Review of A Bad Moms Christmas (2017) by Kapten V — 31 Jan 2018

Three overburdened young moms try to meet and then rebel against the challenges of Super Bowl for moms" - a perfect Christmas.

It's a sequel to Bad Moms" released in 2016 summer which turned out to be quite a breakout hit, earning over 180 million cinema dollars against the 20 mil budget.

Ah, the grrl power comedies, the cute but mostly unfunny younger sister of American mainstream comedies which were kickstarted by 2011's hit Bridesmaid", and Hollywood's eager wish to prove that women can be funny too.

Well anybody can funny, of course, but you can't really create a noteworthy all-female comedy without decent script and performances, and/or actresses' ability to improvise, and this is where the new grrl power comedies fall short usually.

A Bad Moms Christmas" is a good example of this. Like many mainstream comedies, it has enough of everything to get the ball rolling, but the result feels so humorless and lacking that you will probably start checking your watch/phone before it reaches midpoint, at latest.

One problem is the generic screenplay, the other is the fact that despite all the talent involved, the story centers on three leading ladies, two of which are not good enough performers to carry this movie.

Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell are always decent supporters but they lack the acting range and presence to justify carrying a comedy. I am not even sure that they have enough star power to justify lead parts in a budding comedy franchise.

So it's up to third lead Kathryn Hahn to do most of the the heavy lifting, and she's solid as usual, being able to entertain, display some acting chops and create emotional connection with the audience.

All the other players are relegated to the sidelines, and have little screen time or almost nothing interesting to do. But they do it well, so I am gonna name them all:

* Christine Baranski, Susan Sarandon, and Cherly Hines as the bad moms of the bad moms visiting for Christmas - all veteran actresses, all giving much better performances than Bell and Kunis;.

* Jay Hernandez, Peter Gallagher, Justin Hartley, Lyle Brocato - various love interests of bad moms, mostly there for decoration. Hartley is surprisingly memorable as male stripper with golden heart.

The introduction of his character, an affectionate conversation during balls and anus waxing, is probably the best part of the whole movie, both warm and funny. I was as surprised as you probably are reading this.

* Wanda Sykes, Christina Applegate, Cade Mansfield Cooksey - quick comedy reliefs, little screen time but a great value to the whole movie. If Bad Moms 2" will make you laugh at all, then it would probably happen thanks to them.

I've seen some good modern christmas comedies, such as Elf" and The Bad Santa", but this is not one of them. A Bad Moms Christmas" is just never funny.

The first hour is watchable but unremarkable, the remaining 45 minutes are just too cliche-y and frankly boring to care.

Also, I was surprised to find that "Bad Moms 2" is rated R in the U.S. cinemas - for crude sexual content and language throughout, and some drug use. Because compared to possibly every other modern raunchy comedy I have seen, it sure feels meek and mild. They even manage to make the promising end-credits dance number as unsexy as possible.

So... Avoid it, till it reaches Netflix or something, or when you desperately need some comedy you haven't seen yet.

By the way, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the writing-directing team behind the franchise, are already planning the spin-off Bad Dads".

Probably gonna be as hollow and sackless as, say, Horrible Bosses". I am surprised if they will not try to bring in Jason Sudeikis or Jason Bateman, the charming crownprinces of sackless modern comedy movies.