This movie is stupid and ludicrous, but a riot—gratuitous in its R-rated language and sexual content, and fully boasts its awesome cast in several outrageous ways. After feeling out our moms (Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn) in the first film, I really now see and understand how the unique characters bring out the most in one another, and it felt more organic as a result. The 104-minute run time felt just fine to me and not overlong, but there was one subplot of this film I still could have done without and did not add much to the story, and removing it would have brought it down to a tight 90 minutes.
The Christmas theme is integrated right into the plot and is a fresh way to pitch the sequel, and the grandmoms help induce the struggling relationships that one could find in a hard-hitting melodrama: one whose mom has unrealistic expectations for her daughter's motherhood, one who wants separative space between herself and her mom, and one who wants more closeness to her mom. It sounds very general, but when within the right framework (when not clouded by the film's foolishness) it hits as very real when it tries to. While the first film really felt to be "for moms" in that there is a general message that will make them feel important walking out of the theater, this sequel tries to deliver a similar thing with the grandmothers to a lesser effect.
Now that there are two comedy sequels releasing about parents' parents coming home for the Christmas holidays, the similarities stop there and audiences have a choice between seeing: men/women, naughty/nice, or crude/slapstick. I'd say for the appropriate age, A Bad Moms Christmas delivers on more fronts than Daddy's Home 2 (which I also saw a pre- screening for, by the way); regardless, prepare to turn off the "suspension of disbelief" switch and prepare for a decent abs workout. Neither the first film nor the sequel are anything special, but they also aren't a complete waste of time and money for how absurd they are.
