Review of Bad Moms (2016) by Chris O — 02 Mar 2017

A film that advertises itself as an empowerment movie for women, but ultimately results in another raunchy, meaningless comedy.

In this new comedy from the grateful husbands and devoted fathers who wrote The Hangover, Amy has a seemingly perfect life--a great marriage, over-achieving kids, beautiful home and a career. However she's over-worked, over-committed and exhausted to the point that she's about to snap. Fed up, she joins forces with two other over-stressed moms on a quest to liberate themselves from conventional responsibilities--going on a wild, un-mom-like binge of long overdue freedom, fun and self-indulgence--putting them on a collision course with PTA Queen Bee Gwendolyn and her clique of devoted perfect moms.

I'm not really sure why I watched this movie. It was late at night, I was bored, but I figured, why not? I'm not saying this movie was all bad. I thought the acting was good and Mila Kunis did a great job as the lead character. I feel like Mila Kunis isn't going to have a diverse resume of film roles by the end of her career, but I enjoy watching her act on screen and she did a great job. Everyone else in the movie was a real mixed bag for me, especially Kathryn Hahn (cheers to cliche characters and annoying ones at that).

The screenplay was also a mixed bag. I think they were trying to go for a bigger, more broader, feel-good message, but it ended up being really cliche and stereotypical. Nothing about this film was new and in fact, it followed every classic Hollywood trope out there. The story just wasn't that interesting or unique. I think it had a few things here and there but the writers just didn't know what they were working with.

The comedy didn't really make me laugh. In all honesty, there will be some relatable parts in here for Moms, but there is also a lot of raunchy humor. I don't comprehend it because in all honesty, raunchy humor doesn't amuse people 90% of the time. Again, the movie has some okay moments but it's nothing special.

In then end, "Bad Moms" is OK for what it is, but that's not saying much. This is the kind of movie you'd pick up on an ambient, quiet weekday night.