A Bad Mom’s Christmas (2017)

Directed by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore. Starring Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, Susan Sarandon, Peter Gallagher, Justin Hartley, Jay Hernandez, Kent Moore. [R]

The warning signs are all over this thing that it’s gonna be a trial to sit through: it’s a holiday-themed follow-up, the original wasn’t any good to begin with, it doubles the number of moms by giving each of them a mom of their own (who are all bad in their own different ways), it opens in media res with narration that literally says the line, “Maybe I should start at the beginning…” before flashing back a few days, and so on. The raunchiness and overall inappropriateness is dialed back to make room for the new moms (would you believe Christine Baranski as the birth mother of Mila Kunis? Me neither), who are a lot to handle, both for their adult children and the audience. That’s the entire plot, really—the bad moms dealing with their worse moms, with a little stripper romance thrown in on the side so Hahn (the only one who even comes close to being funny) can get her swerve on. The only memorable bits are the ones that make the jaws drop in embarrassment; Christmastime is supposed to be full of good cheer, but it’s no fun to watch talented actresses reduce themselves to this kind of odious display. Christina Applegate briefly reprises her role from the first one, and Wanda Sykes again cameos…as does Kenny G.

27/100