Rating: 
Summary: funny, but empty
Review: A film by Terry ZwigoffI am not convinced that "Bad Santa" will be the new holiday classic, or even the new anti-classic (such as "The Ref" is). On the other hand, there is nothing quite like this movie available, especially not a holiday movie. "Bad Santa" is funny and profane and depending on your tastes, may be worth a look. The movie focuses on Willie (Billy Bob Thornton), a safe cracker who only works during the Christmas season. He works as a Santa in a department store, and with his partner, Marcus (Tony Cox), proceeds to rob the store's safe and set himself up for following year. Marcus is a midget, and he plays the role of the Elf when they are working the malls. Marcus also seems to be the brains of the operation since Willie is a walking drunk who is drowning who knows what in alcohol of any kind. Willie is a miserable individual and he is becoming less and less reliable. As Willie is playing Santa he encounters a kid (Brett Kelly). We never really learn his name and it doesn't really matter. The kid, however, attaches himself to Willie. He doesn't have any other friends and is a huge pushover, always getting picked on by everyone. Since the kid lives with his ailing grandmother, Willie decides to stay with them, too. As the movie progresses, we see more of the relationship between Willie and the Kid, and we also come closer to the conclusion of the heist. It seems like every third word was ... this and ... that. The humor in "Bad Santa" was more in the profanity than in being clever. I'm not going to deny that I laughed quite a bit, or that there were not scenes that were very funny, but by the end of the movie, it just felt somewhat empty, like nothing real happened. The characters were profane for the sake of being profane and I think that sometimes the movie just went too far. A scene would be funny, but the profanity kept coming on strong and it was just overkill. The other main flaw of the movie was that it seemed to be giving us the same joke over and over again. The bottom line is that "Bad Santa" is a funny movie, but not one that I can really recommend. After Zwigoff's previous movie, "Ghost World", I had higher hopes for this movie and those hopes were not met. You'll laugh and then forget it the next day. "Bad Santa" also features Bernie Mac and the last film role of John Ritter.
Rating: 
Summary: Socially irrelevant
Review: I am not particularly into Christmas myself, but this simply wasn't funny. Not funny at all. Sadly pathetic. And I wonder how much of it was acting? The language was totally unnecessary, the sex jokes ... vulgar; had I driven myself I would have left after 10 minutes. We've seen Billy Bob Thornton act -not here. And tragically this was John Ritter's last film. What a send off.
Rating: 
Summary: vary good
Review: Not a movie for Kids under 15,but a funny yet nasty movie.I think parents should think before taking their kids to see this. Billy Bob Thornton played his part vary good.
Rating:
Summary: one of the funniest film of '03
Review: this movie is so freakin hilarious. if you havent seen this you got to watch it. youll laugh yourself sick, as sick as this movie is. the thing is if you havent seen it, i dont want to ruin it for you but theres like this kid in it who billy bob stays with a kid and he looks like hes like 5 or 7 but i think hes like twelve though or something cause he just looks like hes at first 6 or 7 but then you think hes to big for like and 8 year old, then you hear him cause and stuff. when this movie first came out then i herd the title then i was like o its got to suck. this movie is hilarious but i dont know about the title but i guess it fits into the movie. watch this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Worst movie ever made
Review: This movie is absolutely horrible. I went to see it with my co-workers who like low brow humor (company sponsored outing, go figure) and even they thought it wasn't funny. I don't care if you are talking about Thornton as Willie Stokes the hard drinking foul mouthed safe cracker, Lauren Graham as the slutty bartender with a Santa fettish, Tony Cox as the dwarve Marcus, Bernie Mac as the crooked mall security guard, or John Ritter as the mall manager in one of his last movie roles; the fact of the matter is that there is not one likeable character in the movie. I found it horrifying that kids were in this movie in scenes where Santa wet himself, swore, and stumbled around drunk. Another typical poor effort by the no talent Coen brothers who have to resort to shock because they have no talent and very little intelligence. Anyone connected with this movie who accepted a salary should be ashamed of themselves and should turn over every red cent they earned to charity. Many of the people in this movie are talented, but didn't show it in this time waster of a film.
Rating:
Summary: Skip This Movie!
Review: In all of my many years of movie viewing I only left one movie before it ended. The movie was Hudson Hawke which starred Bruce Willis. Today I can add another movie to this list - Bad Santa. The only word which precisely described how I felt about this film is the word BAD. I wish I could understand why some reviews were glowing and why my family and I thought this was a complete waste of time. And before somebody says I have no sense of humor or don't enjoy quirky characters and plots, I also loved most of the other Coen brothers movies I've seen in the past. But seeing Billy Bob Thornton drunk for three quarters of what I watched, Thornton dressed in a Santa suit urinating in his pants while children waited on line to speak to him and his antics with an unsuspecting lonely child was more than enough for me. Luckily the theater manager seeing us leave invited us to enter another theater where we saw the delightful and charming Mona Lisa Smile. In the future I will be sure to listen to other friends critiques and perhaps not read reviews when I choose to see a film.
Rating:
Summary: Did we see the same movie?
Review: I went to the movie with a group of friends. The group was divided half and half into "I loved it" and "I hated it" categories. It was described as "a bad COPS show turned into a movie" or "a clever breathe of fresh air for a holiday movie". I'm in the loved it category. Give it a shot. Just go in the mood to have fun. And don't go looking for Jimmy Stewart!
Rating: 
Summary: Bad (Santa) Movie
Review: Wonderful story idea. Brilliant casting. Billy Bob is perfect for Bad Santa. Terrible execution. What could have been a funny and ultimately heartwarming story is ruined by the ridiculous and gratuitious sex scenes and by the language. A kind of a South Park meets Miracle on 34 St. What could have been a wonderful movie in the right hands is merely OK.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe the funniest movie I have EVER seen!
Review: This movie is DARK, DARK, DARK, but HILARIOUS! It's sooo bad, leave the kiddies at home and just enjoy what is destined to become one of the greatest cult classics ever. I was rolling in the aisles with laughter and so was the rest of the audience. I have never been in a theatre where more people were laughing out loud. If you can enjoy REALLY dark humor, you'll love this. Be forewarned, nothing is off-limits in this one. So if you're politically correct in ANY way, you'll be offended. But if you can take a joke, PLEASE see this movie! I can't help but think the negative reveiwers I've seen here just don't get it, lighten UP and just revel in the comedic value of how bad people can be! This movie will instantly be added to my collection when it comes out on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: "Oh yeah, The Three B's..."
Review: Being a fan of Zwigoff's work, and wondering what he'd do next, this merciless, relentlessly funny movie was worth the wait.
And then some. Well written, acted and directed, it's an often harsh movie, but it's not cold at heart.
I did wonder if the title wasn't a take on Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" w/Harvey Keitel..?..a very humorless depiction of temptation/redemption.
Luckily, "Bad Santa" treads those murky waters, but the dead-on punches make you laugh as you wince. Part of what makes a movie like this so funny is that it's directed by a 'takes-one-to-know-one' sorta oddball, so if you instinctively understand the outsider mentailty, you'll find this all the more funny in how you can't help but revel in how so many people who don't and won't 'get' this movie will end up going to see it, expecting a typical 'bad Santa' holiday movie, only to end up with something completely different. See it once just to laugh your butt off, see it again, cos you laughed so much/hard the first time you missed bits of dialogue, and then, just as a goof, go see it a third time just to amuse yourself by gauging crowd reactions/responses! HA!
Some of the offensive, or, potentially offensive gags/lines are used repeatedly, just as a way of(I'm speculating)completely overwhelming and assaulting those whose sensibilities will be easily rubbed the wrong way by it.
This movie is brutal indeed, but like the characters/people/subjects in Zwigoff's work, there is an inner, damaged quality that is being addressed without being overtly sentimental...so, this movie isn't funny just because of the off color humor; it relies on something more than the average, insipid crude-humor movie..and really, it's that intelligence that makes the lowbrow humor so funny, cos it's working on different levels of intention and makes for a broader range of ways for different people to perceive it..or be offended by it, as the case may be. Kudos to all invloved in the making of this much needed 'Holiday Gem'!
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