Bad Moms

By now, the bro-com genre has been around for a while. R-rated. Dudes. Dick jokes. We get it. There have been some good ones (“Wedding Crashers,” “Old School,” “The Hangover”). “Bridesmaids” proved you could do a female bro-com. “Bad Moms” (2016) took it one step further, timewise, by moving toward a more grown-up edge. Instead of weddings or a college frat, we get moms and a middle school PTA. But it’s still funny. And there’s still dick jokes (seriously). And Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell absolutely kill in supporting roles. And the metaphorical birth of a new genre: the mom-com.

A Bad Moms Christmas

Apparently, “Bad Moms” was such a surprise hit (as if it was still a surprise that in 2016, there was a market for R-rated shock-comedies starring women) that the makers got Mila Kunis and everyone else back together to crank out a sequel in a little more than a year. Even better (as in not better), it’s Christmas themed. So we have “A Bad Moms Christmas” (2017) trying to catch lightning in a chimney. But whereas the original had just the right amount of mommy pathos, this one overdoes things (sequels always do) by pitting the moms against their moms.

Step Brothers

In 2008, when “Step Brothers” was released, Will Ferrell was 41 and Mary Steenburgen was 55. In the film, she plays his mom. I bet that hurt when her agent called. I bet it also hurt when she read the script and counted how many F-bombs she would be dropping for the sake of a cheap laugh. What was that Mary? You won an Oscar? That’s cool, but were you ever a “mystery slimed celebrity” at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards? This plotless movie is a loosely strung sequence of admittedly funny gags, but Ferrell’s shock-and-awe comedy style grows old.