After Bad Moms became a surprise hit in 2016, a second film became inevitable. The choice of holiday-related sequel felt like more of a surprise, but that’s what we got with 2017’s A Bad Moms Christmas.

In the first film, we met three over-burdened mothers: Amy (Mila Kunis), Kiki (Kristen Bell) and Carla (Kathryn Hahn). All three overcame various personal issues and bonded over their refusal to let society dictate their behaviors.

With Christmas on the horizon, the moms again find themselves pressured to excel at all things for all people – and they again rebel. To add to the stress, all of their mothers (Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines and Susan Sarandon) visit for the holidays and bring their own nuttiness along for the ride.

Moms Christmas hit screens barely 15 months after the release of the first flick, a remarkably fast turnaround time. The rapid pace of the production shows, as the sequel can’t muster any real creativity or freshness.

One sign that a movie lacks inspiration: it forces a child to spout profanity. Another indication: the film boasts many montages.

Those flaws and others become dominant in this largely witless endeavor. Moms Christmas takes the easiest of all possible easy roads to attempt mirth with no sweat broken.

Like the first film, Moms Christmas comes with a good cast, and the various grandmas add some spice. To my surprise, Sarandon provides the least compelling performance, but that might be because she gets the smallest amount of screen time.

Hines and Baranski do nothing to stretch their talents because their roles follow such predictable paths. Still, they commit to their thin parts and deliver the occasional minor chuckle.

They’re not enough, as Moms fails to find its own way. The movie embraces one cliché after another and often feels more like a collection of comedic ideas cobbled into a movie.

Though the cast allows this product to go down painlessly – I shudder to think what less talented actors would’ve done with this lame material –they can’t redeem the end product. Because the first film wasn’t especially good, I won’t call Moms Christmas a disappointment, but it certainly lacks merit.

A Bad Moms Christmas appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The film offered a terrific visual presentation.

From start to finish, sharpness looked strong. With virtually no softness on display, the film appeared concise and well-defined.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and edge enhancement was absent. I also failed to detect any source flaws.

In terms of colors, the movie featured some orange and teal, though the Christmas setting allowed for a warmer range of tones. Within those parameters, the hues looked positive, as they showed nice clarity and breadth and came out well.

Blacks were dark and deep, while shadows appeared full and smooth. I thought the movie consistently looked great.

I thought that the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Moms Christmas seemed fine but it didn’t excel because of a lack of ambition. Like most comedies, the movie featured a limited soundfield that strongly favored the forward channels. It showed nice stereo spread to the music as well as some general ambience from the sides.

Panning was decent, and the surrounds usually kicked in basic reinforcement. A few scenes opened up better but most of the movie stayed with limited imaging.

Audio quality appeared good. Speech was natural and distinct, with no issues related to edginess or intelligibility.

Effects sounded clean and accurate, with good fidelity and no signs of distortion. Music was perfectly fine, as the score and songs showed positive dimensionality. This track was good enough for a “B-“ but it didn’t particularly impress.

Only a handful extras show up here, and we find a Gag Reel. It runs six minutes, 36 seconds and presents the usual mix of goofs and giggles, though we get a few alternate lines as well.

Additional Scenes fill a total of three minutes, 52 seconds. None of these offer true “deleted scenes”, so this becomes a compilation of short snippets and alternate lines. It’s watchable in that regard.

Finally, we find a Crew Music Video. The two-minute, 25-second clip offers the crew’s version of the video the cast performs over the end credits. It’s probably fun for them but less so for the rest of us.

The disc opens with ads for All I See Is You, The Man Who Invented Christmas, Marshall and The Foreigner. We also get two trailers for Moms Christmas.

Little more than a rehash of the first film, A Bad Moms Christmas lacks inspiration. Due to a good cast, it musters an occasional laugh, but most of it feels stale and predictable. The Blu-ray boasts excellent visuals with adequate audio and minor supplements. Moms becomes forgettable holiday entertainment.