Scott Moore

Bad Moms

First Hit:  Although it was quite crass at times, there were more than a few laughs, which made this film worth watching.

The story follows Amy (Mila Kunis) as she is taken advantage of by her young, uninformed, boy boss because she shows up each day although she only works their part time.

She has this demanding job, is a mom doing all the mom type running round, tries to stay active with the PTA, and wants to be a good wife. Her primary focus is to help her kids, including doing their school work, so her kids get good grades. After dropping the kids off at school, she shows up to work and is the only grown up in the company.

Her husband casually works, and Amy catches him, one day, having skype sex with a woman he’s never met. This online relationship has been going on for 10 months. She kicks him out.

The pressure to be a good mom and be active in the PTA, led by Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) is fierce. Amy meets and bonds with Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and Kiki (Kristen Bell), two other moms who struggle with the pressures of motherhood.

Carla is divorced and is man hungry. This is where most of the film’s crassness comes from. Carla is foul mouth and man hungry. This is the largest detriment to the film. It might have been better if this character was either cut or the role toned down somewhat.

Kiki, on the other hand becomes empowered through the film and this is nice to see. The three of them are fed up with the power that PTA President Gwendolyn and her henchwomen Stacy (Jada Pinkette Smith) and Vicky (Annie Mumolo) exude with prissiness and entitlement based on money and what they think is right for everyone.

The PTA is the battle ground and Amy decides to challenge Gwendolyn for the presidency of the organization. The film has lots of scenes that show the PTA in all its glory. It shows women deciding to take their lives into their own hands while juggling their children, and their lives outside of school.

I did think the crassness of Carla was overdone and had me wanting to cut her lines. I thought Amy’s relationship with her kids Jane and Dylan (Oona Laurence and Emjay Anthony respectively) was a strong part of the film. The most touching part of the film were the credits, as the actresses and their moms were revealingly interviewed.

Kunis was very good and her ability to carry multiple looks (mom, party girl, and responsible workmate) were strong. Hahn was good and I disliked the script for her. The man and sex hungry woman with a foul mouth didn’t work for me. It never works for me male or female. Bell was wonderful. She brings an engagement to her roles that is always watchable. Applegate was very good and she clearly knew this role. Laurence, for me, was the star of the film. It was a minor role, yet what she brought to it how she engaged each scene was wonderful. Anthony was good as the son trying to figure out his path now that dad was gone. Smith was strong as a henchwoman. Scott Moore and Jon Lucas, together, wrote and directed this film and outside of the overt crassness, it captured some of the life of moms.

Overall:  For the most part my experience was positive, but it wasn’t a great film.

The Change-Up

First Hit: An old idea with varying results.

The idea of people inhabiting someone else’s body is old and there are at least a ½ dozen films around this premise. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless there is nothing new in it.

As with all the other films like this, while they are in the other person's body they learn something about themselves and the other person all before they go back into their own body. Nobody stays in the other person's body.

Therefore how much is there to tell about this film? Some of the jokes are out-loud funny. Some of the bathroom humor could (flying baby poop in the face) could be removed and not affect the overall film one iota. Nor did I find that Mitch Planko (played by Ryan Reynolds) to be very believable. I didn’t think he fit being a lorno (light porno) film star, nor did I think he was much of a ladies man if he spent weeks trolling Lamaze clinics looking for a sex partner.

I thought his gross and crass language while being around his best friend Dave Lockwood (played by Jason Bateman) and his wife Jamie (played by Leslie Mann) and their children to be more than required as a setup to how different the guys will be when they embody the other person.

For them to transfer brains/spirit, they pee into a fountain, the lights go out and then the next morning they become the other person. Funny it took them until the next morning to discover they were a different person, because when they reversed the spell it was almost immediately.

There are numerous funny bits that each get to perform being the other life which made the film watchable.

Reynolds was, for me, more OK as Dave than his original character Mitch. Bateman was also better as Dave than he was Mitch. And neither one of them felt very spot on as the other, only caricatures of the other person. The film makers made more of the physical scenes being reversed than hold true to the real characters being reversed. Mann was very good as Dave’s wife; however it was very unrealistic that she wouldn’t have caught on that her husband Dave wasn't really Dave but someone else. They were nowhere near the same people to her. Jon Lucas and Scott Moore wrote a occasionally funny script. David Dobkin didn’t do much to build some depth to the characters while relying on obvious, and at times, humorous scenes.

Overall: This film was good enough for the moment and immediately forgettable afterward.

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