is the ending. What the hell¡ The last 10 minutes totally caught me off guard as things were revealed and played out. A very nice job for this type of movie. I'd say watch it!

Elias and Lucas arrive at their mother's house, to find her wearing a mask, and feeling very much like a stranger.

Once again, we get another remake, another remake that pales in comparison compared to its source material. The Austrian film is Chilling and unnerving, this was quite a pale remake.

No issues at all with the acting, competently performed, with a strong performance from the excellent Naomi Watts, and very good acting from the boys also.

They could have upped the horror vibe a few degrees, it just doesn't grip the viewer, for a so called horror, it's all too flat, and by the time something happens, the film is almost over.

Some good special effects, the nightmare sequences looked really good, but such horror moments were too few and far between.

Just watch the original, it's far superior.

5/10.

What would you do, if your mother felt like new, didn't act the way she should, behaved like mother never would, like a stranger in the house, makes you feel like a small mouse, quite aggressive and quite cold, not like the one you knew of old.

Elias and Lucas struggle to come to terms with their mother when she re-joins them after a period of hospitalisation. Taking matters into their own hands they explore a variety of ways to unmask their doppelganger and expose the truth.

A remake of a far more powerful Austrian film that avoids super glue, cockroaches and cats, to settle for a more palatable finale that ultimately quenches the dynamic and leaves it somewhat neutered, albeit well performed and passable.