A Bad Moms Christmas Plot Summary:
The Bad Moms – Amy (Mila Kunis), Kiki (Kristen Bell), and Carla (Kathryn Hahn) – are back, and this time it’s Christmas. And you know what that means? Their moms (Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, Susan Sarandon) are in town.
Bad Moms Christmas might be one of the most predictable films of all-time. Seriously, if you’ve seen a movie – any movie – you know exactly how this film is going to play out.
It’s the same, tired “mom vs. mom” film we’ve been subjected to for decades. It’s the awkward fighting, the requisite baggage, the ludicrous fight, the come to Jesus moment, enemies become friends to save the day, and hooray, everyone’s happy!
Seriously, that’s the movie.
What made the first Bad Moms such an enjoyable film is that it tackled, quite smartly and hilariously, the struggles of the modern mom. People related to it, they laughed at and with it, and that’s why the original film scored huge box office, and allowed for a sequel.
This time around the film tries to tackle the dynamic because between mothers and their daughters, who are now moms themselves. This isn’t an overly tired subject — the aforementioned “mom vs. mom” genre is usually relegated to mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. In all honesty, the film had the talent, and the cache to attack this issue with the same intelligence, and humor (both high and low brow) as the first film.
However, the film takes an extremely safe, but ultimately tired approach. The film is littered with Christmas movie cliches, and flat out terrible jokes (e.g. Susan Sarandon’s character’s name is Isis, and yes those jokes are made) Ultimately, the script fails the insanely stacked cast, and makes this movie pretty forgettable.
Luckily, there are some bright spots here. The chemistry between Kunis, Bell, and Hahn is dynamite. They work incredibly well together, almost as if they’ve been a comedy troupe for decades. The scenes of just these three together are easily the high points of the film. If we had about one or two more scenes of them together, the film probably would’ve been better. Of the “new” moms, Cheryl Hines absolutely steals the show as Kiki’s daughter-obssessed mom.
Yet, despite those efforts, the film just falls flat. It feels re-gifted — new wrapping paper on an old, unwanted present. Nothing here feels special. And worst of all, they end things with the possibility of a sequel, and a spin-off. Yeah, don’t be surprised if we see a “Bad Grandmoms” real soon. Not even kidding.
Rating: 5 out of 10
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