‘A Bad Moms Christmas’ is a Christmas comedy film and, a sequel to the 2016 film ‘Bad Moms’, there are two twists this time around firstly that it is set at Christmas and, secondly the mums of the leading trio show up for said holiday.
I thought the first ‘Bad Moms’ film was an interesting idea to make a film like The Hangover, or Old School, but about Mums; who break bad, there is a mine of comedic potential there waiting to be tapped. While I never thought the first film reached any lofty heights of excellence, it was watchable and, entertaining. Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and, Kathryn Hahn all gave good performances and were quite funny; all was well.
I would say pretty much the same thing for this sequel it is very watchable and, entertaining, basically more of the same, simply this time around set at Christmas. The angle the film takes for explaining why it is set at Christmas is interesting: basically, it says that Christmas is the busiest day of the year for mums and, that they are sick of the thankless chore that it has become. This film does use the mums at Christmas jokes for all they’re worth, but they never become unfunny.
However the same can’t be said for the mother-daughter jokes, as I said before each of the leading ladies mums show up for Christmas for Hahn’s Carla this takes the form of free spirit Isis, (Susan Sarandon), for Bell’s Kiki it’s the overly needy Sandy, (Cheryl Hines), and for Kunis’ Amy, it comes in the form of the perfectionist Ruth, (Christine Baranski). Each mother and, daughter pair are woefully mismatched and, that is the comedy; this would be funny if it was for maybe half an hour but, it’s not it’s the entire film. The joke of oh isn’t Sandy a Stalker or, isn’t Isis a carefree hippy type, get used up very early on and, become stale fast.
Sadly as a result of this good things like character development and, the sweet relationship between Carla and, a male stripper named Ty, (Justin Hartley), are under nurtured. This is a shame as it would have been these things that would not only have made this film better but, also to give more meaning to the franchise as a whole.
Overall it is very much more of the same, if you liked the first film you will most likely like this; the only new addition is the older mums. It is sad to see this film squander the potential it had just so it could have a few more of the same jokes it had already said before.
2.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 