Celebrate the holidays like a mother.
A Bad Moms Christmas is a 2017 Christmas comedy film and a sequel to Bad Moms.
The holidays are getting stressful for overwhelmed moms Amy, Carla and Kiki when their mothers visit for the holidays, Amy celebrates a simple Christmas with Jesse and their kids until her mom Ruth (Christine Baranski) controls every aspect and takes over Christmas, Kiki's mom Sandy (Cheryl Hines) is clingy and oversteps her boundaries and Carla's mom Isis (Susan Sarandon), whom she hasn't seen in years, is between jobs but wants to spend time with her nonetheless.
Amy, Kiki and Carla vow to take Christmas back for themselves.
This movie contains these tropes
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: The moms of the main trio. Ruth annoys Amy by being a critical and perfectionist show-off, Kiki gets downright irked at Sandy being overwhelming and smothering, and Carla... well, she doesn't care that mom Isis is a hedonist like herself, but only that she never comes unless it's to get money for gambling.
- Badass Creed: "Take Christmas back!"
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Ty and Carla Meet Cute when the former comes in to the spa to have the latter wax his balls, and she is so overawed by the size of his penis that she instantly falls in love with him. Later we see Ty strip down to his briefs during a performance and his enormous penis, outlined by the sheer fabric all the way down his thigh, overawes the audience.
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Broken Aesop: The movie's moral that the mom protagonists should "take Christmas back" for themselves, should stand up for their own interests, fatally conflicts with Amy's climactic realization that the only thing that should matter to a mom is her kids' happiness. - Casting Gag: Amy's family loudly complains at her mom dragging all of them to the Russian The Nutcracker, which is entirely in Russian, as no one speaks it. Her mom also later remarks "What are we, Jewish?" about their Christmas tradition. Mila Kunis, who plays Amy, is a Russian-speaking Jew.
- Chippendales Dancers: Ty, who falls in love with Carla.
- Christmas Episode: The sequel's entire plot focuses on Christmas and the three friend's with their families struggling with chaos during the holidays. Hilarity Ensues.
- Demoted to Extra: Gwendolyn, Stacy and Vicki only appear in one scene where Amy is forced by her mother to go caroling... dressed as Scrooge!
- Disappeared Dad: Kiki's dad died when she was a child.
- The Ditz: Jaxon, who is an teen that is not-so-bright and isn't given much screen time like some characters.
- Doting Grandparent: In contrast to her treatment of her daughter, Ruth gives her tween grandchildren extravagant gifts every time she comes over to the house, including xboxes and iphones.
- Dueling Movies: Along with Daddy's Home 2, both films being sequels set during Christmas.
- Fan Disservice: One of the Santa strippers is overweight and exposes his belly and man boobs, leading to several groans in the audience watching.
- Freudian Excuse: This movie introduces the three mothers of the main trio, and it's clear why they started the original like that: Amy tried too hard for growing up with a Control Freak (who in turn, was also treated like that by her mother), Kiki only cared for her children because her mother was overbearing, and Carla is a neglectful hedonist because mom is the same way.
- From the Mouths of Babes:
- Jane has grown quite the potty mouth.
- Lori drops some F-bombs when she talks about Jesse and Amy having sex.Lori: You were like, "Oh my fucking God, oh my fucking God!"
- Henpecked Husband: Amy's dad Hank is often pushed around by Ruth and feels powerless to stand up for himself.
- How We Got Here: The movie starts with Amy stating in a voice-over that she feels responsible for turning Christmas into a disaster and flashing back to the last week before Christmas with a dejected Amy amidst destroyed decorations, claiming to have ruined Christmas. Eventually it gets there, a lavish party thrown by Amy's mom behind her back which leads Amy to fight her, expel her and make her kids sad that after driving daddy away, Amy is now doing the same with grandma.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Amy's mother turns out to have this. Her own mom never really loved her; she goes for a perfect Christmas and wants to look the best because it makes her feel, even for a second, that she's good enough. Amy's dad tells Amy all this, and that his wife is actually the most insecure woman he's ever met.
- Karma Houdini:
- The mom protagonists go on a drunken mall rampage in which they slap an overly jolly mall elf, sexually harrass Santa Claus, and steal the Christmas tree from Foot Locker without facing any legal consequences.
- The moms' moms are instantly forgiven for the lifetimes of abuse they piled on their daughters; in particular Ruth is absolved of verbally abusing Amy in front of her family after merely a halting apology, and Isis is absolved of stealing Carla's money for years and repeatedly abandoning her on promise of repayment.
- Carla and Isis bond by stealing groceries from supermarket customers via a fake charity scam. Carla reminisces that this reminds her of the good times of their past. They escape scot-free when the store manager comes out to challenge them.
- Meaningful Name: Ruth haughtily announces that she is named Ruth, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Isis responds that she's named Isis, like the terrorist group.
- Mr. Fanservice:
- The male Santa stripteases in the bar.
- Justin Hartley as Ty, as one of the Santa male entertainers who Carla falls for.
- Also, Ty's suggestive dance for Carla at the end.
- My Beloved Smother:
- Sandy literally babies Kiki and meddles in Kiki's marriage.
- Amy's mom Ruth insults her Christmas decorations, overindulges her grandkids and acts rudely towards her daughter's boyfriend Jesse.
- Real-Person Cameo: Kenny G appears as himself.
- Right Through the Wall: Jesse's daughter Lori tells Amy that she overheard her and Jesse having sex, though she doesn't realize what they were doing.Lori: When you came over to the house last week, I heard you and Daddy in the bedroom and you kept screaming at him.Amy: Oh, yeah... no, honey those were... those were happy screams.Lori: They didn't sound happy.
- The Shrink: Kiki goes to one with her mother Sandy, complaining that her attempts at being close to her daughter are downright invasive. The therapist, after witnessing Sandy's insanity, sides with her anyway.
- Teen Pregnancy: Sandy claims that she was 18 when Kiki was born.
