While new revenge flick The Mother, starring Jennifer Lopez, has done well with audiences, the jury is out on critics - allowing the film to achieve a rather unwanted Rotten Tomatoes milestone.

The movie stars Lopez as a cold-hearted assassin who must protect the daughter she had previously left behind.

Released directly onto Netflix, the trailer gives the impression of a hard-hitting action movie with punch ups and badass one-liners coming out of its ears.

First they came for John Wick's dog, now Jennifer Lopez has to defend her daughter.

The Mother has done pretty well with audiences, with an impressive 70 percent audience score on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Netflix

It's even surpassed two large Netflix films since launching, naturally, on Mother's Day in the US. Since then, some 2.8 million households in the US tuned in to watch it according to data from Samba TV.

Those figures mean that The Mother has had a better start than two flagship movies from Netflix, surpassing both Murder Mystery 2 and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which had 2.4 million and 2.6 million households respectively.

Audiences also appear to have responded well, and many reviewers have heavily praised Lopez's performance.

Natasha Alvar from Cultured Vultures said: "Jennifer Lopez proves that she can handle any genre: from rom-coms to action movies, she can do it all. The Mother becomes highly watchable because of her efforts."

Netflix

Meanwhile, Amon Warmann from Empire Magazine wrote: "This is a come-for-Lopez, stay-for-Lopez endeavour, and she’s on fine, movie star form."

And Stephanie Zacharek from TIME Magazine said: "Lopez can get away with things that other mere mortals can’t, and if you approach it in the right spirit, The Mother could be ridiculously good fun."

However, despite the apparent success in the figures and positive responses from audiences, The Mother has passed an unfortunate milestone on Rotten Tomatoes.

Netflix

While critics were quick to praise Lopez's performance, they also drew attention to the film's 'forgettable' feel and descent into action cliches - with some even suggesting that Lopez was too good for the film.

All this came together to mean that The Mother had an overall critic score of 49 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, low enough for it to pass into the 'certified rotten' category, instead of the coveted 'certified fresh' ranking.

It's a tale as old as time, audiences respond well and commercial success appears to be imminent, but critical acclaim proves a different beast.