Cage Match: Mom and Dad

Cage Match is an ongoing look at the direct to DTV works of Nicolas Cage. I'll watch them, review them and rank them so we can determine what reigns supreme in this era of Cage.

What’s Cage up to this time?

Cage is Brent, husband and father to a son and a daughter. When parents across the country (world?) are suddenly driven to start attacking and murdering their children, Brent gets caught up in some of that filicide action.

Who else is in the cage?

Brent’s wife is Kendall, played by Selma Blair from Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, Hellboy and of course, A Guy Thing and The Fog remake. That’s really it for recognizable cast members outside of a cool cameo that I won’t spoil here.

The writer/director is Brian Taylor, one half of the team behind the Crank movies and…Gamer? Mostly the Crank movies.

Is the movie worthy of Cage?

Full disclosure: that this is one of the few movies in this feature that I had already seen. I watched it back in the pre-parent days and I thought the second viewing was going to be far harder as a result. I just came off a movie where a child goes missing so I guess it was natural progression to move to a movie where children are being straight up murdered. The opening moments feature a mom abandoning her toddler in a car that gets hit by a train, so I figured I was in for a rough ride. That was the worst moment though and, following that, I think I enjoyed my second viewing more than the first.

I’ve already covered the main premise and there’s not much more to say than that. A mysterious signal causes any parents affected by it to immediately seek out and murder their kids. The source of the signal is never identified, though it is given some very plausible explanations, so there’s enough detail to feel satisfied about it. It’s a creepy idea and it would be very easy to go full on horror with it, but Mom and Dad is much more of a dark comedy.

The first half of the movie that deals with the unfolding child murder epidemic is by far the strongest piece of the movie. The chaos unfolds gradually and there are quite a few unsettling moments. Watching a huge crowd of parents silently wait outside a school for it to be dismissal/murder time is creepy, followed quickly by darkly hilarious as the parents frantically chase their kids across a football field and tackle them to the ground. The confusion the children have about why on earth their parents are doing this makes it all the more effective, although this isn’t explored as much as it could have been (the movie is a very lean 86 minutes long).

Oh, and there’s also an extremely effective subplot about a pregnant lady that generates a lot of suspense since we, the audience, know damn well what’s going to happen the moment that child is born.

Things shift around the halfway mark and the scale becomes far more intimate. Brent and Kendall’s kids, Josh and Carly, are trapped at home with their suddenly murder-y parents and it becomes a cat and mouse game between everyone. Sorta. Mostly it becomes the kids locking themselves in a room while their parents try to break in. This section of the movie makes the switch to sillier comedy and allows Cage to go full on Cage (more on that later). It remains enjoyable, mostly because of how fun Cage and Blair are together, but it’s still a bit disappointing to see a premise that started out with so much promise become so restrained. It reminded me a lot of the first Purge movie, which presents this cool idea and then spends most of its running time inside a single house. There’s still a good deal of fun to be had watching Brent and Kendall have casual conversations and make lighthearted banter while trying to get their kid killing on. A twist in the final moments also livens things up even further and while the abrupt ending frustrated me the first time, I saw a little more of what it was going for this time around.

How Cage-y is Cage?

Oh holy shit so Cage-y. This is the most Cage he has been in the movies I’ve covered so far. It’s obviously great fun to watch, but it works against the movie itself. You know how in The Shining, it’s a little weird to accept that Jack Nicholson is driven crazy because he seems like a bit of a psycho from moment one? That is happening here too. Brent is supposed to be affected by the weird signal, but he seems unhinged and murderous way before any of this goes down. His most insane moment, where he smashes a pool table with a sledgehammer while scream singing The Hokey Pokey, is in a fucking flashback! A flashback! Kendall doesn’t even react that surprised so clearly this is just how her husband is (a big part of his character is that having children was not a part of his life plan and he feels resentful that this is where he’s ended up).

When Cage goes into murder mode, it’s not all that different from how he seemed to be prior to the event. Though, I don’t want to argue too much against it because we get Cage calling his kids motherfuckers and yelling about saws. You know, Cage shit.

You bought the blu-ray?! Are there bonus features at least?!

No bonus features this time either which surprised me. I feel like Taylor has done commentaries for all his other movies so it’s strange to see literally nothing here. If he had stuff to say about Gamer then I can’t imagine he didn’t have anything to say about this one.

Should you get into this cage?

So long as you aren’t sensitive to the general premise I would say yes. Mom and Dad is a very enjoyable dark comedy/kinda horror movie that moves at a quick pace and features Cage at his most Cage. It doesn’t quite explore the central concept as much as I would like, especially in the back half of the movie, but it’s still solid and worth your time.

Where does it rank?

Looking at the current breakdown, I don’t see any other spot for Mom and Dad except right at the top! Welcome to our new champion!

As it stands:

Mom and Dad
Rage
Arsenal
Vengeance: A Love Story
Running with the Devil
Primal
Pay the Ghost
Outcast
Left Behind

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