5 ideas about a movie: A Bad Moms Christmas

Hello!

Welcome to the start of the Christmas Season (yup, Halloween was yesterday)! We are opening it with a festive female comedy sequel – A Bad Moms Christmas!

IMDb summary:  A Bad Moms Christmas follows our three under-appreciated and over-burdened women as they rebel against the challenges and expectations of the Super Bowl for moms: Christmas.

1. 2016’s Bad Moms was a delightfully surprising comedy that was made super cheaply and earned a lot of money. Thus, STX Entertainment rushed out a themed sequel in just over a year. Interestingly, in a few weeks, we will get another Christmas comedy sequel – Daddy’s Home 2. Who would have thought that 2017 is gonna be the year of gendered and parental Christmas comedies?
2. A Bad Moms Christmas was written and directed by the duo responsible for the first film as well as The Hangover movies – Scott Moore and Jon Lucas. I enjoyed the writing for the film quite a lot. It did have a lot of the same elements as the first film only in a different – now a Christmas – setting. However, the addition of the moms’ moms was great and made for some amazing moments of humor, especially in the varied messed up relationships between the older moms and their daughters/moms.
3. The jokes, in general, were not the most sophisticated but, honestly, they didn’t have to be. The heightened reality/far-fetched cartoonish situations are what make makes movies like this one enjoyable. And A Bad Moms Christmas was definitely fun and entertaining. While it could not really be seen as a regular Christmas movie (aka one that’s appropriate for the whole family), the picture still had some traditional Christmasy heart and warmth to it. It also had a lovely message of compromise.
4. The directing was also great. I wonder how much of the situational humor was directed and how much improvised, though. The editing was spectacular too. I loved the western parody sequence in the trampoline park and the cheesy usage of the slow-mo. The inclusion of Christmas music was also tonally and seasonally appropriate. The credits sequence was also cute and cheesy.
5. A Bad Moms Christmas assembled a fun cast. Mila Kunis (Jupiter Ascending), Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn were great once again, but, this time around, they were a bit outshined by ‘their moms’: Christine Baranski (I adored her character and also loved that she had a singing scene – it reminded me of her Mamma Mia! role and also made me even more excited for the sequel to my guilty pleasure movie musical); Cheryl Hines (cutely creepy); and Susan Sarandon (unapologetically crazy).

To summarise: was this film a revelation? No. Was it entertaining and helped me to get into a Christmas spirit way too early? Absolutely. I had a chill and chucklesome time at the cinema and listened to the Michael Buble Christmas album for the first time this year on my way home.

Rate: 3.25/5

Trailer: A Bad Moms Christmas trailer