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Visitors Review

Robert_Hearth 2013-06-05 14:00:26

"A Mother's Love Is Unconditional" --- Tagline For "Glass House: The Good Mother"

"Glass House: The Good Mother" (2006) Directed By: Steve AntinStarring: Angie Harmon, Joel Gretsch, Jordan Hinson, Bobby Coleman, &Jason London MPAA Rating: "R" (for some violence, terrorizing situations involvingchildren, and language) In 2001, a sleek and stylish thriller, starring Leelee Sobieski andDiane Lane, named "The Glass House" opened to mediocre reviews. Itsbox-office gross was equally mediocre…so you can imagine my surprisewhen I heard that a straight-to-video sequel would be made. Now, Iliked "The Glass House" due to its great casting, its slick appearance,and its intriguing concept, but it just wasn't the type of movie thatwarranted a sequel. Then I learned that it would have no connections tothe original and that it was basically a sequel in name only and anyhope I had (not much) fell off the face of the earth. It would take alot to make this sequel worthwhile…and that "lot" came in the form ofAngie Harmon. Harmon is a phenomenal actress and completely aced hertwisted and complicated role. While the movie as a whole is patchy,Harmon makes it work…somehow.Abby (Hinson) and Ethan (Coleman) Snow just recently lost their parentsand need a place to live and guardians to care for them. Eve (Harmon)and Raymond (Gretsch) Goode just lost their son and are not ready tostop being parents. Thus, it seems as though they are perfect matchesand, for a little while, they are. However, soon Abby becomes annoyedby Eve's overbearing attitude and the two begin a series of argumentsthat reaches its peak with Eve slapping Abby. Soon, everything spiralsout of control and Ethan falls seriously ill. Eve refuses to take Ethanto the hospital, demanding that she be able to care for her at home.Abby realizes that this is not the first time Eva and Ray have adoptedchildren that have fallen ill, but she refuses to let her youngerbrother end up like the other children…all of whom did not escape theGoode family.The performances in "Glass House: The Good Mother" are okay. AngieHarmon blew me away, but her performance really is the only one thatdid so. Harmon was just phenomenal. Joel Gretsch was a mixed bag here.At times, he seemed dead on with his performance. At others, he wasjust a little flat. Overall, it was an okay performance--nothingspectacular, but just adequate enough (for a straight-to-video film,that is). Jordan Hinson was also a little uneven, giving an emotionalperformance in some scenes and a dull performance in others. It seemsto be a trend with this movie for the actors and actresses to givepatchy performances. Jason London seems to be settling very comfortablyinto the straight-to-video market. It's unfortunate, because I sawpromise from him in "The Rage: Carrie 2" (he and Emily Bergl were theonly good thing about that horrendous movie). Here, I can still see thepromise, it's just almost completely wasted on a nothing part. It's sounfortunate."Glass House: The Good Mother" displays excellent cinematography and aglossy, stylized direction that brings a certain elegance and beauty tothe film. Angie Harmon gives a great performance and the concept is farcreepier than that of the original. However, the plot is stretched alittle too thin in many places and the movie becomes quite redundant.We get that Eve is crazy and we know that Abby hates her. There was noneed to keep hammering it into the audience's brains. Also, the endingwas just so…disappointing. It was cheesy, clichéd, and didn't fit therest of the movie. It just seemed tacked on. Overall, "Glass House: TheGood Mother" is an okay movie, good for a straight-to-video movie, butnot amazing. Somehow, it does work, though, and that is enough…I guess.Final Thought: "Glass House: The Good Mother" is an okaystraight-to-video film, though nothing great.Overall Rating: 5/10 (B-)

wrlang 2013-06-04 23:56:51

you go harmon

Glass House: The Good Mother is about a couple who adopt children andkill them. Harmon does a great job as a Munchausen by Proxy mom thatgets her adopted kids sick and then nurses them to death. The husbandseems OK, but loves his wife so much he lets her get away with thekillings and even helps her at times. Their hands are full when theyget a little boy and his teenage sister who are good friends with acop. They go quickly from an idyllic lifestyle to caged kids as Harmontakes control of every part of the kid's life. Triple locked doors andsocial workers who couldn't tell their butts from a hole in the ground.Things get worse from there as the young brother gets sick and doesn'tget better.

2013-06-04 07:21:09

Great movie...creepy...

This review is from: Glass House - The Good Mother (DVD) This movie is like the original Glass House movie, but I think it's more "cut up". I don't know. The original one had the foster father (forget his name at the moment) try to kill the kids at the end of the movie. In this movie, the foster mother goes crazy and tries to kill the sister and brother. I won't ruin the movie for others, but it's a good movie... least I thought it was!

2013-06-04 01:56:30

Very good for a sequel...

I have to say that I especially enjoyed this movie. I'm a fan of the first Glass House movie, so when I saw this sequel in the video store I thought it sounded good.I didn't expect much at the start because I know that most sequels tend not to come up to the standard of the first movie.But I was enormously enterained by this movie. It is basically set out a little bit the same as the first movie, but with vast differences.When Abby and her brother are adopted by Eve and Raymond, things look good, but Eve is hiding a dark secret.I was very impressed with Angie Harmon (Eve). She is a sensual beauty and that makes her evil side all the more terrifying. She puts in a suberb performance and switches from good to evil in a heartbeat. The scene with the oven cleaner made me squirm.An enjoyable treat.

jboyaquar 2013-05-30 08:12:00

The original's fare more entertaining

When a sequel is direct to video and ups the ante to a 'R' rating,shouldn't the audience hope for a more salacious and violent viewingexperience? Unfortunately, with the perpetually stern and severe,though gorgeous, Angie Harmon starring, those hopes are laid to rest.Whereas the original was proud of its B-roots and had an excellentslimy, perverted performance from Stellan Skaarsgaard...this filmactually wants the audience to take the plot of a grieiving mother goneoverprotective gone crazy, seriously. The original had a PG-13 rating,and yet delighted in ingénue Leelee Sobieski's nubile, well-developedframe while providing its audience with delightful action and apropulsive narrative. In this poor sequel, we get a whiny prudishprotagonist, very little violence, and stultefyingly lame tension. Theoriginal was set in that amazingly austere cold house, made of actualglass. "The Glass House 2: the Good Mother" instead employs itscharacters in an adobe-styled Spanish château, which leads me to thepoor choice of cinematography. The allegiance to using a gold-hued tintto add Latina flair to the visuals was poor decision-making especiallyconsidering the milquetoast energies enemating from the acting crew.(There are white people still in Cali, y'know.) I like Joel Gretsch,but when Jason London has more inner force than any of the othertalent, "Houston, we may have a problem."

rbrb 2013-05-29 18:39:03

Mommie Dearest..... in a House full of Secrets

High class intense melodrama which had my attention.Mother loses child and adopts two as replacement; yet the mother andher husband have dark secrets in a house full of them. And on one levelthis film goes further than child endangerment but into child crueltyand worse.Excellent photography, generally very good direction with a few blimpsnear the end.Super performances from the two female leads which makes the film.The actress playing the mother is sensationally "bad".Worthy of a sound: 7/10.

M-Ols 2013-05-26 11:42:48

Good premise falls flat

The premise, an insane uber-mother doles out practiced physical abuse,is a fairly sound launching point for this suspense thriller. The storyis well-structured and the dialog is better than its B-movie status.The principle cast does what they can with what they're given and thecinematography & lighting are top-notch.However, the direction and editing are horrible. The director has nosense of mise-en-scene; every shot is crowded. The camera isever-moving with "look at me, I went to film school" joy. The editingwas overly busy. Every single transition was hallmarked with anestablishing shot of the house's exterior.Had the camera settled down, and the story (not editing) carried thepace this would've been a much better film.Jordan Hinson, a young actress, holds the film's center very well.Bottomline: Not worth watching.

dromasca 2013-05-25 23:16:33

the horror mother

Labelled as sequel, 'The Good Mother' stands by itself as one of thesurprisingly solid horror movies of the season. Two orphaned kids aretaken in care by a pair who lost their boy one year before. The setting- 'Psycho'-like shaped lonely house by a lake - should already make youfeel that the parents are not what they are and that the kids will endfighting for their lives. So it is.Although the story has some obvious flaws (should a woman be trustedwith yet another child custody after three sons dies before one afterthe other?) the film has quality in its cinema and acting. Angie Harmonand Jordan Hinson are very good in the main female roles. The story hasa good pace, and despite its rather expected ending makes it certainlyfor a good rental.

2013-05-17 00:06:33

FOSTER MOM FROM HELL

The usually sweet and kind Angie Harmon pulls a Tallulah Bankhead die die my darling in her role as the titular good mother who is not so good. Harmon chews up the scenery with a tenacity and venom equal to those other madames who've played psychomommies. Seems like everytime she and hubby Joel Gretsch take in a foster child, the child perishes. Seems like Munchhausen's has a new poster mommy. Her latest wards are a teenager (well played by Jordan Hinson) and her little brother. They were left parentless due to an auto accident and family's good friend cop Jason London is forced to place them in foster care. Once the children arrive at their new home, however, they find themselves virtual prisoners under the possessive care of Harmon.There aren't a lot of surprises in this by the book thriller, but Harmon is so delightfully evil she makes it all worthwhile.

Claudio Carvalho 2013-05-16 04:53:41

Predictable, Full of Clichés, but Still a Reasonable B-Movie

One year after losing their son David, Eve Goode (Angie Harmon) and herhusband Raymond Goode (Joel Gretsch) adopt the orphan Ethan Snow (BobbyColeman) and his teenager sister Abby Snow (Jordan Hinson) and bringthem to their mansion nearby a lake. Abby faces difficulties ofadaptation in her new home, and she confronts Eve, who proves to bederanged and unstable. When Ethan gets sick, Abby tries to contacttheir friend, detective Ben Koch (Jason London), and she realizes thather brother and she are trapped in the house."The Good Mother" is predictable, full of clichés, but still areasonable B-movie. The story has a tense beginning, but there is noprevious development of the characters Abby and Ethan Snow or Ben Koch.The viewer does not know who they are or their relationship. Theattitude of Abby when she moves to her foster house is totallyungrateful and unfair with her stepparents that gives a magnificentroom in a wonderful house, triggering the insanity of Eve. It isdifficult to understand teenagers most of the times, but there is noexplanation for the feelings of Abby when she moves to the Goode'shouse without a previous development of her character. In the end, theforgettable "The Good Mother" is an enjoyable entertainment. My vote issix.Title (Brazil): "A Casa de Vidro 2" ("The House of Glass 2")

Anra Wilsman 2013-04-26 23:23:54

Thrilling

Well, after seeing "The Good Mother" my heart was still racing. It wasbasically about,grieving mother,Eve Goode and her obsessive desire tobe a caring, protective, loving, healing mother, who's recent victimshappen to be recently orphaned Abby and Ethan Snow. Abby soon finds outthat her foster mother's obsessive desire is as extreme as it isdeadly, when she finds out her foster mother's frightening secret.Sequel to The Glass House, which itself was entertaining, "The GoodMother" fit along well with the previous plot. It was quite close tobeing the same thing.I personally enjoyed the film, It was suspenseful at times and veryinteresting.The acting was good and the emotion was evident.I recommendit, to all who enjoy suspenseful,and thrilling films with a little biteto it.

2013-04-26 03:02:42

Excellent

Angie Harmon is just great in this role. Her "southern" beauty, smile and accent hides her dark secret very very well. She is truly an actress we need to see much more of these days. Jordan Hinson is a true up and coming star in her own right................have fun with this one BUT don't expect Mommie Dearest here.....Eve is one mean soul (if she has one)

2013-04-12 09:23:33

Movies leaves questions

The movie never does explain the bed in the basement? & it does not explain who is seen by Abby sneaking around outside?Movie was going along fine but lacks in that it never substantiates the above two items & their signifigance to being seen in the 1st place.

gibco65 2013-04-11 22:43:12

This may have been the worst movie I have ever watched

Flicking through the channels last week I came across this movie juststarting. I saw Angie Harmon and said to myself it cant be all thatbad. It was. It was so bad that I just couldn't change the channel.During the commercials I would just bust on this horrible movie but itwas hypnotic. You couldn't wait for it to come back on. As for thepeople who are going to think I am a bad person, I want you to thinkabout this.SPOILERS COMING:OK, so their first son dies under mysterious circumstances and ChildServices gives them not 1,2,3 but 4 more children to foster? Really?Angie Harmon acting like a Psycho got to be hysterical. She just gotmore sociopathic as the movie went on until she was running around witha meat cleaver.MBPS - Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome is a serious illness but the way itworks is the parent (Angie Harmon) who has it will seek out medicalhelp for the child to gain attention in their sick minds what a goodparent they are. Angie Harmon locked the kids in the house while shewas poisoning the boy. She made no attempt to seek out medicalattention, fulfilling the needs of a person with MBPS.When the husband walked in and she was spraying oven cleaner on the kidI almost fell off the sofa. He acted like it was just a normal thinglike making kool aid. She didn't have MBPS, they were just both justsociopaths. This movie was so bad that when I asked my girlfriend andher friends if anyone had seen it, They asked what channel was it on. Isaid Lifetime and they said two things 1) Doesn't sound like a Lifetimemovie. 2) Men should not watch Lifetime. So it may be a guy thing but this HORRIBLE movie has made for somereally funny conversation. In that sense it was entertaining.This really proves I have way too many cable channels.

whpratt1 2013-04-03 16:30:52

Entertaining Film

This film deals with two children, Abby Snow,(Jordan Hinson) and herbother, Ethan Snow,(Bobby Coleman) who are adopted by a husband andwife. These two children become very happy with their new home andparents and things start to change. Abby begins to suspect some verydark secrets that her mother has in her room. Abby also finds out thather brother Ethan is becoming ill and she fears for her life. EveGoode, (Angie Harmon) plays the role as the mother of Abby and Ethanand gives an outstanding performance as a rather moody and depressedmother who controls her children as if they were intruders. There isplenty of suspense and thrilling moments in this film and it is wellproduced and directed.

guil fisher 2013-04-03 14:32:22

Same old LMN dribble

Plot done over and over and over again. This one no different than anyother. Evil woman who gets away with murder and empty headed men who goalong with the stupidity. Again we're supposed to believe women can beevil and men can be patsies. Brett Merryman wrote this crap and SteveAntin directed not so good actors. Angie Harmon gets boring along theway with this constant evil stare all the time. Joel Gretsch as herdoting vacant husband goes around whining all the time. Then there'sthe children played by Jordan Hinson and Bobby London. London spendsmost of the time sick in bed and Hinson seems to be running around incircles looking for a way out. But never seems to find the door. JasonLondon plays a detective without a clue. Of course he gets it from thewitch mother. So there you have it. A trite not so original LMN moviewith the same theme, the same bitchy women, and the same weak men.Typical LMN crap.

2013-03-18 05:23:45

there is a reason it's being sold for 10 cents used

This is the typical trash that is coming out of hollywood and their channels like lifetime, sci-fi, usa, WE and most other channels that feel they can release another movie about a mother or father gone bad on a budget that barely covers the film in the cameras but would gladly sell it to us suckers who don't know any better. Why would the guy from baggar vance ever be in a movie like this? He was great in baggar. Talk about career suicide. AWFUL, AWFUL, and awful. Please don't waste your money on another psycho mom that wants to kill all her foster children. Did I say Awful? I can't even believe they are trying to sell it.

lizzy-cunningham 2013-03-17 17:29:33

don't waste your time!

From the first five minutes of this show, the ending was clear. Theplot isn't in any way original or inventive. There were no twists tokeep the interest of the audience. The pace was slow. There wasn't anyrise or fall in the action. Even the high action scenes were painfuldue to their extreme predictability. The music contributed to thesomber, slow tone of it all, and brings Chinese Water Torture to mind.The characterizations were extremely simple. The characters at thebeginning didn't change or grow through their experiences. They didn'tseem real in any way. The acting wasn't horrible. There just wasn't any fleshing out thatcould be done with the script or the action. This has to be a writingissue, but shame on Angie Harmon and director Steve Antin for agreeingto be a part of such an awful movie. Still, the real shame has tobelong to the writer for this awful script. YUCK! The only positive wasthe acting of the teenage lead, Jordan Hinson. Her acting (andcharacter) was most believable. Still, one word describes this moviebest: tedious. I kept on waiting for it to get better; I waited untilthe ending credits rolled.

TequilaMockingbird63 2013-03-14 18:26:15

Fatal Attraction meets Psycho meets The Stepford Wives

First before I start with my comment I have to say I oddly have NEVERseen Angie Harmon (who plays the mother/wife Eve Goode) act. but WOW, IWAS IMPRESSED and will look for her in future. Looking amazingly like Ali MacGraw in Love Story she was beautiful yetcalculating, creepy and just plain deranged. A perfect female villainala Fatal Attraction meets Psycho meets The Stepford Wives. Thingsbegin innocently enough with a mysterious disappearance of a littleboy, the son of seemingly loving parents but before long we sense notall is right with this mother. Lets just say she loves her cleaningsupplies! We next meet two children who have apparently just lost their parentsand (although a little unclear in the plot) are Fostered by themourning parents "the Goodes" (clever title juxtaposition). Before longEves evil ways start to show (the dish washing scene is particularlydisturbing) the Teenage girl clashes with the tight "house rules" andas her little brother begins to mysteriously get sick the rebelliousprotective sister's suspicion begins. WARNING ****PROBABLY CONTAINS BIG SPOILERS***** Based on characters created by Wesley Strick (who wrote the screenplayfor "Cape Fear" and "Arachnophobia") I was intrigued to researchMunchausen's Syndrome or Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy. the disease wefind the creepy lead character "may" have.Background on the disease: From 1972 to 1985, all 9 children ofMarybeth Tinning of Schenectady, N.Y. died in infancy. At first,friends and physicians assumed they were victims of "crib death" or aninexplicable genetic flaw. As the deaths continued, suspicion mountedagainst the mother, who was always alone when her babies were stricken.It's oddly more common than people are aware. basically Munchausen'sSyndrome by Proxy is where women kill their own children for theattention they receive. This was a pretty good film but i have to say a few things frustratedme - number 1 - why would hubby played by the handsome Joel Gretsch goalong and seemingly "cover" his wife's psychotic behavior as if he wasalmost an accomplice and 2, why the Caseworker (played by a verylikable Tasha Smith) did not pick up the fact apparently "several" kidshave died or gone missing under the care of this couple. Enjoyable enough it will be worth watching as a Movie of the Week onTelevision someday. 7 out of 10 stars.

pv71989-1 2013-03-14 01:21:26

Perfect for Lifetime, Way Imperfect for the Rest of Us

I came across this movie on the Lifetime Movie Network this pastSaturday while scrolling the channels. I probably should have flippedback to "Quatermass and The Pit" on TCM or "The Man Who Shot LibertyValance" on AMC.Anyway, this movie, which is an "in name only" sequel to theless-than-stellar "Glass House," concerns Eve (Angie Harmon) andRaymond Goode (Joel Gretsch), who have just lost their son David. Theybecome foster parents to Abby (Jordan Hinson) and Ethan (BobbyColeman).Right off the bat, Eve, who suffers from Munchausen's Syndrome, goesoverboard in being a good mother, to the point of being psychotic. Sheultimately terrorizes the children by stitching up wounds with noanesthesia, "curing" rashes with oven cleaner, etc.You can read other reviews for the gist of the story. Harmon is anamazing actress. However, she is hampered by her goody-two shoes image.It's hard to imagine her as a villain, especially when she almostcomically snarls, rears back and gives Abby a Steffi Graf-levelbackhand.Hinson is adequate as Abby. Gretsch is completely useless as thespineless hubby Ray and the actor annoys by being up and down in hisperformance, as if he's following the director's cue every moment.The worst part of the movie is the entire premise. The Goodes arewealthy yet we never see them at work, though Eve is supposed to be anurse. We don't know what Ray does but the pair have a hugeGothic-style mansion and a large estate. Yet, we see no groundskeepers,no maids, no gardeners.We learn the Goodes took in another kid before David but he simplydisappeared. But, no one from Child Services bothers to ask whathappened to him before giving the Goodes more kids to destroy.The kids don't go to school, yet no one comes around to ask. Evenworse, Abby never leaves the grounds. She doesn't do anything a normalteen girl does -- call friends, make friends, head to the mall, hangout, text. She doesn't even make phone calls to the police to alertthem to what's happening to her.The movie is low-budget which hampers the director's ability to havethe police come out in force. However, that doesn't excuse the directorfrom doing common sense things to give his film credibility.Finally, the ending is totally contrived and uses just about everycliché in the Hollywood suburban thriller handbook. Abby can't doanything to get out of the house. The lone cop (Jason London) nevercalls for backup even after discovering a body. Eve is kicked down aflight of stairs and cracks her head -- twice. Yet, is up andbrandishing a cleaver with no ill effects. Even Ray, the spinelesshubby, finally grows one and saves the day with a gun out of nowhere.The whole movie would fit neatly into the Lifetime network's brand oftear-jerker, damsel in improbably danger kind of plot. For the rest ofus, it's just lazy, clichéd and imperfect.