I'm a total sucker for comedies. If it looks even remotely funny, I'll usually check it out, for better or for worse. Sometimes it works out (like with 21 Jump Street), and other times it leaves me extremely disappointed (can anyone say Movie 43?), but that is the curse of loving comedy. I'm the same way with horror. So when I saw the trailers for Bad Moms, I got pretty excited because they really made me laugh, and I was right. This movie was hilarious. I found myself laughing pretty hard at several spots throughout.
Bad Moms has everything you want from a good R-rated comedy...hard laughs, nudity, and tons of swearing, so definitely DON'T bring your young kids to see this. It's funny right off the bat, and never left me wondering when the next laugh would come. And the three main stars were fantastic and really played well off one another. Two of my favorite scenes in the film happen toward the beginning; the bar scene and the grocery store scene, which take place back-to-back. I found myself laughing so hard during the bar scene and that just carried over into the grocery one. And Kathryn Hahn shined right away. She's like a much funnier Melissa McCarthy, and I really hope to see her in more comedies in the future.
The film was written and directed by the team of Scott Moore and Jon Lucas, who have worked together on films like 21 & Over, The Change-Up, and The Hangover series. Now, I know that other than the first Hangover movie, this doesn't seem like that impressive of a list, but it's their familiarity in R-rated comedy that helped make this film a success. This has become one of my favorite films that they have done, right behind the first Hangover. They did a great job with most of these characters and I never once found myself being bored.
Speaking of characters, it was the three leads that really made this film as funny as it was. Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn each brought something different to the table, and together they crushed it in the comedy department. I absolutely loved their chemistry together. They meshed perfectly right from the beginning, as if they had been best friends the entire time. Of the three, I'd have to say that Kathryn Hahn's character Carla was definitely the stand out. Pretty much everything she said made me laugh. This, however, can't be said for the three antagonists of the film, Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate), Stacy (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Vicky (Annie Mumolo), or as I like to call them, the bitchy PTA moms. Most of their jokes fell flat for me. I don't know if they were supposed to come off that way, as I'm sure the filmmakers didn't want them to be likable, but I still would have rather them actually be funny, than so glaringly not.
I loved that the kids in the film had a bigger role in the overall story as well, instead of just being background characters used to push the moms' story forward. We actually got a sense of who they were as people and how their relationships with their moms shaped them into who they had become. We also got a couple of fun cameos by Martha Stewart and the very funny Wanda Sykes. Both these cameos were great.
Other than the bitchy PTA moms not being as funny as I wish they had been, the only other part of the film that I had a problem with was the PTA confrontation scene when (SPOILERS) Amy declares she's running for PTA president. It just felt very awkward and disjointed and took me out of the film. I think they were going for an awkward funny moment, but, in my opinion, it just didn't work.
Other than that, I loved this film, and it is definitely my favorite comedy of the year so far. So, if you're looking for something funny to watch and don't mind a hard R-rated comedy, then I highly recommend checking out Bad Moms.
The Merc's Score: 8/10
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