Bad Moms (2016)

Jack and I had a lot of laughs at this terribly silly and lewd farce in a second run theatre today. It stars the comedic talents of Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, and Kristen Bell vs. Annie Mumolo, Christina Applegate, and Jada Pinkett Smith. The first four were last blogged in Annie, The Family Fang, and The Boss (both Bell and Mumolo), respectively. Applegate is best known for her TV work, including 258 episodes of Married with Children (1987-1997), 35 of Samantha Who?, and 35 of Up All Night; her movie roles include the first Anchorman (2004) and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues; and I liked Pinkett Smith in Bamboozled (2000), Ali (2001), Collateral (2004), The Women, and Magic Mike XXL. In fact, my only complaint about the movie is that the latter has so little to do--one big line, which we both found dumb and kind of gross.

Jack recognized the soccer coach, played by football player J. J. Watt of the Houston Texans. And other faces on the screen include Emjay Anthony (Chef) and Oona Laurence (new to me) as Kunis' kids, Clark Duke (Kick-Ass) as her boss, David Walton (TV: Bent, About a Boy, and a series arc on New Girl) as her husband, Wendell Pierce (lots of TV and movies, including Get on the Bus (1996), Ray (2004), Horrible Bosses, and 32 episodes of the new The Odd Couple, to name just a few) as the principal, Jay Hernandez (Crazy/Beautiful (2001)) as the hot dad, and Wanda Sykes (first and foremost a stand up comedian, she's been in TV shows including The Chris Rock Show, The Drew Carey Show, her own short-lived Wanda at Large, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Alpha House, Black-ish, and House of Lies) in a funny cameo.

Directed and written by the team of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who co-wrote Four Christmases, and wrote (just the two of them) The Hangover, The Change-Up, and a few other things, and directed one other movie before this. There is a sort-of sequel in development: Bad Dads.

The composer is Christopher Lennertz (last blogged for The Boss) whose score, for at least the third time in my blog, has been upstaged by strong pop tunes.

I almost forgot to mention that this was a nice companion to last night's mini-binge (three episodes out of ten so far) of the new FX series Better Things starring Pamela Adlon and created by her and Louis C.K., about a working mom and her three daughters.

Yes, we sorely needed a comedy this week (see my previous post on Certain Women) and Bad Moms definitely filled the bill, brought to us by Rotten Tomatoes' 60% from critics and 70 from audiences. Tickets cost $2.25 each. It'll probably be free if you have cable or streaming TV in the next few months. Be sure not to get the censored version. And be sure not to skip the credits. All six stars chat on screen with their mothers at the end!