Mr. Mom Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Mr. Mom Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson October 4, 2017

According to the production notes of Mr. Mom (1983), the concept for this throwback screwball comedy emanated from an idea discussed during a meeting (on a different project) between producer Lynn Loring, executive producer Aaron Spelling, and screenwriter John Hughes. "John and I started talking about our lives," Loring recalled, "and I said, 'You know, the kind of film that I've always wanted to do is something that happened to me about seven years ago. My husband (actor Roy Thinnes of "Falcon Crest") stayed home and didn't work for a while, out of choice. He supervised the kids, did some writing, and that's when I chose – or rather when he threw me out of the house – to go to work." Hughes guffawed at the story and revealed to Loring that he had seventy pages of similar scripted material in his trunk. "It turned out he had gone through the same thing after leaving the ad agency business," Loring continued. "Also about seven years ago, John had not been able to find the kind of work he wanted, so his wife had gone out to work, while he played house-mother to two young children.'' (Producer Lauren Shuler Donner recounts similar anecdotes in a retrospective doc on this disc.)

Mr. Mom was the third solo credited screenplay by Hughes following Class Reunion (1982) and National Lampoon's Vacation from earlier that year. Reviewers were hardest on Hughes because they thought Mr. Mom was just another perfunctory rehash of a TV sitcom best suited for the small screen. A Variety critic headlined his review with "Misses ... Bomb." He prognosticated that distributor 20th Century-Fox "is in trouble with [Mr. Mom] since it's difficult to imagine audiences paying to see a poorly executed idea they have no doubt viewed for free on the tube." The film takes place in suburban middle America where it follows the Butler family: automotive executive Jack (Michael Keaton), wife Caroline (Teri Garr), two boys, and a baby girl. At the automobile plant, Jack learns that he has been canned by his manager Jinx (Jeffrey Tambor). Hughes is particularly prophetic with the first act as it portends the massive layoffs of auto workers in Michigan throughout the eighties. (The movie's setting is Detroit but a critic for the Detroit Free Press complained that it looked nothing like the motor city. The reason is the picture was shot in Pasadena and Los Angeles.) While Jack is furious and disconsolate over his ouster, Caroline has had her sights set on a corporate job and lands a consultant position at an advertising firm. Jack and her end up swapping domestic chores. He becomes the "Mr. Mom" of the household and she takes on her firm's $10 million Schooner Tuna account.

Jack and Caroline Butler are switching roles.

One of the real pleasures of Mr. Mom is the way that Hughes structures the series of comic mishaps in the middle and end of the film. Jack is overwhelmed tending to his three kids to the extent that he's clueless to the problems encountered by pest control, a water heater technician, and the TV repair-woman. Director Stan Dragoti (Love at First Bite) deftly choreographs these sight gags as everything reaches a boiling point in the Butler home. Jack struggles with the blender and deciding which and how much laundry detergent to put in the wash machine. Hughes and Dragoti also introduce Jack to the misadventures of supermarket shopping when he knocks over a food pyramid and can't find one of his kids. Meanwhile, Caroline excels at her new job and quietly becomes the company's marketing star. Caroline's so tired at night that she's oblivious to the clutter Jack's created inside.

Hughes and Dragoti demonstrate how the gender reversals have unfavorable effects on the Butlers' marriage. Caroline is rarely home and grows attached (however reluctantly) to her boss, the lubricious Ron Richardson (Martin Mull). Ron arranges to have Caroline picked up in a limo and takes her with him on trips, including to LA where she will debut a tuna commercial. Jack becomes overworked around the house and spends his downtime hanging out with Caroline's girlfriends, who are all divorcees. They play poker in the Butler kitchen where Jack replaces the cards with grocery coupons. Amorous Joan (Ann Jillian in a red wig) repeatedly tries to seduce Jack whose marriage is unraveling.

Lauren Shuler Donner claims that the reviews for Mr. Mom were atrocious but there was a lot of praise to go around for Keaton (in just his second major screen role) and some accolades for Garr as well. Mr. Mom was an important stepping stone for Hughes too as the Lansing native went on to direct his first feature a year later. Any critical venom injected at Mr. Mom was snuffed out at the box office where the film grossed nearly $65 million.

Mr. Mom Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mr. Mom makes its long awaited debut on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout Select (#28 in the imprint's series) on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. MGM reformatted the widescreen image to 1.33:1 on its Region 1 DVD while that studio's European counterparts opened it up to 1.78:1 anamorphic. It is a welcome sight that Shout presents the film in its original exhibited ratio of 1.85:1. The label gives the main feature a very healthy bitrate, which averages 32993 kbps, while the entire disc comes out at 40.53 Mbps. The main titles and first couple of reels carry quite a bit of dirt (you can see a black dot on Keaton's forehead in Screenshot #1 and one near his Adam's apple in #15). Stock shots and particularly exteriors (e.g., #26) contain a good smattering of grain. Mr. Mom's Metrocolor was projected to look dark. The aforementioned Variety critic was one of the first to see a pre-release print at the Darryl F. Zanuck Theatre in Hollywood and noted "a darkened often subdued atmosphere." Also, Geoff Brown of the UK magazine Monthly Film Bulletin observed: "For a film from the trenches of consumerism, the photography is remarkably murky." Color correction is improved from prior video editions. See especially #s 6, 15, 22, 27, and 28.

The feature includes twelve scene selections.

Mr. Mom Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout includes the movie's original DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Dual Mono (1964 kbps, 24-bit) and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround remix (3299 kbps, 24-bit). I listened to both tracks and the only discernible difference is that the 5.1 shows more separation along the front speakers. The surrounds are mostly quiet. Dialogue is mainly intelligible but fluctuates in pitch. It seems that the farther away the camera and/or boom mics are from the actors, the less audible the words. But infinitesimal voices are not a frequent occurrence. Composer Lee Holdridge delivers a light and melodic score. Holdridge's parodist arrangements of the themes for Williams's Jaws (named for the Butlers' vacuum, who eats everything up), Goldsmith's Patton, and Vangelis' Chariots of Fire are center oriented. The instrumental rendition of Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" shows the most spaciousness and depth. It also is very clear across the three fronts.

Optional English SDH can be accessed through the main menu or via remote.

Mr. Mom Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shout misleadingly tags this as a "Collector's Edition" when there's only a trailer and a new making-of that runs over a half hour. But then again, the DVDs contained zilch.

• NEW A Look Back at Mr. Mom with Producer Lauren Shuler Donner and Co-stars Ann Jillian, Miriam Flynn, Frederick Koehler, and Taliesin Jaffe (36:01, 1080p) - interviews with the listed participants are interspersed with clips from the movie. In English, not subtitled.

• Original Theatrical Trailer (1:32, 1080p) - a remastered MGM trailer of Mr. Mom that played preceding Fox's release of the film. The print has natural grain and some tramlines. In English, not subtitled.

Mr. Mom Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mr. Mom possesses a warm simplicity and charm that's largely missing from today's cinema. Keaton is a comedic standout in one of his earliest and memorable roles. Shout Select has not given the interpositive a complete remastering as there's still print damage that needs to be cleaned up. But the transfer easily surpasses its standard definition predecessors. The uncompressed audio tracks reveal some of the original recording's source limitations but they're presented cleanly on this Blu-ray. Extras are average as I would have liked the new doc to be longer. It also would have been good if Shout persisted to conduct new interviews with Keaton, Garr, Mull, and Tambor. I also would have loved to have heard Lauren Shuler Donner do a feature-length commentary. Still, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of the stars and Hughes.