StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

idontneedyourjunk Its a bit like blues brothers and a bit like thelma and louise.Crazy woman goes on a whirlwind adventure, dragging her family and hangers-on with her.Paxton only got a bit part, but it's an interesting movie with a great soundtrack.

Coventry Any movie that opens with a montage with typically nostalgic images of life in the 1950's, and to the wondrous tunes of "All I have to do is Dream" by The Everly Brothers, is half of a winner already in my book. I instantly presumed that Jonathan Demme's "Crazy Mama" would become a massively entertaining 70's road-movie/parody exploitation flick, full of memorable highlights and delightfully eccentric characters, but that turned out a little bit disappointing to be entirely honest. The movie kicks off energetically and tremendously joyous, but runs out of steam surprisingly fast. When evicted from her Californian beauty parlor, enraged mother Melba mobilizes her daughter and mother to head back to Arkansas and reclaim the family farm grounds that were violently taken from them in 1932. Hiking along are daughter Cheryl's surfer boyfriend and a trio of a flamboyant weirdos the gang picked up in Las Vegas, including macho hunk Jim Bob, gambling addicted senior citizen Bertha and greasy biker kid Snake. The deranged motley crew leaves a trail of armed robberies and kidnap conspiracies from West to East, but the biggest confrontation with the law awaits them in Arkansas. In spite of the speedy pace, "Crazy Mama" is overall rather dull and repetitive. I also would have preferred the film to be more violent and gritty, instead of comical and trashy. The performances are pretty lackluster, with Cloris Leachman not really fitting her role and Don Most being a bleak imitation of the characters Ron Howard played in the sixties and seventies. Stuart Whitman is cool, though, and Linda Purl depicts a lovable 70's exploitation wench. The only aspect that remains brilliant throughout is the soundtrack full of golden oldies, like "Lollipop" and "Running Bear". "Crazy Mama" is the third and final feature in trash-producer Roger Corman's unofficial Mama-trilogy, with "Bloody Mama" and "Big Bad Mama" as its predecessors. I'm surely going to track down those, because they look a lot cooler than this "Crazy Mama". Director Jonathan Demme has had one of the most uneven careers in Hollywood, for sure! From the sloppy Women-in-Prison flick "Caged Heat" onto exploitation flicks like "Crazy Mama" and "Fighting Mad" and towards more serious thrillers like "Last Embrace". In the 80's, Demme directed a few TV-movies, popular comedies and a lot of Neil Young videos before hitting it big with Academy Award winning blockbusters "Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia".

Michael_Elliott Crazy Mama (1975) ** (out of 4) Just four years after winning an Oscar in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, Cloris Leachman showed up in this Roger Corman produced flick where she followed in the footsteps of Shelley Winters (BLOODY MAMA) and Angie Dickinson (BIG BAD MAMA) as tough mother's stealing for a better life. In this film, Melba (Leachman), her mother and her teenage daughter travel from California to Arkansas after their beauty parlor is taken away from them. Along the way they encounter several men as well as one robbery after another. Director Jonathan Demme certainly took a story that had already been done to death and at least brought some new touches to it but in the end there's just no way around the fact that we've seen this thing too many times before. I think the best thing going for the film is the direction of Demme because he at least makes the thing feel very authentic and you really do get the feeling that you're in the 1950s. With this setting the director is able to not only make things look like the period but he also get a nice selection of music from this period. Leachman is certainly game for her part but the screenplay doesn't do her many favors. The supporting cast features familiar faces like Stuart Whitman, Sally Kirkland, Dick Miller and Donny Most who is best remembered for his role on Happy Days. The film contains some nice car crashes, some nudity and quite a bit of violence and especially for a PG rated film. CRAZY MAMA has a lot going for it but there's still no way around the fact that it doesn't offer us anything we haven't seen before in better pictures.

Infofreak I watched this movie as if it was the third in AIP's "Mama" trilogy. Big mistake. Of course 'Bloody Mama', 'Big Bad Mama' and 'Crazy Mama' have only tenuous links at best, and Roger Corman has no actual hands on relationship to this one, I realize that. Sadly 'Crazy' reaches neither the twisted brilliance of 'Bloody' or the sheer trashy good times of 'Big Bad'. In fact, it's pretty crappy all round.Jonathon Demme's second feature as director, following up his sleazy women in prison flick 'Chained Heat', which wipes the floor with this limp effort. I won't blame Demme entirely, and must mention the sit-com-ish script, and the largely unappealing Cloris Leachman in the lead role, who isn't fit to kiss Shelley Winters or Angie Dickinson's boots. The rest of the cast are mainly familiar faces from TV, including Ralph Malph and Thurston Howell III, but also keep an eye open for Roger Corman legend Dick Miller, and Doughboy from 'Taxi Driver'.'Crazy Mama', though set in the 50s rather than the Depression, follows the loose structure of the previous Mamas - strong matriarch falls on hard times and turns to crime - but goes nowhere with it. Less sex, violence and darkness, and more (alleged) laughs, this is almost Disney Corman, and that means it will please just about nobody. The only notable thing about this disappointing fare is the good soundtrack of oldies. Apart from that I can think of absolutely NO reason to recommend it.