A film by Terry Zwigoff
I am not convinced that Bad Santa will be the new holiday classic, or even the new anti-classic (such as The Ref is). On the other hand, there is nothing quite like this movie available, especially not a holiday movie. Bad Santa is funny and profane and depending on your tastes, may be worth a look.
The movie focuses on Willie (Billy Bob Thornton), a safe cracker who only works during the Christmas season. He works as a Santa in a department store, and with his partner, Marcus (Tony Cox), proceeds to rob the store s safe and set himself up for following year. Marcus is a midget, and he plays the role of the Elf when they are working the malls. Marcus also seems to be the brains of the operation since Willie is a walking drunk who is drowning who knows what in alcohol of any kind. Willie is a miserable individual and he is becoming less and less reliable.
As Willie is playing Santa he encounters a kid (Brett Kelly). We never really learn his name and it doesn t really matter. The kid, however, attaches himself to Willie. He doesn t have any other friends and is a huge pushover, always getting picked on by everyone. Since the kid lives with his ailing grandmother, Willie decides to stay with them, too. As the movie progresses, we see more of the relationship between Willie and the Kid, and we also come closer to the conclusion of the heist.
It seems like every third word was f this and f that. The humor in Bad Santa was more in the profanity than in being clever. I m not going to deny that I laughed quite a bit, or that there were not scenes that were very funny, but by the end of the movie, it just felt somewhat empty, like nothing real happened. The characters were profane for the sake of being profane and I think that sometimes the movie just went too far. A scene would be funny, but the profanity kept coming on strong and it was just overkill. The other main flaw of the movie was that it seemed to be giving us the same joke over and over again. The bottom line is that Bad Santa is a funny movie, but not one that I can really recommend. After Zwigoff s previous movie, Ghost World , I had higher hopes for this movie and those hopes were not met. You ll laugh and then forget it the next day.
Bad Santa also features Bernie Mac and the last film role of John Ritter.
3 out of 5 pugs, it was nothing special
I am not convinced that Bad Santa will be the new holiday classic, or even the new anti-classic (such as The Ref is). On the other hand, there is nothing quite like this movie available, especially not a holiday movie. Bad Santa is funny and profane and depending on your tastes, may be worth a look.
The movie focuses on Willie (Billy Bob Thornton), a safe cracker who only works during the Christmas season. He works as a Santa in a department store, and with his partner, Marcus (Tony Cox), proceeds to rob the store s safe and set himself up for following year. Marcus is a midget, and he plays the role of the Elf when they are working the malls. Marcus also seems to be the brains of the operation since Willie is a walking drunk who is drowning who knows what in alcohol of any kind. Willie is a miserable individual and he is becoming less and less reliable.
As Willie is playing Santa he encounters a kid (Brett Kelly). We never really learn his name and it doesn t really matter. The kid, however, attaches himself to Willie. He doesn t have any other friends and is a huge pushover, always getting picked on by everyone. Since the kid lives with his ailing grandmother, Willie decides to stay with them, too. As the movie progresses, we see more of the relationship between Willie and the Kid, and we also come closer to the conclusion of the heist.
It seems like every third word was f this and f that. The humor in Bad Santa was more in the profanity than in being clever. I m not going to deny that I laughed quite a bit, or that there were not scenes that were very funny, but by the end of the movie, it just felt somewhat empty, like nothing real happened. The characters were profane for the sake of being profane and I think that sometimes the movie just went too far. A scene would be funny, but the profanity kept coming on strong and it was just overkill. The other main flaw of the movie was that it seemed to be giving us the same joke over and over again. The bottom line is that Bad Santa is a funny movie, but not one that I can really recommend. After Zwigoff s previous movie, Ghost World , I had higher hopes for this movie and those hopes were not met. You ll laugh and then forget it the next day.
Bad Santa also features Bernie Mac and the last film role of John Ritter.
3 out of 5 pugs, it was nothing special
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