Bad Moms-2016
Director Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn
Scott’s Review #706
Reviewed December 20, 2017
Grade: D+
Bad Moms (2016) tries to do for women what The Hangover (2009) did for men and create a raunchy, R-rated party romp that haggard mothers everywhere can relate to and appreciate.
The film’s billboard displays the three main characters boozing it up under the caption “Party Like a Mother.” Perhaps since I am not a mother, I did not entirely gravitate toward this film, but Bad Moms fell flat for me despite a smidgen of mild laughs.
Primarily because of tired characters, gimmicky situations, and an over-the-top tone.
The film, written by the same individuals who wrote The Hangover, is a direct ripoff with a different gender in the driver’s seat.
The central character is Amy Mitchell (Mila Kunis), a thirty-two-year-old mother of two who is living a busy life in the Chicago suburbs.
Considered “old” by her hipster boss and with a porn-obsessed husband, she runs around frazzled and behind schedule most of the time.
After a particularly hairy day, Amy abruptly quits the school PTA run by militant Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate). She befriends fellow moms, sex-crazed Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and timid Kiki (Kristen Bell).
After she incites Gwendolyn’s wrath, Amy decides enough is enough and embarks on a plot to win the PTA presidency while dumping her husband and dating a hunky widower, Jessie (Jay Hernandez).
Admittedly, Kunis is very likable as Amy. She’s an incredible, energetic chick who most would love to befriend, and we empathize with her predicaments and schedule.
But this can only go so far in a comedic film. The setup pieces and the supporting characters are too plot-driven and lack authenticity. The result is little more than one root-able character.
As an actress, Applegate is quite capable, but Gwendolyn, the transparent foil, is primarily written as a cartoon character. Her bitchy comments to her underlings, who inexplicably are afraid to cross her, seem too staged.
Jada Pinkett Smith, in need of a paycheck, is disposable as “second in command” crony Stacy. Furthermore, Amy’s husband, Mike (David Walton), is portrayed mainly as a buffoon and childlike.
The point of these character examples is to stress that the film contains too many caricatures rather than characters.
An irritating quality of Bad Moms that I cannot shake is that the film is written and directed by a duo of men! Jon Lucas and Scott Moore are the individuals in question, and the fact that the film, painted as a female empowerment story, is not written by females is almost unforgivable.
A case in point involves a bathroom scene where the ladies discuss uncircumcised penises, a dumb scene if you ask me, that is lousy taste considering men wrote and directed it.
In this day and age of Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment suits bubbling to the surface, the scene seems icky. It should not be this hard to find women to write for other women.
Of the additional trio of females, Kathryn Hahn’s Carla has a few funny scenes but is written as so sex-obsessed that it is impossible to take the character seriously, and the same goes for Bell’s Kiki.
When mousy Kiki finally lays down the law and tells her boorish husband to deal with their kids, it is meant to be a rah-rah moment, but instead becomes eye-rolling. Not the best actress in the world, Bell continues to get roles like this in sub-par films.
An attempt by filmmakers to make a girl film on par with male-driven raunchy comedies thrust on moviegoers over the years, Bad Moms (2016) comes across as too unoriginal and too desperate for laughs.
Undoubtedly hoping to win over the same audiences who flocked to the last funny female-driven comedy hit, 2011 Bridesmaids, the film falls flat and lacks genuine fun.
Kunis’s lead role and the sweet romance her character shares with Hernandez’s Jessie slightly bolster this.
