A Bad Moms Christmas Movie Review

A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)

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Written by: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Directed by: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Jay Hernandez, Peter Gallagher, Christina Applegate
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
As their own mothers drop in unexpectedly, three under-appreciated and over-burdened moms rebel against the stress and challenges of Christmas.

Verdict
This tries to combine crude comedy with the Christmas genre, failing at both. It tries to hard to be funny, while failing to deliver any truth on the subject. So many jokes that are kind of funny, don't logically fit into the context. It's a sequel that hopes doubling the mom count will help conceal the flaws.
Skip it.

Review
This starts with a how we got here trope, my pet peeve. Remove the first scene and thus this trope and we get a traditional opening and just better story telling.

Christmas is busy for everyone, not just moms. Undoubtedly moms take on most of the burden, but in this movie a lot of that is self inflicted. I get that's the plot of the movie, but it seems forced. None of the mom's are overburdened. While their mother's in town cause stress, it doesn't add to their tasks.

With the titular mom's mothers coming in town, it creates a lot of stress. Each mother is a caricature of the worst parenting types, overbearing, obsessive, and apathetic.

The movie perpetuates the myth of a perfect Christmas that doesn't exist, while also including protagonists that want to rebel but just don't. Instead of telling their mothers how they feel they create chaos at the mall. My issue with that is that instead of fixing the root of their problems, they are infringing on the joy of others at the mall by being crude and breaking the law.
Mall Santa enjoys the dance show from the moms. It's got to be the highlight of his career, but what about the children?

Amy's (Mila Kunis) mom is the overbearing one, bent on having a huge party at Amy's house for no good reason. With the tens of thousands she's spent I don't know why she didn't just get a venue. Amy's mom reaches a point where I wasn't sure if she was serious or joking when she states she has decorations from Paris, the moon, and the Titanic.

The party is the tipping point and all the moms tell their mother's off. Amy's dad has a talk with her explaining why her mom is so overbearing, stating she's insecure. Amy's grandma made her mom feel worthless and that's exactly what Amy's mom is doing to everyone. At this point I had to wonder if Amy's dad was lying to make peace. His wife is not nice, caring, or any other positive words. He's a victim of hers in every scene he's in. Amy's mom has no redeeming qualities.

The moms take Christmas back just as they vowed to do in the mall food court. Amy states she couldn't have done it without her friends, but all they did was listen to her problems. Amy's mom is the one that actually helped. Then the movie sets up a sequel with the mom's mothers. After that are the credits, which were actually kind of fun.