Overall Rating
  Awesome: 37.67%
Worth A Look: 36.99%
Average: 8.22%
Pretty Bad: 7.53%
Total Crap: 9.59%
9 reviews, 92 user ratings
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| Bad Santa |
by Brian McKay
"Not just bad, but really, REALLY wrong . . . in all the right ways"
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Folks, I think I've found my new yearly traditional Christmas-time movie. Forget A CHRISTMAS STORY, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION, or even the ubiquitous once a year revisit to DIE HARD'S Nakatomi building. And no offense to the memories of Mr. Frank Capra, Jimmy Stewart, or the eternal MILF Donna Reed - but let's put that tired-ass IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE shit out to pasture for good.What we have in Bad Santa is a sometimes-brilliant but often shoddily written and thinly plotted mess of a movie that holds nothing sacred or taboo and has no artistic merit or socially redeeming value whatsoever. This is a film, Ladies and Gentlemen, that uses the word "Fuck" more times than The Blair Witch Project and The Big Lebowski combined, and usually in the presence of one or more small children.
Oh, and did I mention that it's brutally, hysterically funny?
Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) is a bad, bad department store Santa. And not just the kind who drinks and smokes constantly, shows up late, drunk, and disheveled to work, and is caustic and vulgar in front of the children. No, he's the kind that robs the safes of the department stores who employ him (on Christmas Eve, no less) with the help of his little helper and partner in crime, an equally vulgar and only slightly less deranged Midget name Marcus (Tony Cox). Once he disables the department store alarm systems so that "Santa" can crack the safe in Heavenly Peace, Marcus and his equally opportunistic Filipino wife Lois (Lauren Tom) help themselves to all the extra loot they can carry.
This Christmas, however, Willie has a couple of distractions that threaten to get in the way of his usual thievery and post-holiday alcohol-induced hibernation. One is the super-cute bartender (Lauren Graham) at the local watering hole who has a rather ardent Santa fetish and utters the phrase "Fuck me Santa" frequently during their, ahem, lovemaking. The other is a lonely fat kid who actually thinks that Willie is Santa and who just happens to have absentee parents and a big house that Willie can take advantage of.
Add to the mix a somewhat offbeat and uncharacteristically subtle performance by Bernie Mac as the department store's scheming head of security, and the late John Ritter as a nebbish store manager, and you have a recipe for an opportunistic and low-minded (but not quite entirely mean spirited) comedy. Best of all, it's a Christmas movie that's completely devoid of Christmas sprit (unless you count the scene where Willie, while hotly pursued by the cops, mutters "fuck it - it's Christmas eve, and the kid's gonna get his fucking present!"). And that's precisely what I love about Bad Santa. No attempts at shoving Christmas spirit down your throat, or relaying little morality plays couched in the guise of comedy. It's just a down and dirty, raunchy, balls-to-the-wall yuckfest.While it's not quite an instant comedy classic in the league of OFFICE SPACE, ANIMAL HOUSE, or CADDYSHACK, it's certainly good enough to dust off and throw in the DVD player once a year when the shopping is all done, the decorations are up, and you just feel like saying "Fuck Christmas - I need to LAUGH!" Of course, it might not be a bad idea to down a bottle of Christmas wine or rum-spiked eggnog first, just to get into the proper spirit.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8367&reviewer=258
originally posted: 01/11/04 17:48:25
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This film is available for download or online viewing at CinemaNow.com For more in the CinemaNow.com series, click here.
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USA
26-Nov-2003 (R)
DVD: 10-Oct-2006
UK
N/A
Australia
25-Nov-2004
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