A Bad Moms Christmas

This movie is stupid and ludicrous, but a riot—gratuitous in its R-rated language and sexual content, and fully boasts its awesome cast in several outrageous ways. After feeling out our moms (Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn) in the first film, I really now see and understand how the unique characters bring out the most in one another, and it felt more organic as a result. The 104-minute run time felt just fine to me and not overlong, but there was one subplot of this film I still could have done without and did not add much to the story, and removing it would have brought it down to a tight 90 minutes.

The Christmas theme is integrated right into the plot and is a fresh way to pitch the sequel, and the grandmoms help induce the struggling relationships that one could find in a hard-hitting melodrama: one whose mom has unrealistic expectations for her daughter's motherhood, one who wants separative space between herself and her mom, and one who wants more closeness to her mom. It sounds very general, but when within the right framework (when not clouded by the film's foolishness) it hits as very real when it tries to. While the first film really felt to be "for moms" in that there is a general message that will make them feel important walking out of the theater, this sequel tries to deliver a similar thing with the grandmothers to a lesser effect.

Now that there are two comedy sequels releasing about parents' parents coming home for the Christmas holidays, the similarities stop there and audiences have a choice between seeing: men/women, naughty/nice, or crude/slapstick. I'd say for the appropriate age, A Bad Moms Christmas delivers on more fronts than Daddy's Home 2 (which I also saw a pre- screening for, by the way); regardless, prepare to turn off the "suspension of disbelief" switch and prepare for a decent abs workout. Neither the first film nor the sequel are anything special, but they also aren't a complete waste of time and money for how absurd they are.

I'm frankly waiting for other releases and didn't want to re-watch the good ones, and that's how I landed on this. And in all honesty, I watched it for Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Christine Baranski, and Susan Sarandon. With a star-studded cast as such, I was a bit disappointed there weren't many laugh-out-loud moments, it did bring on a smile though. I'm guessing core-mom's might enjoy this as it seemed like a mellowed-down cross of Magic Mike XXL - Bad Moms and Daddy's Home.

It's not great for a Christmas watch but if you have nothing to do and want to watch something new without paying much attention to the screen, it is ideal for background noise and fluff. You will know the story even if you skip major junks. There's nothing new to be offered apart from some good chemistry between the cast. So if you're not going to pick the movie apart and don't care for a feel-good Christmas movie, give this one a shot.

That's what the title should be. My god there are so many cringey montages. They're basically identical to the ones in the first movie too. I didn't expect much from this unnecessary sequel and I didn't get much. Hahn and Baranski are legitimately funny, but can't keep this trite comedy afloat.

... Oh, because it isn't there!

People are rating this a 1 when the SHARKNADO series exists? I'm putting the bah-humbug reviews down to holiday depression and humorlessness compliments of stressful family dynamics. C'mon, people, cheer up. I'm not even a fan of comedies, and I enjoyed it.

PS -- It doesn't set women back even a minute. If anything, it underscores how much pressure we put women under during the holidays and how brilliantly they handle it compared to how men would.

I couldn't help myself I laughed all the way through this movie, even though it was really bad. Unrealistic, raunchy, and overly done. Still, I laughed all the way through this movie. It's not Oscar winning material, but great for a few laughs.