The bad moms are back! This time they're out to reclaim the most stressful time of year on behalf of moms everywhere by letting loose and liberating themselves from the oppression of mandatory holiday cheer. Amy (Kunis), Kiki (Bell) and Carla (Hahn) team up yet again and support each other during the holiday season all while all three of their mothers come to town for an unexpected Christmas visit. Will our three diverse personalities of middle class white women escape Christmas unscathed? Or will they be overwhelmed by the towering expectations of their dysfunctional mothers.
Everything bad that can be said about Bad Moms Christmas can also be said about the original Bad Moms; tired jokes, broad characterizations, unimaginative staging, an over-reliance on improv that assumes the editor will be able to just find the movie in post etc. So then given all its faults, why am I still smiling? Why is this hastily assembled follow up to a mediocre R-rated comedy arguably better than the original? Well part of the reason may just be this movie doesn't have that far to fall. The first film posed as an invigorating subversion of gender expectations instead of drawing attention to what it really was – a trash movie. This one basically takes the shoddily propped up premise that we're already familiar with and merely staples tinsel to it. Yet because there's a lived-in quality to it, because we're already familiar with these characters, all we need to catch up is for the girls to dunk rum into the mall's Teavana samples and say f**k a lot.
With no faux mission statement sprucing up the inappropriateness like protesters in a Kylie Jenner Pepsi ad, the measure of success is now whether Bad Moms Christmas can get you to laugh. And it does – not often enough to endorse strongly, but Bad Moms Christmas does have a few zingers worth repeating at the next neighborhood Tupperware party. Kunis, Bell and especially Hahn get a few good quips here and there and for once look comfortable just being in each others' presence.
If however you wanted to know the primary reason why A Bad Moms Christmas is better than its prequel, one needn't look further than the rib-tickling performances of Susan Sarandon, Cheryl Hines and Christine Baranski. Baranski especially, who has had a long career playing ice queens, is downright superb as Amy's formal, acid-tongued, high society mother. Honestly this movie is bumped up a letter grade simply because between Baranski and Hines's clingy "best friend" mom, not a single opportunity for a laugh was lost.
Susan Sarandon is also tremendous though much like the kids in the first film (or in this one for that matter), she's sadly underutilized. What's worse is her relationship with her daughter Carla offers the most narrative opportunities for growth, but this being a broad American comedy means any real human moments are quickly swept under the rug.
Swept under the rug along with any meaningful insight on motherhood – the second time this series has managed the same thematic swing and a miss. Oh well, at least the jokes and gags reach new levels of raunchiness that border on the absurd. There's a memorable scene with Justin Hartley involving a few strips of hot wax that's sure to delight. And if not, there's always the old standby of listening to young children say the darnest things again and again. If you're not laughing at least once during this movie, then you're probably just not in the spirit.
Everything bad that can be said about Bad Moms Christmas can also be said about the original Bad Moms; tired jokes, broad characterizations, unimaginative staging, an over-reliance on improv that assumes the editor will be able to just find the movie in post etc. So then given all its faults, why am I still smiling? Why is this hastily assembled follow up to a mediocre R-rated comedy arguably better than the original? Well part of the reason may just be this movie doesn't have that far to fall. The first film posed as an invigorating subversion of gender expectations instead of drawing attention to what it really was – a trash movie. This one basically takes the shoddily propped up premise that we're already familiar with and merely staples tinsel to it. Yet because there's a lived-in quality to it, because we're already familiar with these characters, all we need to catch up is for the girls to dunk rum into the mall's Teavana samples and say f**k a lot.
With no faux mission statement sprucing up the inappropriateness like protesters in a Kylie Jenner Pepsi ad, the measure of success is now whether Bad Moms Christmas can get you to laugh. And it does – not often enough to endorse strongly, but Bad Moms Christmas does have a few zingers worth repeating at the next neighborhood Tupperware party. Kunis, Bell and especially Hahn get a few good quips here and there and for once look comfortable just being in each others' presence.
If however you wanted to know the primary reason why A Bad Moms Christmas is better than its prequel, one needn't look further than the rib-tickling performances of Susan Sarandon, Cheryl Hines and Christine Baranski. Baranski especially, who has had a long career playing ice queens, is downright superb as Amy's formal, acid-tongued, high society mother. Honestly this movie is bumped up a letter grade simply because between Baranski and Hines's clingy "best friend" mom, not a single opportunity for a laugh was lost.
Susan Sarandon is also tremendous though much like the kids in the first film (or in this one for that matter), she's sadly underutilized. What's worse is her relationship with her daughter Carla offers the most narrative opportunities for growth, but this being a broad American comedy means any real human moments are quickly swept under the rug.
Swept under the rug along with any meaningful insight on motherhood – the second time this series has managed the same thematic swing and a miss. Oh well, at least the jokes and gags reach new levels of raunchiness that border on the absurd. There's a memorable scene with Justin Hartley involving a few strips of hot wax that's sure to delight. And if not, there's always the old standby of listening to young children say the darnest things again and again. If you're not laughing at least once during this movie, then you're probably just not in the spirit.