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Aiming to be offensive but just missing, "Bad Moms" enforces an unfair double standard for raunchy R-rated comedies — in which women have to justify antics that guys can perpetrate without an uplifting finale.
Mila Kunis stars as Amy, a harried mom trying to juggle an overachieving 12-year-old daughter, Jane (Oona Laurence); an underachieving 11-year-old son, Dylan (Emjay Anthony); a part-time job with a hipster boss (Clark Duke); and an unhelpful husband, Mike (David Walton).
When Amy rebels against the hyper-perfect PTA president, Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate), she gets support from stay-at-home mom Kiki (Kristen Bell) and hard-partying mom Carla (Kathryn Hahn), leading to a drunken gripe session about people's impossible parenting expectations. When Amy decides to challenge Gwendolyn in the next PTA election, Gwendolyn gets nasty, taking aim not only at her but at Jane.
The writing-directing team of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (who wrote "The Hangover") get spotty laughs from the outlandish situation, mostly thanks to the reliably funny Bell, Hahn and Anne Mumolo as one of Gwendolyn's sidekicks. Alas, Lucas and Moore saddle poor Kunis, already a comedic drag, with the thankless task of delivering a strained moms-are-great message, something they would never force Zach Galifianakis to do in a guy-centric movie.
'Bad Moms'
Opens Friday, July 29, at theaters everywhere; rated R for sexual material, full-frontal nudity, language throughout, and drug and alcohol content; 101 minutes.