Bad Santa (2003)

Forget Jimmy Stewart and that claymation crap! If you like Christmas movies with more of an edge and lots of comedy however, "Bad Santa" might just be your new favorite holiday movie. In my mind, usurping "A Christmas Story" and "Scrooged" as the funniest holiday movie yet, Bad Santa (or BS as I like to call it) pulls no punches as it delivers a raunchy, yet funny, and yes, even a little bit of a touching film.

Billy Bob Thorton is a drinking, fornicating, defecating thief who freeloads for the whole year, only to work 25 days in December while robbing a mall of all it's holiday proceeds. His partner in crime is Tony Cox, Santa's little person helper who keeps him sober and lucid enough through the season to not royally screw things up.

I won't go into details, because frankly the plot needs work. But the acting is superb, the script hysterical, and the unbelievable jokes and inappropriate situations are just so entertaining you won't care about anything else.

Bernie Mac and Lauren Graham deliver polished supporting roles, as does John Ritter in his final film role before his death. The kid doesn't have many lines (and I want to slap him for the ones he does deliver), but just looking at him makes me laugh, so I can't complain there.

Basically, this is the ultimate inappropriate Christmas movie; one that makes you stand up and scream, "Holly s*!t I can't believe they did that!" This movie is just so blatantly wrong, the only other film I can compare it to is "South Park: The Movie." Just as South Park crosses every line of decency that previously existed, so does BS. A great movie because of it? Hell no. But a funny and entertaining one? Hell yes!

Fmovies: I expected to be really offended in this movie. I expected to hate this film. In fact, I even thought about not watching it. Luckily enough, I trusted my friends recommendation, and watched the film. I gotta say, it was really sweet, even if the lead wasn't super likable.

The first half of the movie was not that great, but I forgive the film, because it gave us the introduction to the characters. The first half was basically just an offensive, crude comedy, even if some jokes were funny. But, the second half of the film I found was ten times more enjoyable.

The second half was emotional, heart felt, and soft, even if the last three minutes was a bit, "What?" But, I gotta be honest, I laughed quite loudly at the first three minutes. The second half of this is really touching, funny, and quite nice. Even if you think you won't enjoy this, you will if you watch it until the end. Overall, I rate this a 8.7/10. Masterpiece.

Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) is a drunk who plays store Santa for Christmas. He and his partner-in-crime Marcus (Tony Cox) case out the department store where they work and rob it on Christmas Eve every year. Willie befriends a chubby loner boy (Brett Kelly), and bartender Sue (Lauren Graham) who has Santa issues. Then store manager Gin (Bernie Mac) muscles in on their action.

Bad Santa is demented and destructive. Billy Bob Thornton goes over the edge, and Tony Cox goes right along with him. This is no Christmas special. And I love the kid Brett Kelly. He isn't your average adorable little kid. He's your average loser kid. That makes their friendship so much better. This is a great black Christmas.

Bad Santa fmovies. I saw the trailers and knew what I was in for when I went to see Bad Santa. It's not Nice Santa or Naughty Santa, but BAAADD SANTA, horribly drunk and disorderly Santa. Rude and Crude Santa.

I laughed until tears streamed down my face.

There is a lot of sexual situations and profanity, but you have to look past it. Those sensitive to foul language should not watch this movie nor FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL. This is not a kiddie movie, but a movie made for adults.

Compared to ELF, SANTA CLAUSE, and a whole raft of other so-so Christmas related comedies, this is one of the best. Most holiday humor movies are always on the lightside with an eye to the children market during the holidays. This one ranks in there with A Christmas STORY and PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES and THE GRINCH WHO STOLE Christmas (cartoon version).

BAD SANTA is Christmas at its darkest, full of profanity, bad people, and evil deeds. But at the heart of it is a small bit of caring by one Bad Santa.

This is one of the best Christmas movie of all times. The casting is brilliant, and the chemistry between all the characters is very much present.

Billy Bob Thornton was especially funny as the loser in life who dons the red suit every Christmas. Just seeing Santa behaving drunken and swearing every other word tells you how different this is from the typical Christmas family friendly movies.

Bernie Mac was funny in his supporting role, and Tony Cox was OK. Billy Bob was phenomenal.

I've watched this movie twice already this Christmas season, and I loved every minute of it.

The first time I saw Terry Zwigoff's latest effort (co-executive produced by the Coen brothers) Bad Santa, I didn't know whether I was watching a comedy that had astonishingly funny and madcap moments, or if it was a really bad movie. At times the script felt like it was under the penmanship of demented cretins off loan of some low-rent porno company. But there were scenes and moments with good old Billy Bob Thornton that had me laughing uncontrollably, so I decided to see it again recently. Now I understand it- this is a dig-in nails, ribald, hardcore satirical look at one (un-kept is a term used loosely) man in the midst of Americana during Christmas time.

This man is Willie, played by Billy Bob, as something of a loser, low-self esteem, boozing, cursing, and a thief, though only at Christmas time. In a sense he's a modern day pirate without a shave, though with a yearly plan to rob a large store in a given mall he's given a job at with his co-patriot Marcus (Tony Cox, whom you may recall from uproarious bit parts in Friday and Me, Myself, and Irene). In one season, however, he meets a Kid (Brent Kelly), who for some reason looks up to this con-man in a red suit, giving him a place to stay in turn (never asked for) for some advice and help with bullies and self-esteem. On the first viewing of Bad Santa, along with not knowing whether I was seeing a good or bad film, I didn't know whether Billy Bob was pushing the 'rotten-dude' envelope over the top or just right. This may be a problem for most viewers going to see it once and not thinking of seeing it again.

But I think Bad Santa is one of those movies that merits a repeat viewing- you may laugh less or harder at certain jokes and moments of outrageousness, some may fly over your head completely or make you go "eww". Yet I think the brilliant aspect about Bad Santa is it never takes itself a bit too seriously. Even in the denouement, when we are sort of assured things will turn out alright; it's like a denouement on a South Park episode. In fact, that's something that can be said about Bad Santa, is that it feels like a work in the vein of Parker and Stone, but since it's from the director of Ghost World it comes off a little fresher, with an appeal all its own.