Bad Moms (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

“Bad Moms”

Is Just an Act

For Mila Kunis

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Apparently all you need to get a comedy greenlighted these days is to attach the modifier “Bad” to the title. Ergo, “Bad Santa,” Bad Teacher,” “Bad Grandpa.” And now “Bad Moms.”

There may be a Truth in Advertising angle with some of these films. But “Bad Moms” is kinda funny, I have to admit.

In it, Amy Mitchell and her two friends (Mila Kunis with Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn) are bored housewives who decide to go on a wild binge, “Hangover” style, putting them on a collision course with PTA major-domo Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) and her coterie of perfect moms.

“Bad Moms” is currently living it up at Tropic Cinema. Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (they wrote all three “Hangover” movies), the film’s tagline proclaims, “Party Like a Mother.”

Married to Ashton Kutcher, Kunis is mother to 2-year-old daughter Wyatt. In addition to playing a bad mom in the movie, she confesses to sometimes feeling like one in real life.

Kunis tells of planning a surprise visit to husband at work. She packed up all the necessary items required for travel with an infant and set off in the car. “Wyatt was being really quiet, and I was like, ‘Oh let me look in the rear view mirror to make sure everything’s okay. And I look, and she’s happy as can be, but just not nearly strapped in.”

Uh-oh.

“I was like, oh, (blank) me,” Kunis says. “And I’m on the 101, and she’s … in her car seat, nothing, no strap whatsoever. And I think I just turned white.”

Pulling over to the side of the road, she quickly buckled her daughter into the seat. “It reminded me how easy it is for parents to make mistakes,” she says.

Mila Kunis vows to redouble her efforts, announcing that she’s expecting a second child. “I’m going to be a solid mom,” she promises.

Maybe so. But “Solid Mom” won’t sell as many tickets at the box office as “Bad Mom.”

srhoades@aol.com