Regardless of Its Target Audience, 'Bad Moms' Delivers the Laughs

Bad Moms tells the story of an overworked and overcommitted mom named Amy (Mila Kunis) who is at the brink of being burned out from juggling her career, managing her home, and being hands on with her kids’ academics and extracurricular activities.  One day, she finally gets fed up and decides to stand up against the dictatorial PTA head Gwendolyne (Christina Applegate), whose perfection-demanding administration proved to be taxing for both kids and moms.  Teaming up with a laid-back, rowdy single mom named Carla (Kathryn Hann) and a quirky, meek stay-at-home mom named Kiki (Kristen Bell), Amy decides to run against Gwendolyne for PTA president, while at the same time, loosen up with her new friends – abandoning their daily domestic tasks to have some fun.

Just like the case with the movie Bridesmaids, I surprisingly enjoyed Bad Moms, considering that I’m obviously not part of the demographic that this movie is intended for.  It’s not as hilarious as Bridesmaids, but I dare say that it’s as endearing and heartfelt.  It’s witty, and has some sprinkles of thoughtfulness.

I think it works so well because of the great comedic performances of its cast.  Mila Kunis once again shows she should probably stick with comedy, which she commits to really well (something she didn’t when she had an adventure role).  It’s always a delight to see Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell, on screen, and though her character here doesn’t have the sharp wit of Veronica, she’s still adorably funny.  Kathryn Hann’s raunchy character is a typical comedic role, but she infuses fresh hilarity on it.   And Christina Applegate as the fascistic queen bee antagonist is both effectively despicable and amusingly over-the-top.  There’s this sequence (SPOILERS) where she’s proposing to the moms that their kids would turn out better if they would go to school 365 days a year because summer vacation is dangerous, and then she brings up Genghis Khan and Osama bin Laden as case studies for her argument.  Applegate delivers her ridiculous lines with casual seriousness, as if it’s something pretty normal, and it’s utterly hilarious.

Bad Moms made me laugh.  It’s not the smartest or funniest of comedies, but it successfully delivers a pretty good time to its audience – whether they are moms or not, females or not.