BAD SANTA (2003)
Dimension Films

By Désirée I. Guzzetta

Bad Santa is rude, crude, and socially unacceptable. And funny. Really, truly, f***in' funny.

Billy Bob Thornton stars as Willie, a con artist who, along with his partner, Marcus (Tony Cox, scathingly angry), a dwarf, poses as a department store Santa with elf sidekick prior to robbing the store blind once Christmas is nigh. Problem is, Willie is a degenerate drunk whose increasingly unstable behavior is putting the partnership at risk. Add to this a weird kid (Brett Kelly, a fearless little actor) who attaches himself to Willie, the uptight mall manager (a very funny John Ritter in his last film role), and the mall's suspicious head of security, Gin (an exceptionally funny and underused Bernie Mac), and Willie is in one helluva mess. Cloris Leachman also shows up uncredited as The Kid's loopy grandmother, and even when she's not saying anything, she's hilarious.

Normally, watching a film filled with one irredeemable character after another is a chore, but Bad Santa is so gleefully in love with its own irredeemableness that it was worth every minute I had to be away from my own Homer Simpson-esque couch groove to see it. Willie's a lowlife, but he's a strangely endearing one, thanks to Thornton's infusing his own scruffy charms into his portrayal. There's no saccharine lovey-dovey ending, either. What you see with this motley lot is what you get--well, except for The Kid, who is allowed character growth because he's, you know, just a kid and kids eventually grow up. Even the ones who hang out with bums like Willie.

This film has everything you want in a holiday film: sex, murder, vomit, and other heart-warming things. It's also now become required Christmas viewing in this Lazy Critic's house along with "Raging Rudolph," "The Spirit of Christmas," and A Christmas Story (of which Bad Santa is the antithesis and which also proves this LC is not completely devoid of happy holiday sentiment).

If you're a fan of the darkest of dark humor, Bad Santa is up your dark alley. If you're at all offended by profanity, it's best to stay far away from this film, which is easily the most vulgar I've seen in quite some time. I mean, I don't shy away from raunchy jokes, but even I blushed at a few of the more choice epithets. Or maybe I was just turning red from laughing my a** off.

Lazy Critic Tip of the Day: Stick around for the end credits for more funny stuff.

Dimension Films
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Screenwriters: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton (Willie), Tony Cox (Marcus), Brett Kelly (The Kid), Bernie Mac (Gin), Lauren Graham (Sue), John Ritter (Mall Manager), Lauren Tom (Lois)
Running Time: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Rated: R

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