WARNING: This film is rated R and this review discusses things said and done in the movie.
Bad Moms is directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, known for writing the 2009 comedy The Hangover. The film follows Amy Mitchell (Mila Kunis), an overworked mother of two kids and wife to a man who she refers to as her “third child”. One day, she catches her husband Mike masturbating while video-chatting with a hooker. She kicks him out, and the next day tries to do everything by herself, telling her kids that Mike had to leave for a business trip. That day, she experiences horrible occurrences that test her patience, including spilling coffee on herself, accidentally committing a felony hit-and-run, and getting knocked unconscious at Jane’s soccer practice. This all leads to her being late for the middle school’s PTA meeting, where she finally decides that she is sick of having to do everything for her kids and quits. She meets up with two other moms, Carla (Katherine Hahn), a sex-obsessed single mom and Kiki (Kristen Bell), another overworked and underappreciated mother who has four kids. They decide to be “bad moms” and go against the rules by doing everything moms shouldn’t do, along with disobeying PTA leader Gwendolyn James (Christina Applegate).
This movie is hilarious. It’s very crude, but very funny and is probably the best comedy of the year. Neighbors 2 was just a rehash of the original, and while still funny, wasn’t as fresh and unique as its predecessor. Bad Moms takes an idea that is pretty original and gives it a nice spin, leading to laughs throughout the film’s 1 hour 40 min. runtime. The dialogue is awesome and gives us a whole new level of crude without getting too sexist or racist, unlike Neighbors 2. The actresses’ chemistry is very well done, and while Kunis’s character is the primary focus, the other leading ladies get just as much time to show the audience their qualities and express their personalities. One great moment comes where Kiki stand up to her husband with the quote, “Stop being a go**amn pu**y and make it work!” It made me laugh so hard because these moms are so tired of taking care of their kids who think they’re entitled.
The main problem I had with this film was its predictability. I knew where it was headed, right from the get-go, and unfortunately, it was a huge waste of such great actresses and actors. As soon as Jay Hernandez appeared on the screen as widow Jesse, I could tell that he and Kunis’s characters would end up falling for each other, and guess what happened? They fell for each other. It kind of went on like that throughout the whole film. I predicted that Kunis would give an inspirational speech and become the PTA president, and it happened. It just dragged, but aside from that, the film was great. It was funny, crass, crude, and pretty much any other thing that could be applied to comedy movies nowadays. Aside from its predictability, I enjoyed Bad Moms a lot, and I’m going to give it a B+.
Bad Moms stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Katherine Hahn, Christina Applegate, Jada Pinkett Smith, Annie Mumulo, Jay Hernandez, David Walton. Directed by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore.
