Bad Santa

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, John Ritter, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly
Directed by: Terry Zwigoff
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
Box Office: $60,060,328
2003

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two criminals pull the same heist every Christmas. Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) works as Santa Claus in a department store with the help of his elf-friend (Tony Cox) and on Christmas, rob the place. The problem is that Willie is a selfish, alcoholic loser with no regard for anyone or anything- including himself. While waiting for the day of the robbery, Willie meets a fat, loser kid (Brett Kelly) whose father is in jail. The kid lives with his crazy grandmother. So, Willie moves in, and although he treats the kid like crap, he looks up to him. In this crazy state of affairs do the two criminals wait for the time to strike it rich.

Review:

Tim: I was horribly disappointed with Bad Santa. It looked incredibly funny, but the laughs just didn't come. I should mention that I watched the "Badder Santa" version on DVD, but even so, I thought the film was disgusting, graphic, and vulgar, and not in a funny way at all.

Bernie Mac is completely wasted and evokes not a single laugh the entire film. Billy Bob Thornton is actually pretty funny, but only because he is such a miserable excuse for a human being. This is great at first, but quickly gets old. The rest of the supporting cast isn't even worth mentioning.

Bad Santa is a poor excuse for a comedy. Yes, there are a few funny scenes, but most of the laughs depend on this line of thinking- "Isn't it funny to see "Santa" doing these sorts of things?" Yeah, at first. But not for an hour and a half and not in a movie based around this one premise. The film just is not funny. To be somewhat more positive, the best scene of the film is when Thornton yells at a mom that he's on his lunch break (with food falling out of his mouth).

Despite whatever efforts the film tries to muster, Bad Santa falls firmly on its face. I can't recommend this movie at all. It should have been hilarious, but is far, far from being funny.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 3



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