It Came From The Man Cave!: Party Like a Mother

Party Like a Mother

Bad Moms
2016 | R | 1Hr. 40Mins | Comedy | Universal

Directors: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Writers: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Stars:

Mila Kunis

Kathryn Hahn

Kristen Bell

Amy has a seemingly perfect life - a great marriage, over-achieving kids, a beautiful home and a career. However, she's overworked, 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.

Kristen Bell is still my kind of girl.

Oh man, where do I start? So my poor wife has been looking forward to watching Bad Moms for years now. When we get that rare time alone to watch an R rated movie she would ask is it on Netflix or HBO yet and sadly it was not. So this Christmas I picked this one up for her knowing it was something we could do together. So here we are today during a fizzled out Snowmageden grabbed some extra blankets warmed a frozen pizza and fired up Bad Moms. Hmm, a few minutes into the movie we both found ourselves checking on the weather and road conditions so on and so on. Not even an hour into the movie she said Bad Moms is BAD!

The mother-daughter storyline is the only thing worthwhile.

This movie is bad as it continually struggled with what it wants to be, is this a comedy, a drama, maybe a romantic love story? I'm still not sure how to answer. The unfortunate fact that early on, in the movie we are stuck with lame sight gags like a dog wearing a bike helmet with jokes about anal sex and webcam masturbation. Bad Moms wants you to except that two impulses assuming its audience will be delighted and scandalized by any use of the word “*uck” or “vagina,” and proceeds to let them fly. A lot! Like is this the only joke these male writers could come up with?

Yeah, that's how we felt watching you guys!

Mila Kunis is a doll and drives this vehicle rather well but her role was so underwritten and confusing all the time. I would rather have seen this as a mother-daughter storyline rather than a buddy movie. Kunis, who is too often tasked with offering a generic “I suck at this” sentiment and laughing at the others’ craziness. Bell is especially funny as a cheery, lonely mom whose litany of childcare responsibilities has cut her off from the rest of the world. Bell is also given one of the better jokes in the movie by telling her new friends "Sometimes when I'm driving all by myself, I have this fantasy that I get into a car crash. Not a big one with fire and explosions, but just like a little one, but I do get injured and I get to go to the hospital for two weeks and I sleep all day and I eat Jell-O and I watch so much TV and it's all covered by my insurance. My kids bring me balloons, and the nurses rub cream on my feet, and oh, my God, it's so amazing. Is that like something you guys fantasize about, too?"