Well worth a look.
Serial Mom (1994)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:43
Fresh:27
Rotten:16
Average Rating:5.8/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 15 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Happy homemaker Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) has a charmed life--a beautiful suburban home, a successful dentist husband (Sam Waterston), and two normal teenagers, Misty (Ricki Lake) and Chip... Happy homemaker Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) has a charmed life--a beautiful suburban home, a successful dentist husband (Sam Waterston), and two normal teenagers, Misty (Ricki Lake) and Chip (Matthew Lillard). But she also has a good deal of underlying rage waiting to escape....Just be sure to follow her rules: Be polite to your neighbor, always recycle, rewind your videotapes, and never, ever wear white shoes after Labor Day. When one of her son's teachers speaks disparagingly of the boy at a parent-teacher conference, Bev runs the instructor over in the school parking lot. Suddenly she has an insatiable taste for murder. Six homicides later, the cops get wise to her crimes, which are committed with weapons ranging from a leg of lamb to a fireplace poker. A media frenzy ensues, turning an unrepentant Beverly into a media celebrity. A serial-killer comedy mixed with courtroom-drama social satire, the raunchy SERIAL MOM was John Waters's return to R-rated fare after the sweet-natured duo of HAIRSPRAY and CRY-BABY. Suburban life is duly skewered here as the serenity of Beverly's upper-middle-class surroundings are continually sullied by her comedically disturbing acts of violence. Turner appears to relish the opportunity to play such an over-the-top role, and the usual Baltimore-based supporting players make welcome appearances. [More]
Starring: Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, Matthew Lillard
Starring: Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, Matthew Lillard, Suzanne Somers, Scott Wesley, Mink Stole
Director: John Waters
Director: John Waters
Screenwriter: John Waters
Producer: John Fiedler, Mark Tarlov
Composer: Basil Poledouris
Reviews for Serial Mom
An uproariously funny, marvellously malicious performance from Turner.
Lacks the bite it would need to be subversive, despite a few moments of vintage Waters tastelessness.
A loose remake of Female Trouble with Polyester's subversively accessible polish, Serial Mom is the strongest film of the post-midnight-movie chapter of John Waters's career.
The film may be a bad-boy satirist's mournful acceptance that America has finally become sicker than anything he could dream up.
This is one of Waters' tamest and most accessible pictures (even played at Cannes Fest!) and one of the few to feature a legit star, Katheleen Thurner, who gives a gusto performance as the middleclass houusewife committed to protect her family.
[Turner's] efforts fail to make Serial Mom into anything more than merely watchable.
Deliciously wicked and deliriously funny, Serial Mom is one of Waters' most accomplished works.
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