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Poster (c) Dimension Films
Willie and his elfish friend Marcus (Tony Cox) move around to another mall in another city each Christmas with the intentions of robbing the mall Christmas Eve. They’ve done this for eight years, but this year Willie has gotten drunker and drunker, spewing out insults to all of the kids who just want a sit on Santa’s lap. However, everything changes when he meets Sherman (Brett Kelly), a lonely, naïve kid. Willie’s in trouble with the law, so he shacks up with Sherman for a while, and starts to realize the true meaning of Christmas (what else?).
Bad Santa is a dark, hateful comedy. There’s nothing light and cheery about it, for the most part. If seeing Billy Bob insult anyone who comes into his way makes you laugh, then Bad Santa was made just for you. To me, I found that it had its moments, but there wasn’t anything that hilarious in it. Some of the insults were funny, some weren’t. It was pretty much hit-and-miss. The funniest part of the entire movie was during the opening scene, which I have already described, a woman sitting behind me said, “I know THAT feeling.”
I do appreciate, however, the courage that everyone, especially director Terry Zwigoff, had to make such a daring picture. This is not a normal movie, and everyone involved knew it, so I think that in itself deserves applause.
Thornton seemed to know too well how to be an unlikable drunkard, but I think he was great in Bad Santa simply because he took a character that no one in their right mind would like to be next to and by the end turn him into an all-around nice guy. Cox was great, too, but his so-called “plot twist” at the end disappointed me. Speaking of disappointment, many people who were in this movie were wasted, specifically Lauren Graham, Lauren Tom, Bernie Mac, John Ritter, Ajay Naidu, Alex Borstein, and Cloris Leachman. They all had very small roles, and more could have been done with them.
I could see some people not liking the ending, for it’s the typical gooey Hollywood ending, but I felt it worked well and not tacked on, as many endings like that are. I liked how it didn’t really explain everything and didn’t wrap the ending up in a nice little package with a bow and express ship it to our hearts. It was somewhat open-ended and closed on a completely different note than the opening began with, and change is what the movie’s all about.
Bad Santa is a refreshing and sometimes funny comedy that most people probably won’t like because it’s crude and profane. However, if you can put up with that, you’ll find lots to like.
Rated R for pervasive language, strong sexual content and some violence.
Review Date: November 30, 2003