Bad Moms (2016)
Directed by Scott Moore
When three overworked and under-appreciated moms are pushed beyond their limits, they ditch their conventional responsibilities for a jolt of long overdue freedom, fun, and comedic self-indulgence.
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She’s a less interesting Regina George, of “Mean Girls” infamy, rounding out the comparison with two silly sidekicks, played by Jada Pinkett Smith and Annie Mumolo.
Imagine “Mean Girls” for the soccer mom set, and you’ve got some idea of the horrors that await Amy every time she drops off her two kids at McKinley Middle School, an institution ruled by the iron fist of PTA president Gwendolyn James (Christina Applegate).
The other moms at the high school could be the grown-up versions of characters we first met in Tina Fey's "Mean Girls."
She rules the school from the driver’s seat of her Range Rover, lording over her “Mean Girls” (Jada Pinkett Smith, Annie Mumulo) and judging one and all.
Taking hints of inspiration from 2004's super-smart, Tina Fey-scripted high school satire " Mean Girls ," "Bad Moms" follows a trio of women who tire of trying to fit into the judgmental queen-bee clique of middle school PTA moms and carve out their own space as friends challenging the status quo.
“Bad Moms” wants very badly to be a mix of “Bridesmaids” and “Mean Girls,” but fails because it lacks heart.
Of all the movies to follow the Bad formula — a collection that includes Bad Grandpa, Bad Teacher, Bad Santa, and that has somehow retroactively enveloped Abel Ferrara’s not-like-the-others 1992 Bad Lieutenant — Bad Moms clearly features the lowest standards for what constitutes misbehavior.
From (two of) “the dudes who brought you The Hangover” comes another entry in the proliferating Bad/Dirty-verse still ruled by 2003’s Bad Santa (Dirty Grandpa was a late overachiever).
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the tradition of similarly named movies -- "Bad Teacher," "Bad Bosses" and even "Bad Santa" -- comes the Mila Kunis comedy project "Bad Moms."
Bad Santa, Bad Teacher, Bad Grandpa (Dirty Grandpa), Bad Lieutenant, Bad Boys, Bad Girls, Badlands, Superbad, Very Bad Things — etc.
Of course, it’s been shown that when a movie has “bad” in the title and features a true celebration of bad behavior (“Bad Santa,” “Bad Teacher”), it may just have a commercial edge.
Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn are the mothers of the depressingly boilerplate title (I’m thankful for a lot of what Bad Santa gave us, but not that rubber-stamp titling rubric), and as you’ve probably gathered from the trailers and said title, they play a trio of (hot, of course) suburban mothers who’ve finally had enough of the exhausting rituals of perfect-momming, and lash back with drinking, screwing, and general hell-raising.
But as they continue – particularly around the time Christina Applegate is recalling how her mom took her, at nine years old, to see the notorious Al Pacino S&M thriller Cruising – it becomes clear that this little sequence, as peculiar as it is, has more warmth, charm, and truth than anything that’s come before it.
Of all the movies to follow the Bad formula — a collection that includes Bad Grandpa, Bad Teacher, Bad Santa, and that has somehow retroactively enveloped Abel Ferrara’s not-like-the-others 1992 Bad Lieutenant — Bad Moms clearly features the lowest standards for what constitutes misbehavior.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the tradition of similarly named movies -- "Bad Teacher," "Bad Bosses" and even "Bad Santa" -- comes the Mila Kunis comedy project "Bad Moms."
Bad Santa, Bad Teacher, Bad Grandpa (Dirty Grandpa), Bad Lieutenant, Bad Boys, Bad Girls, Badlands, Superbad, Very Bad Things — etc.
Of course, it’s been shown that when a movie has “bad” in the title and features a true celebration of bad behavior (“Bad Santa,” “Bad Teacher”), it may just have a commercial edge.
But in the pantheon of “Bad” movies—“ Bad Santa ,” “ Bad Teacher ,” “Bad Grandpa”—this one’s actually pretty good.
Five years after Jake Kasdan’s Bad Teacher found easy jokes in the then-taboo sight of middle-school teacher Cameron Diaz showing up to work hung over and mocking her students, the pocket genre of films and TV shows about women in positions of authority shirking their responsibilities (“Bad Judge,” anyone?) seems to have hit a peak.
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Of all the movies to follow the Bad formula — a collection that includes Bad Grandpa, Bad Teacher, Bad Santa, and that has somehow retroactively enveloped Abel Ferrara’s not-like-the-others 1992 Bad Lieutenant — Bad Moms clearly features the lowest standards for what constitutes misbehavior.
Commiserating with two similarly taxed women - the talented Kristen Bell, the talented Kathryn Hahn - over shots of blended whiskey (McCleary's, the faux brand that John Travolta downs in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction - talk about homages), Amy becomes the me-first heroine of this mildly amusing, moderately raunchy, mostly schematic comedy.
Kunis’ low-key charm makes her a perfect fit for the part, which Sarah Jessica Parker essentially tried and failed to bring off in the very similar but disastrous 2011 movie “I Don’t Know How She Does It.” Millions of moms will identify with the scrambled chaos of her work-home life, and if Lucas and Moore rely too heavily on clichés and cheap gags in the early going, the movie gains a little substance and understanding as it goes along.
Amy is a working mom who makes all of her kids’ breakfast and lunches, takes them to school, works her sales job at a hipster coffee roaster, then is late picking up her kids or going to a PTA meeting, cooks a meal for her family, and… starting to sound like that Sarah Jessica Parker rom-com I Don’t Know How She Does It?
Like 2011’s insipid adaptation of I Don’t Know How She Does It, we’re trading in a wholly manufactured tension between stay-at-home moms and working moms.
During its big finish, Bad Moms — which is the work of The Hangover writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore — delivers a pabulum-y message about how hard it is to be a mom these days and about finding more time to let college-prep-stressed kids be kids.
Complete with a drunken stump speech and rowdy supermarket antics, “Bad Moms” is “The Hangover” for suburban mothers.
Written and directed by the men behind The Hangover films, Bad Moms is a kind of reverse male fantasy which shows a group of mums getting out of order – but not too out of order – to pep up their humdrum lives.
This desperate comedy, in which a fed-up mother (Mila Kunis) boycotts cooking and cleaning and goes on a vodka-and-Froot Loops-fuelled bender, wants to be like The Hangover for moms.
Writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the brain trust behind “The Hangover” series, have assembled a tremendous cast and have delivered a raunchy, rowdy, sharp and heartfelt take on modern motherhood in “Bad Moms.”
Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who did the three The Hangover movies, are responsible for Bad Moms.
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In supporting roles, Jay Hernandez (2008's " Nothing Like the Holidays ") oozes natural charisma as Jessie, the so-called "hot widower" Amy finds herself drawn to, and Oona Laurence (2015's " Southpaw ") is winning as Amy's Type-A 12-year-old daughter Jane.
And the cutthroat campaign for PTA president seems to have borrowed a page from " Napoleon Dynamite.