“A Bad Moms Christmas” wants to be a sequel that tops the original. It mostly succeeds at being a mess. The 2017 comedy sends Amy, Kiki and Carla into the holidays with their mothers in tow, and the result is a movie that is loud, messy and often very funny, but rarely smart.
Scott Moore and Jon Lucas wrote and directed this follow-up to 2016’s “Bad Moms,” and the core idea is simple: three exhausted women decide to reclaim Christmas from the chaos of family obligations. That premise is promising. The execution is not.
Trailer, via STXfilms.
Mothers Arrive
Amy, Kiki and Carla each have a mother problem. Ruth, played by Christine Baranski, is a controlling force who insists on doing everything her way. Sandy, played by Cheryl Hines, shows up unannounced and stays for three weeks. Isis, played by Susan Sarandon, is the mother Carla hasn’t seen in years, and Carla suspects she has money motives.
The three friends make a pact to “take Christmas back,” and the movie spends most of its runtime watching them try to pull it off. Amy plans a trip to Sky Zone instead of Ruth’s elaborate Nutcracker scheme. Carla goes to a Sexy Santa competition with Ty, played by Justin Hartley. Kiki drags Sandy to therapy, where things go badly.
None of this is subtle. The movie announces its intentions early and never lets up.
The Raunch Problem
The film is rated R, and it earns that rating. There is a scene where Isis climbs onto a pole and dances with Ty, and the movie leans into the spectacle. It is crude, and it knows it. That is not necessarily a bad thing. What is a bad thing is that the crudeness is used as a substitute for wit, not a complement to it.
The raunchiness is meant to be shocking, but it stops feeling shocking after the first few times. The movie has a limited range of jokes, and it repeats them across its 104-minute running time.
“Celebrate the holidays like a mother.”
That tagline sums up the approach. It is a joke about the film’s target audience, but it is also a warning about the tone inside.
The Cast Carries It
The chemistry between Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn is real, and it is the reason the movie works at all. They play women who are fed up, frustrated and occasionally hilarious. The supporting cast is strong too, with Baranski, Sarandon and Hines all getting their moments.
Peter Gallagher plays Hank, Jay Hernandez plays Jessie and Oona Laurence plays Jane. Emjay Anthony and Lyle Brocato round out the young cast. None of them are given much to do beyond their roles, but they fill in the background without drawing attention away from the leads.
A Thin Story
The problem is the story underneath it all. The plot is thin, and the film does not do much with its premise beyond letting the characters complain and act out. There is a moment where Ruth admits her mother abused her, which could have been a meaningful beat. Instead it feels like a setup without a payoff.
Kiki’s trip to therapy with Sandy is similarly underdeveloped. The breakdown is loud and uncomfortable, but it resolves quickly, and the film moves on without really exploring what made the situation so toxic. The caroling scene at the end is a relief, even if it is a shallow one.
The movie is at its best when it commits fully to its own absurdity. A scene where Carla and Ty dance together is genuinely funny because it trusts the ridiculousness of the premise. When it pulls back, the film loses its edge.
Where It Lands
“A Bad Moms Christmas” is a movie that knows exactly what it wants to be, and it delivers that in large quantities. It is not a great movie, and it does not pretend to be. It is a noisy, raunchy comedy that aims for laughs and mostly gets them.
The film grossed over $130 million, which suggests audiences found something worth seeing. That number is not a measure of quality, but it is a measure of appetite. People wanted to watch this, and they got what they paid for.
It is not a sequel that advances the story of these characters. It is a sequel that repeats the formula of the first movie and adds a holiday angle. That is fine as a business decision. It is less fine as filmmaking.
The movie is at its worst when it tries to be clever and fails. It is at its best when it stops trying and just leans into the chaos. That is a small margin for a 104-minute film.
“A Bad Moms Christmas” is a flawed comedy with a good heart and a bad habit of overreaching. It is not a masterpiece, and it does not pretend to be one. It is a movie that knows its audience, and it delivers exactly what that audience expects.
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