Bad Moms is one of the few surprises left of the summer. This is the type of raunchy, tacky, funny comedy that I wanted and missed in bombs like Dirty Grandpa and The Boss.
Kunis plays Amy Mitchell, a mother who tries to be perfect in nearly every aspect of her life and suffers from a Type A personality. After having a severe case of Murphy’s law, Amy snaps and after joining up with some other moms from her P.T.A. (Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn), they make the spontaneous decision to go party. Bell and Hahn provide perfect contrast to themselves as well as Kunis’ character, especially with Hahn’s dialogue spouting off one-liners that are sure to make you simultaneously offended and laughing with tears.
While Amy and her friends are partying like rock stars, they completely neglect their own parental responsibilities and make their kids start doing stuff for themselves. This also provides some true laughs on both ends of the spectrum.
Christina Appelgate costars as Amy’s rival and P.T.A. president who’s determined to bring her down after Amy announces that she’s running for that same slot. Jada Pinkett Smith and Annie Mumolo are her cronies-in-crime.
There’s an awful lot to like about Bad Moms. Writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore who wrote The Hangover are basically gender-swapping, but instead of going to Las Vegas for all the hijinks, they transpose the action into suburbia and the results are mostly funny and authentic.
Even when the film gets bogged down in predictability and sentimentality, it always manages to recover with something hilarious at nearly every corner. Next to The Nice Guys, this has been the second funniest movie I’ve seen this summer.
Grade: B+
(Rated R for sexual material, full frontal nudity, language, and drug and alcohol content.)
