Bad moms christmas

How it works

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore wrote and directed it, as they did the 2016 film Bad Moms. STX released A Bad Moms Christmas in the United States on 1 November 2017 after a premiere at the Regency Village Theater on 30 October 2017. The setup is Christmas as extra labour: gifts, school events, in-laws, and the performance of a perfect household. The three friends already rebelled against that performance in the first film. This one adds their mothers as houseguests.

Mila Kunis returns as Amy. Kristen Bell returns as Kiki. Kathryn Hahn returns as Carla. The visiting mothers are Christine Baranski as Ruth, Cheryl Hines as Sandy, and Susan Sarandon as Isis. That double triangle is the engine: three daughters, three mothers, one overcrowded December. Supporting players from the first film and new faces fill the edges, including Jay Hernandez, Peter Gallagher, Justin Hartley, Christina Applegate, and Wanda Sykes. Kenny G appears as himself. None of that makes the picture a concert film.

The tone is R-rated comedy. If you wanted a church pageant, a Rankin/Bass hour, or a quiet card, this is the wrong reel. If you wanted a Christmas movie about women who are tired of being the infrastructure of the holiday, this is the title people mean by “Bad Moms Christmas.”

Sequel, not a hymn

Watch order is the 2016 Bad Moms first if you care why these three are already a unit. You can start on the Christmas sequel; you will miss some workplace and friendship residue. There is no requirement to treat either film as a documentary of motherhood. Jokes land on sex, booze, shopping, and family scores. Children in the story are part of the household chaos. The camera is aimed at the adults.

2016: Bad Moms, same writers-directors, same three leads. 2017: A Bad Moms Christmas, December setting, mothers as guests. Leads: Kunis, Bell, Hahn. Mothers: Baranski, Hines, Sarandon. Not The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, not Bad Santa as a shared plot, not a hallmark romance.

Titles collide in search. “Bad moms christmas” without the article is still this film. Bad Santa is a different R-rated Christmas comedy with a different cast and story. A Bad Moms Christmas is not a special episode of a television series. If a thumbnail shows a church full of children in tea towels, you have a pageant title, not this one.

What to expect on the night

Runtime is feature length; read your own listing for the minutes. The film opened in early November, which is how theatrical Christmas comedies often hunt the season without waiting for the 25th. Streaming rows move. The credits on the file in front of you are the version you have. Cuts differ. If you needed a film for a mixed-age room, read the rating and the jokes, not the snow on the poster.

A sequel that parks the chaos in December is still a comedy about mothers. Snow on the poster does not baptise the jokes. If you came because you typed the title next to real Christmas planning, separate the tasks. The movie is feature-length fiction. The meal, the travel, and the guests are your roster. One does not staff the other. Press play after the oven is set, or on a night that is not the 25th, if the 25th is already full.