Blu-Ray Review – Bad Moms

Blu-ray Reviews, Film, Reviews, Top Story

When you’re looking to make a raunchy R-rated comedy for women it’s best to have someone with some experience in the genre. Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the writers of The Hangover and a number of R-rated features, take their second turn behind the camera as the team had a much bigger hit with their sophomore effort Bad Moms.

Simple premise. Amy (Mila Kunis) wants to have it all as a mother, wife and working professional. When everything seems to go wrong for her at the same time she runs into a pair of kindred spirits (Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn) a wild night on the town leads to an epiphany: run for the board of the PTA. It won’t be easy as Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) stands in her way.

The one thing that Lucas & Moore do, which many female centric films written and directed by men don’t, is not pander to their audience. The two, who wrote and directed the film, give us three women with very different perspectives and keep them with different personalities throughout. This isn’t a film that sort of mish-mashes them, ala Horrible Bosses, as each woman retains their individuality throughout. It’s refreshing in a world where many writers just create characters and use them as the script dictates as opposed to how the characters should act based on how they’ve been established.

It makes for an interesting story, albeit one we know what’ll happen. This is a paint by numbers film plot wise but what Moore and Lucas have done is take that story and add in a ton of comedy. In a year where comedy has been fairly lackluster Bad Moms found an audience by appealing to women and by being a genuinely funny movie. It’s a more vulgar version of Bridesmaids in that regard but this stands on its own because of how genuinely funny the film is.

It’s the flipside of Bridesmaids, which had some genuinely strong dramatic moments coupled with some markedly terrible comedy. This is a terrific comedy coupled with a lackluster drama.

The cast and their mothers get interviews, which is interesting, but the rest is fairly pedestrian (deleted scenes, gag reel, et al).

Universal presents Bad Moms. Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Starring Christina Applegate, Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Annie Mumolo, Kristen Bell, Jada Pinkett Smith. Run Time: 100 minutes. Rated R. Released on: 11.1.16