And then there's this one. I was going to blog about my Moviegoing - listing every movie that we'd seen, but I didn't, and then the list that Cineworld provide you with so you can see past bookings only goes back 3 months... so any chance of playing catch-up quickly faded away and soon the whole idea became obsolete. That, and the fact that I got busy doing a billion other things. Time flew.
So in keeping with the theme of Christmas events happening well before it's actually Christmas, I decided to blog about our November visit to the cinema to go and see A Bad Mom's Christmas - the sequel to Bad Moms that came out in August last year. Now we loved Bad Moms - it was irreverant and we've been aware of Mila Kunis and Kathryn Hahn for some time now, Mila since Family Guy and Kathryn from Parks and Recreation (our boy Zack got us hooked onto this), so we had no qualms about watching them play together in a movie about single mothers struggling to fight against entrenched conventional norms neatly packaged as a romping comedy. Kristen Bell neatly counters these bad girls with her performance of a mother following all the rules but lacking the courage to allow her secret desire to burst out of the good girl persona and to embrace the darker delights on offer.
Bad Moms, written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (both famous for writing the The Hangover back in 2009) really worked - but would a festive sequal be able to come up with a new twist now that the main antagonist (so beautifully played by Christina Applegate in the first film) is now no longer a foe to fight against? Bring in the big guns - the Bad Mom's Moms.
Christine Baranski plays Amy's (Mila) super pretentious glamMom, Cheryl Hines the over bearing sMother that created Kiki's (Kristen) mousey charm, and for Kathryn's Carla we have the fabulous Susan Sarandon playing Rock Chick Mom Isis. This line up alone should be enough to ensure that the sequel will work alongside the original, and it truly does.
From the beginning we are introduced to the stress and burdens that this holiday brings for so many parents, let alone single mothers who are struggling at the best of times without the extra pressure to make this holiday experience a wonder and delight for her children. Early on the Mom's realise that they are once again allowing social norms and conventions to dictate the traditions and customs that have become meaningless to these ladies, and yet they still try to emulate them. After an aborted attempt at shopping the ladies find themselves getting drunk in the food court and all sorts of hilarity ensues as a result.
Just as the girls are ready to ditch all traditional elements and create their own celebration, at their own pace, for their own families, we are introduced to the mothers, who of course have their own ideas about what is right for their girls - the mom's moms soon are forced to band together and create their own trio (lead of course by Baranski, who really is quite masterful in her ability to garner sympathy from us, even though we've been rooting for Amy to stand up to her passive agressive judgements right from the moment we meet her. Hines is kooky cringeworthy without becoming a total cliche and Sarandon can play bad girl like no other and delivers with a professional panache.
Of course it all works out, just like in the original, but the sweetness of the outcome is never quite as saccharine as is traditional in Christmas movies and we even have a cameo performance of Applegate in this sequel, just to remind us that life does goes on and you will one day likely be put in a humiliating situation towards somebody that you may have been a little over zealous when you were attempting to correct their lofty and somewhat shitty behaviour, because karma sure can be a bitch sometimes.
Watch it. Bad Mom's got a 6.2 on IMDB - I'd easily give it a 7 myself. A Bad Mom's Christmas gets a predictably lower score of 5.8 (6.5 for me), but it's funny, it's disdainful, it's seasonal frivolity with a rebellious streak all the way to a happy ending. I doubt it will become as traditional favourite in our life (not like Elf, we can watch that movie every year and still love it everytime) but I reckon given enough mulled wine we could watch these six ladies strut their stuff again without getting bored for the 1 hour 44 minute duration.
And that little dance at the end while the credits are rolling? I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at Santa in quite the same way again.
