Locations/Showings
Featuring Mainstream &
Art House Choices

Forum
Scary Movie 3 was neither scary nor a movie. Discuss this & more.

Reviews
Glorifications & Executions of the latest Movies, DVDs, and television shows.

Flashback Flicks
Krull and other "Lost" Classics get their day in the sun.

Crapmasterpieces
So darn crappy they're hilariously brilliant.

TV Highlights
Boob Tube Playtime!

Calendar
A movie/tv related calendar. Covers openings, DVD release dates, conventions etc.

Bad Santa

Year Released: 2003
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham, Bernie Mac, Cloris Leachman, Lauren Tom
Director: Terry Zwigoff

Reviewed by Chris Ching

I was actually shocked by Bad Santa. I'd heard it was cynical. Adjectives like "vile" and "offensive" were doled out. But nothing prepared me for the visual image of Lauren Graham getting screwed by a Santa Claus-suit-wearing Billy Bob Thornton. Sure the act is somewhat obscured by a dressing room door, but Bill Bob's love cry of "You won't be able to sh** for a week" let's the audience know that some serious yuletide hijinx are going down.

And Billy Bob buggering one of the Gilmore Girls is just one of the many, many scenes in Bad Santa to elicit a "I can't believe they did that." response.

To get into specifics would ruin the movie for you, and this is a movie you should see. It's been a long time since such nihilistic fare made it into the multiplex, and its quite welcome. Directed by Terry Zwigoff, Bad Santa is so relentless a black comedy that it's similar to Kill Bill's orgy of violence. Except where Quentin Tarantino painted his masterpiece with brutal killings galore, Zwigoff uses a palette of gross out jokes, disgust, and more f-words than Scarface.

Bill Bob plays Willie, a bitter alcoholic safe cracker who teams up every Christmas with his vertically-challenged buddy Marcus (Tony Cox) to rob a department store. Their front is getting hired as the store Santa and Elf where they're able to scope out the premises and prepare for the usual Dec. 24 heist, after which they skip town. Why any store manager would hire two guys who have a "career" as a Santa and Elf is one of the moments where Bad Santa's script falters. I was also disappointed to see Cloris Leachman, Bernie Mac, and especially John Ritter wasted in their supporting roles.

A nice, understated performace is given by Brett Kelley as The Kid, a nose dripping pudge of a gradeschooler, who forges a relationship with the "I hate everything, everyone, and myself" Willie. He's a child actor who doesn't come off as a child actor like say McCauley Culkin in his Home Alone prime.

The star of the show of course is Billy Bob who jumps headfirst into one of the most unlikable roles ever taken by a major star. Billy Bob doesn't hold anything back and the movie lives or dies by him. His character is vile... whether its soiling his pants on Santa's throne or flirting with an almost jailbait mall babe. But Like Zwigoff's two former protagonists, Robert Crumb in Crumb and Enid in Ghost World; Willie is a social oddball you end up rooting for in spite of his skewed look at the world. While Willie's story arc is ultimately unfullfilling (he's been so bad for most of the movie, his "epiphany" is jarring), you'll leave the theatre thinking Willie has made somewhat of a step in the right direction. Some might see this as copping out, but without that glimmer, then you're left with a one note crank of a movie albeit, a very disgustingly funny one.

Rating:(3 out of 4 stars)

Want to discuss this, and other topics, with fellow fans?

Post your thoughts in the SJ Fanboy Forum now!