Although uneven with the laughs, especially toward the third act, the three lead actresses have energetic chemistry with Mila Kunis and Kathryn Hahn being the headliners. As a rental this might be a worthwhile watch and perhaps a purchase down the line at a discount.
Bad Moms
(2016)
Genre(s): Comedy
Universal Pictures | R – 101 min. – $34.98 | November 1, 2016
Date Published: 11/02/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 3.25/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Amy (MILA KUNIS) has a seemingly perfect life – a great marriage, over-achieving kids, a beautiful home and a career. However, she’s over-worked, over-committed and exhausted to the point that she’s about to snap. Fed up, she joins forces with two other over-stressed moms (KRISTEN BELL, KATHRYN HAHN) 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 (CHRISTINA APPLEGATE) and her clique of devoted perfect moms (JADA PINKETT SMITH, ANNIE MUMOLO).
Review: Bad Moms is an uneven comedy with plenty of genuine laughs, but mainly when the three leads — Kunis, Bell and Hahn — are participating in debauchery activities, or just acting, you know, versus toward the end when the film attempts to force some heart into the story, as often these type of comedies do (see: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Neighbors, Knocked Up, etc). That said, I did manage to chuckle or outright laugh during many scenes and made me wonder why writers/directors Jon Lucas & Scott Moore (initially Judd Apatow signed on to produce and direct) weren’t in charge of the Ghostbusters remake. The supporting cast is more or less window dressing. Christine Applegate, Jada Pinkett-Smith and, to a lesser extent, Annie Mumolo play foil to Kunis and company, JJ Watt plays a spineless middle school soccer coach, Wanda Sykes a single scene as a couple’s therapist and Jay Hernandez serves well as a love interest towards Kunis’ character, albeit a forced one, but Hernandez shows some good charm in his limited role.
As it is, the film might’ve lost steam going toward the finish line, and a lame ending, I found Bad Moms to be a worthy rental and might hit home with parents (for which I am not one). Kunis, Bell and Hahn share a great friendly chemistry and at times Hahn steals the show while Applegate makes for your stereotypical/clichéd antagonist. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.5/5 |
| This release comes with a semi-glossy, title-embossed, slip cover. For a movie that was a breakout hit (taking in $180M worldwide on a $20M budget), the features are surprisingly lacking. We get a set of Deleted Scenes (16:36; HD), a Gag Reel (6:02; HD) and Interviews (23:52; HD) with the cast and their own moms, some of which was shown during the end credits. Seems to me this is the kind of movie made to include a cast commentary, but alas… |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Bad Moms parties it up on Blu-ray presented with a 1080p high-definition transfer (AVC encoded) and shown in its original 2.40 theatrical aspect ratio. Being this is a straight-up comedy colors are generally vibrant while detail is fairly sharp and well defined throughout. There were no major flaws such as artifacts, banding or aliasing making for a nice and clean transfer. |
AUDIO – 4.25/5 |
| Although the movie does come with a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track, it is a bit of overkill considering the bulk of audio is dialogue-driven while the one party scene does provide the most depth, but I can’t think of why we needed 7 channels, though the Top 100 songs do blare through quite nicely. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, although uneven with the laughs, especially toward the third act, the three lead actresses have energetic chemistry with Mila Kunis and Kathryn Hahn being the headliners. As a rental this might be a worthwhile watch and perhaps a purchase down the line at a discount. The Blu-ray released through Universal offers great video/audio transfers however the features are sadly limited. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.