A Bad Moms Christmas – Funnier But More of the Same

The ladies are back! Whether or not a sequel was needed, the first Bad Moms was one of the biggest surprises of last year. Not only did it resonate with moms, it was also a pretty funny comedy featuring a great cast. It was only inevitable that there would be a sequel. While the first resonated with so many moms, A Bad Moms Christmas hopes to do the same, this time with a Christmas twist. Everyone knows that Christmas is hard but things suddenly became more difficult for Amy (Kunis), Kiki (Bell), and Carla (Hahn) once their own mothers, Ruth (Christine Baranski), Sandy (Cheryl Hines), and Isis (Susan Sarandon) came to town.

This may be a Christmas film but in essence, it was more a film about family that just happened to take place during Christmas. The family drama present between the women and their mothers wasn’t overly original and pretty much played out as one would expect. The women put up with their respective mother’s behavior until they had enough. Ruth was overly judgmental of Amy and her handling of Christmas, Sandy was too close with Kiki, and Isis wasn’t close enough with Carla.

Being a Bad Moms film, audiences can expect plenty of hijinks though not as many as the original thanks to the introduction of the mothers’ mothers. Perhaps it retreads similar ground from the previous film and the story here may not be overly original but this film was just as fun to watch as a result of the excellent chemistry between the three leads and the new characters who all fit in nicely. While the original focused on Amy as did this one, more focus was put on Kiki and Carla through their relationships with their respective mothers. While there wasn’t as much of Isis (yes the film made a joke about her name) and Carla compared to the others, they were still fun to watch together whenever they were on screen.

The humor itself was more of the same but was somehow even funnier this time around simply because there was much more of it here, predictably coming from the relationships between the leads and their mothers. Be it the contrast between Amy and Ruth, Sandy’s creepiness, or almost everything Carla related, there were plenty of laughs to be had. The mothers were so different from one another that the fact that the film saw them form a friendship of their own that also coincidentally mirrored that of their daughters which made for their own funny moments.

In terms of the acting, it was great across the board and was more of a testament to the chemistry between the lead moms and their own moms. It just looked like they were all having fun together so it was easy to have fun with them. Kunis, Bell, and Hahn provided solid performances with Hahn as Carla once again stealing scenes with some great one-liners. Baranski’s uptight Ruth, Hines as the obsessive Sandy, and Sarandon as the degenerate Isis were great as well, having moments of their own.

At the end of the day, A Bad Moms Christmas is a good sequel that fans of the original Bad Moms will surely enjoy. While it is funnier than the original and the introduction of the grandmothers made for a fun addition, it is perhaps more of the same story wise.

*still courtesy of eOne*

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram, or like me on Facebook.

Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.