Bad Santa (2003)

Touches You

Fantastic!

Admirable film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This bad santa performance is nothing short of amazing. The jokes are very adult oriented and very well placed without sounding juvenile. A Christmas classic to see with your friends and adult family, but spare the kids. They won't get it anyway...

Sometimes genuinely obnoxious movies can prove entertaining. "Ghost World" director Terry Zwigoff doesn't pull any punches in his sarcastic, sacrilegious, but sizzling saga about a pair of thieves that dress up like Santa Claus and his Elf accomplice and rob a departmental store of everything at Christmas time. The first thing that is going to rile prospective spectators is the abundant profanity. According to the Kids-in-the-Mind website, the F-word or its derivative is uttered 130 times. This should slash a third of the audience for this interesting, artsy, crime thriller/ character study. Oscar winning actor Billy Bob Thornton is thoroughly persuasive as a down-on-his-luck individual who has dedicated himself to a life of debauchery and wound up masquerading as Santa Claus once a year as part of an elaborate crime. Willy (Billy Bob Thorton) is not the brains behind this skulduggery. Instead, Marcus Skidmore (Tony Cox) organizes everything. Marcus is as ruthless as he is short. He is a small person. Nevertheless, nobody should let Marcus' lack of height lull them into a false sense of security. He uses Willy to break into the safe so they can loot it for an eleven-month holiday until time comes for them to look for a new target. This time, they run into a challenging adversary, a Department Store Security Chief (Bernie Mac") who is as smart as he is cunning. In one of his final theatrical appearances, John Ritter plays a sensitive story supervisor who discovers Willy having anal sex with a customer in a ladies' dressing room. The second reason you won't like "Bad Santa" is the amoral behavior of the hero. He drinks himself into a stupor and often winds up bedding down a single girl. His only dictum is that she must cry "Santa" during their sexual follies. "Bad Santa" is a crude, rude, lewd character study with a surprise ending for what is basically a matter-of-fact crime comedy.

Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham, John Ritter and Bernie Mac star in this 2003 comedy. Thornton (Armageddon) plays Willie, a depressed, sarcastic, alcoholic thief who works as Santa Claus for department stores he robs every Christmas Eve. Cox (Me, Myself & Irene) plays his partner, Marcus who works as his Elf. Soon, an odd kid (Kelly) comes into Willie's life and changes him. Graham (Gilmore Girls, Evan Almighty) plays Sue, a bartender who falls for Willie, the late, Ritter (Problem Child) plays department store boss, Bob and the late, Mac (Ocean's Eleven) plays Gin, the store's head of security who becomes on to Willie & Marcus. This is a good holiday comedy with hilarious and a bit of touching moments. Thornton & Cox are great together and steal the film. I recommend this, but caution that there's a lot of profanity.

My husband usually finds most comedy enjoyable. I find only some comedy enjoyable. We are both avid movie-watchers. Neither of us enjoyed this movie at all. At 44mins in (47mins to go), my husband thought it 'might' be picking up... but lost interest in further watching. In my opinion, if it takes half the movie to start getting better, then it's a bad movie.This movie relies on the presentation of an immoral, irreligious, cursing Santa as it's chief premise. That it is a 'bad' movie, in in my opinion, isn't a reflection on the acting or direction, both of which seemed pretty good. Perhaps it's more redeeming feature was Brett Kelly's portrayal of 'The Kid', which makes an excellent foil to Billy Bob Thornton's 'Bad Santa'. The script, however, left a lot to be desired and seemed only designed to appeal to some. For us the dialogue and plot were both pretty uninspired and seriously lacked.If you enjoy a mockery of the traditional concept of Santa, and love a script liberally salted with a wide range of cursing, then you may possibly love this movie. We, however, did not enjoy it. Final tally: 1 for the acting, 1 for the direction & 1 for the presentation. 0 for all else.