Bad Moms is by the dudes who wrote The Hangover, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. This time around, they take their brand of fratboy comedy and apply it to frazzled young mums Amy, Carla and Kiki (Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell), who live in a bland Illinois suburb. But don’t go expecting drugs- and booze-fuelled debauchery. Instead of all-nighters involving facial tattoos and kidnapping, the wildest these women get is hitting the supermarket while drunk and sneaking out for an unauthorised spa day. After the all-female Ghostbusters reboot this feels like a return to chick-flick comedy dullness.
The stars do their best with a drippy script. Hahn seems to be channelling her inner Juliette Lewis to deliver the movie’s few sizzling one-liners. Mila Kunis, meanwhile, works hard to project dowdy cluelessness, as she ransacks her closet of frumpy clothes before a night out. As the trio fight their nemeses Gwendolyn, Vicky and Stacy (Christina Applegate, Annie Mumolo and Jada Pinkett Smith) for control of the local parent-teacher association, Stacy reveals that she recently got ‘fifty shaded’ by her husband. Why don’t we get to see that? Hardcore this comedy ain’t.