For years Nicolas Cage has been delivering a wide variety of films to the straight to home entertainment market with most being in the action genre. Sadly not all of them work all that well and the once box office star has had little commercial praise. This doesn’t speak to his acting as I typically still love him in every role no matter how silly it is, but the films around him tend to be off. His latest, Mom and Dad looks to be right up his ally allowing him to go full on crazy with a great supporting cast including Selma Blair and Lance Henriksen with Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance director Bryan Taylor at the helm for his first solo effort, but does it offer up the insanity it promises or will it fail to make the kill?

​

Mom and Dad follows a teenage girl and her little brother who must survive a wild 24 hours during which a mass hysteria of unknown origins causes parents to turn violently on their own kids. I am a huge fan of the Purge and films like it so when I got wind of this film and the interesting twist of course I was instantly interested. Add Cage, Blair and Henricksen to the mix and I was all in and was not disappointed. Bryan Taylor has brought his frantic awesome style to a film that could not have worked any other way. The story is simple enough that it works and doesn’t waste a lot of time on explanation and instead just set it all up and cut loose. I loved that they go out of their way to kind of make you not big fans of most of the teen characters so that when things hit the fan you cannot wait for their demise.

​

I was worried that they would attempt to water it down due to it being about kids being slaughtered, but that is not the case. Once the chaos begins it is off the charts fun and insanity with a great big sequence at the school before focusing in more on the family. Blair and Cage go all in bringing the crazy that is so much fun to watch. They look to be having a blast cutting lose and in turn makes for a great flick for this genre. One of my favorite actors of all time is Lance Henricksen who shows up with a great smaller role that took things to a new level that you might not think of prior to it happening.  

 

In the end this is just one of those over the top crazy dark and fun films filled with all the chaos and craziness you could want. I wish it had up’d the level of blood, but that is just my sick twisted mind. I really had a blast with this film and hope more people get in on the fun.