Directors: Scott Moore, Jon Lucas
Year: 2017
Rated R
Rating: * 1/2 Stars
Cast: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn
Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Well you can add Donald Trump tweets and inferior movie sequels to what Benjamin Franklin preached about back in 1879.
A Bad Moms Christmas is in fact, a sequel. It is my latest review and yeah, it's pretty darn inferior. "Christmas", which I don't think was screened for critics, is a half-baked continuation of last year's Bad Moms. Heck, it doesn't even feel like it has much of a connection to the first film.
A Bad Moms Christmas is like a cash grab for the holidays, a vehicle that is more akin to a raunchy version of Love the Coopers ( or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) than to being a legitimate, Bad Moms part deuce.
It annoyed me that "Christmas" is yet another holiday film that takes place in Chicago (even though it was shot in Atlanta). It also annoyed me that A Bad Moms Christmas is another holiday flick in which chaos ensues when overbearing parents arrive on the scene. I am aware that the similar-themed, Daddy's Home 2 is coming out next week. In truth, I think I'll now avoid that movie like the plague.
Anyway, with "Christmas" the main characters (played by Kathryn Hahn, Mila Kunis, and Kristen Bell) are not that "bad" this time around. Yeah they get drunk at a mall, grind on Santa, and steal a Christmas tree from Lady Foot Locker. But hey, that's only about seven minutes of screen time. Their actions just aren't as rebellious, wayward, or unladylike as in the first outing.
Most of the script in A Bad Moms Christmas feels lazy. The screenwriter's idea of generating laughs is to add potty-mouthed F-bombs and a sequence where male genitalia is being waxed (ha-ha what a knee slapper). The production of "Christmas" feels rushed and slapdash as well. The snow outside looks fake, the sets try hard to appear like a poster child for a JCPenney Xmas catalog, and directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (yes there are two of them) have a real hard-on for slow motion shots with some tired, R&B music in the background.
All in all, A Bad Moms Christmas does offer a few heartfelt moments between the focal moms and their own, weirdo moms (played by Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, and Cheryl Hines). Unfortunately, "Christmas" also has a stupid cameo by Kenny G along with a shaming dance montage at the closing credits (Kenny G is in that too and he dry humps his saxophone, how cute).
During the first half hour of "Christmas", Kathryn Hahn's Carla quips, "let's put the ass back in Christmas". Well A Bad Moms Christmas definitely achieves that notion. Rating: 1 and a half stars.
Written by Jesse Burleson
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