Bad Moms - directed by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore
The word 'Bad' seems to be almost a comedy franchise in itself these days.
"Bad Santa", "Bad Teacher", "Bad Grandpa", "Bad Words".... and now inevitably "Bad Moms".
In this film Mila Kunis plays a woman much put upon by the demands of parenthood, career and one particularly nasty nemesis played by Christina Applegate.
This movie seems to have been custom created to appeal to women based on a simple premise and that is perfectly fine.
I would have liked the execution to have been better but all in all this is not too bad.
The plot here is that with all that is going on her life - job pressures, raising two children and having a functionally useless husband- a young Mother snaps when the President of the PTA demands that she live up to an unreasonable ideal.
Refusing to yield to the pressure to be a perfect Mother she instead quits, kicks her husband out (he deserved it), drives his muscle car instead of the mini-van and begins a friendship with two other fed up Mothers- one a promiscuous firecracker the other an under the thumb pushover.
The three women start to enjoy life without the PTA until the nasty President forces them into competing head to head for the job.
As the PTA head Christina Applegate gets to play an irredeemably awful human being.
She is self centred, conniving, vicious and completely lacking in empathy or ethics in her drive to be the Queen of an army of perfectly dressed, obsessive Stepford Wife types.
I really enjoyed her performance and it looks like she did too.
I enjoyed Mila Kunis in the lead role as Amy the put upon Mom much less.
I like Kunis a lot- who doesn't?
She appears to have a personality as lovely as her striking good looks by all accounts.
But I think I like her for the woman more than the actor.
She seems to lack range and constantly plays the same part over and over again and dare I say it- unconvincingly.
In this part she relies on the same expressions - the blank dumbfounded expression when something goes wrong, the sad face when she has given up, the goofy but oh-so-sexy smiles and wide eyes stares when romance is required.
Again- I like Kunis but I think that she is best used in supporting roles such as those in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Ted" rather than front and centre as she is here.
Luckily this movie has a secret weapon in the form of Kathryn Hahn who utterly dominates every scene that she appears in.
I have been a fan for a while and even when she stars in movies that are merely okay such as "The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard" she shines.
Her abrasive, profane and shameless Carla in this film is a gem and allows her to cut loose with a constant stream of profanity and frank sexual descriptions that provided by far the bulk of the laughs in this film.
She may single handedly be the reason for the R rating on this film!
I wasn't so sure about Kristen Bell to start with but as the movie allowed her character to blossom she grew on me.
The chemistry between Bell and Hahn make me keen for someone to pair them up again with better material.
Not to say that this movie is no good - it provides a decent distraction with a fair few chuckles.
It is completely forgettable though.
There are no killer scenes that will have people talking and the script is severely under written.
Amy has a job and she is apparently indispensable. It is at a coffee company that has no business being on this side of bankruptcy. It is populated with a bunch of useless Millennials who don't do any actual work.
Amy does but then she is only there a few days a week. How she makes enough money to raise two children in a nice suburban house I have no idea.
But it doesn't matter of course.
Without wanting to spoil anything the wrap up here is highly unlikely and completely predictable.
Also there is no getting around the fact that the three lead characters go from railing against being perfect Moms to being out and out negligent ones.
This idea is halfheartedly explored before being wrapped up far too neatly also.
There is a love interest in the form of Jay Hernandez (who is actually pretty good) but in keeping with the other aspects this subplot is bolted on seemingly as an afterthought.
His presence matters not one little bit to the plot and the events therein.
Same goes for the stupidly useless husband character who
Honestly this movie is only as successful as it is due to the amazing work from Hahn and the wonderful support from Bell.
I could watch Kathryn Hahn rant for hours and the script is smart in effectively showing her an open gate and a lush meadow and thus freed she lets rip with a barrage of inappropriateness that frequently had me me in stitches.
When she disappears for a short time she is missed greatly.
There are a few performances that go a way towards making up for her absence such as a terrific marriage counselling scene featuring the great Wanda Sykes and a nice turn from Wendell Pierce as the school principal.
I enjoyed this movie for what it is- a decent bit of forgettable fluff but I still can't help but think that in better hands this could have been more like "Bad Santa" and less like "Bad Teacher".
Oh, and stay for the end credits where you meet the main casts real life Mothers - it is good stuff.
RATING: 68 / 100
CONCLUSION: A bit of fun mainly thanks to the brilliant Kathryn Hahn who almost makes up for a cliched plot, underwritten characters and a completely predictable ending.
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Christina Applegate, Jada Pinkett Smith, Oona Laurence, Emjay Anthony, Annie Mumolo, Jay Hernandez, Wendell Pierce, Clark Duke, Megan Ferguson, Lyle Brocato, David Walton, Wanda Sykes, Martha Stewart
Screenplay: Jon Lucas & Scott Moore
Music Score by: Christopher Lennertz
Cinematography: Jim Deanult
Cinematography: Jim Deanult
Edited by: Emma E Hickox & James Thomas
Running Time: 100 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R16 - Profanity, Sex Scenes but mainly Kathryn Hahn
Running Time: 100 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R16 - Profanity, Sex Scenes but mainly Kathryn Hahn
The word 'Bad' seems to be almost a comedy franchise in itself these days.
"Bad Santa", "Bad Teacher", "Bad Grandpa", "Bad Words".... and now inevitably "Bad Moms".
In this film Mila Kunis plays a woman much put upon by the demands of parenthood, career and one particularly nasty nemesis played by Christina Applegate.
This movie seems to have been custom created to appeal to women based on a simple premise and that is perfectly fine.
I would have liked the execution to have been better but all in all this is not too bad.
The plot here is that with all that is going on her life - job pressures, raising two children and having a functionally useless husband- a young Mother snaps when the President of the PTA demands that she live up to an unreasonable ideal.
Refusing to yield to the pressure to be a perfect Mother she instead quits, kicks her husband out (he deserved it), drives his muscle car instead of the mini-van and begins a friendship with two other fed up Mothers- one a promiscuous firecracker the other an under the thumb pushover.
The three women start to enjoy life without the PTA until the nasty President forces them into competing head to head for the job.
As the PTA head Christina Applegate gets to play an irredeemably awful human being.
She is self centred, conniving, vicious and completely lacking in empathy or ethics in her drive to be the Queen of an army of perfectly dressed, obsessive Stepford Wife types.
I really enjoyed her performance and it looks like she did too.
 |
| Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell and far right David Walton |
I like Kunis a lot- who doesn't?
She appears to have a personality as lovely as her striking good looks by all accounts.
But I think I like her for the woman more than the actor.
She seems to lack range and constantly plays the same part over and over again and dare I say it- unconvincingly.
In this part she relies on the same expressions - the blank dumbfounded expression when something goes wrong, the sad face when she has given up, the goofy but oh-so-sexy smiles and wide eyes stares when romance is required.
Again- I like Kunis but I think that she is best used in supporting roles such as those in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Ted" rather than front and centre as she is here.
Luckily this movie has a secret weapon in the form of Kathryn Hahn who utterly dominates every scene that she appears in.
I have been a fan for a while and even when she stars in movies that are merely okay such as "The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard" she shines.
Her abrasive, profane and shameless Carla in this film is a gem and allows her to cut loose with a constant stream of profanity and frank sexual descriptions that provided by far the bulk of the laughs in this film.
She may single handedly be the reason for the R rating on this film!
I wasn't so sure about Kristen Bell to start with but as the movie allowed her character to blossom she grew on me.
The chemistry between Bell and Hahn make me keen for someone to pair them up again with better material.
 |
| Kathryn Hahn as Carla - easily the best part of the movie |
Not to say that this movie is no good - it provides a decent distraction with a fair few chuckles.
It is completely forgettable though.
There are no killer scenes that will have people talking and the script is severely under written.
Amy has a job and she is apparently indispensable. It is at a coffee company that has no business being on this side of bankruptcy. It is populated with a bunch of useless Millennials who don't do any actual work.
Amy does but then she is only there a few days a week. How she makes enough money to raise two children in a nice suburban house I have no idea.
But it doesn't matter of course.
Without wanting to spoil anything the wrap up here is highly unlikely and completely predictable.
Also there is no getting around the fact that the three lead characters go from railing against being perfect Moms to being out and out negligent ones.
This idea is halfheartedly explored before being wrapped up far too neatly also.
There is a love interest in the form of Jay Hernandez (who is actually pretty good) but in keeping with the other aspects this subplot is bolted on seemingly as an afterthought.
His presence matters not one little bit to the plot and the events therein.
Same goes for the stupidly useless husband character who
 |
| The villains - Annie Mumolo, Jada Pinkett Smith and the great Christina Applegate |
I could watch Kathryn Hahn rant for hours and the script is smart in effectively showing her an open gate and a lush meadow and thus freed she lets rip with a barrage of inappropriateness that frequently had me me in stitches.
When she disappears for a short time she is missed greatly.
There are a few performances that go a way towards making up for her absence such as a terrific marriage counselling scene featuring the great Wanda Sykes and a nice turn from Wendell Pierce as the school principal.
I enjoyed this movie for what it is- a decent bit of forgettable fluff but I still can't help but think that in better hands this could have been more like "Bad Santa" and less like "Bad Teacher".
Oh, and stay for the end credits where you meet the main casts real life Mothers - it is good stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment