Mother's Day

Director Garry Marshall takes his all-star cast and wastes them in this banal, forgettable holiday-themed comedy. Although there are admittedly a few laughs courtesy of a stand-up comedy contest that's part of the story, much of the movie is eye-rollingly mediocre. Sure, it's momentarily amusing to see Aniston and Sudeikis share the screen again, but most of the jokes are stale or straight-up imitations of other comedies. In one scene, Bradley must suffer the supposed indignity of buying his adolescent daughter tampons and grabs the microphone away from the cashier, trying to double-check the price. Sound familiar? Basically the exact same thing happened in Mr. Mom.

And as talented as the cast is, the script is so obvious and predictable that you can tell what will happen and who will come together (and how) from nearly the very beginning. Probably the only thing worth noting is that character actor Hector Elizondo appears as Miranda's faithful agent. Elizondo is to Marshall what John Ratzenberger is to Pixar; he's been in every one of the director's theatrical releases (remember him and Roberts in Pretty Woman?). Skip this theatrical release and stream it instead. Since it's so insubstantial, it's the kind of comedy best saved for when you'd really rather multitask.