Bad Santa

Rating:
Summary: Bad Santa: Good for Christmas
Review: In a world where all christmas movies are saccarine sweet Bad Santa bucks the trend. Sure I like christmas movies but when they are all the same it is akin to eating pancakes 3 times a day for three months -- monotonous. The only reason they stick around is because they are shown once a year during a time we are supposed to be happy anyway. Bad Santa is not such a movie. It is dark and dry. Its humor is nearly latent at time but overall it is a great film and a movie that will certainly belong to the arsenal of christmas films to be shown on tv.

Billy Bob Thorton, is great in this movie. I think he is relatively atrocious as a person but his ability to play a drunken criminal is great(he is a good actor). And "Kid" is fantastic. He is the quitessential introverted fat adolescent who is so happy to have any human attention at all he is willing to talk to a emaciated drunken santa.

The story is stupid and a little weak but the humor of the characters and the interchange between them carries this movie. It is shot nicely and really is not as crude as its cracked up to be (maybe badder santa is). This was a movie that I was reluctant to see it took two viewings to appreciate it. This maybe because I don't like Thorton but it matters little. I say if you liked this movie good if you didn't great - see it again... you will like it, and if you havent seen it chack it out it is a good film (maybe not a family flick) and really humorous. The DVD is full of extras making it well worth its money.

Rating:
Summary: heh
Review: I remember being shocked by all the negative reviews due to language after watching My Cousin Vinny. What bad language? So I watched it again. Oh. I think my brain came with an 'f' filter. Perhaps that's why I didn't find Bad Santa all that amusing. Take away the idea of a swearing santa and what's left? In this movie, nothing.

I feel the need to take a poll. When that pathetic kid walked in on santa and his groupie and handed santa the pickle or stick of wood or whatever, how many of you were sure he'd use it on the groupie in front of the kid? Did the director feel that was going too far? or couldn't he get it past the censors? Sadly, I suspect it was the latter. Subtlety ain't in that guy's vocabulary.

Some people in here are comparing Bad Santa to The Ref. There's no comparison. One was a hilarious comedy with brilliant dialogue that sometimes bordered on the sublime. The other was just plain bad santa. It's a simple little equation.

Rating:
Summary: This is the Worst
Review: This movie is a direct assault on the institution of Santa Claus by envious Hollywood Jews.

There are no redeeming qualities in this waste of film.



Rating:
Summary: The Classic Christmas Movie--- for Reprobates
Review: I got this from a friend from Amazon and didn't watch it for a long time.

Then I watched it.

Then I watched it again.

Now I think it is probably one of the funniest movies I've seen.

It's painful to watch. It's harder to laugh at.

Rating:
Summary: don't waste your time!!!! Unless you like DARK COMEDIES!!!
Review: 1st of all I rented this movie as it was supposed to be this hysterical comedy. This movie appeals only to people who like DARK COMEDIES. I chuckled about 4x during the movie. It was so depressing, boring, stupid, and just plain unfunny. And even though I like crude humor, the jokes weren't that funny. What a disapointment! Bernie Mac plays a straight man, so if you like his humor you'll be dissapointed yet again w/ this movie. If you like movies like Brazil, After hours, and war of the roses, you probably will like it, but if you want a sidespiltting, well written funny movie this one COMPLETLY misses the mark. Don't waste your time with this movie like I did!!!! I wish I could give it no stars!!!! but 1 is the least you can give it.

Rating:
Summary: Yup! It's a Xmas Xlassic!
Review: Let's get two things out of the way immediately: This is NOT a movie for children. This is NOT a movie for people who are easily offended (i.e. citizens of the red states). That said, this movie is highly offensive and extremely funny. It's great for Christmastime decompression (yeah, sure, we all run ourselves up to the holiday with viewings of "Miracle on 34th. Street," "It's A Wonderful Life," and "A Christmas Story," but once Christmas Day passes, and right before the cleanup of wrapping paper and such, this makes PERFECT post-holiday viewing), it's becoming part of my yearly Xmas relief and it's only a two-year old film!

Billy-Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, and Bernie Mac are hysterical... totally into their roles, they (and the side characters of "Sue" (Lauren Graham) and "Lois" (Lauren Tom)) are sick, twisted, repulsive and totally reprehensible, and very, very funny. John Ritter's last role is pretty darn good... he really works well with the cast in his role as the weasly Bob Chipeska, Manager of the mall where Santa and his little elf's grand larceny are finally undone. Virtually everyone in this film is excellent (Cloris Leachman has a pretty thankless role though, for a comedy actress of her stature), but the film is pretty much stolen (hard to do with Billy Bob in a truly loathsome, but completely endearing role) by "The Kid" played with a deadpan-bordering-on-zombified expression by Brett Kelly.

The whole film plays like a contemporary version of "Ruthless People" skewering the holiday spirit as conceived by the Coen brothers (which it was). Terry Zwigoff's direction is pretty sharp and the film moves with a sometimes manic pace, while at other times savoring the moment of utter despair (while still maintaining the laughs). It is indeed a one-note comedy as other reviewers have pointed out, but heck, most Christmas films are pretty one-note affairs (either someone with a sour heart gains belief in Santa or Jesus, or the "Holiday Spirit" or they manage to make the holiday special for someone in some aw! gee! gosh! way that softens a hard heart), however they rarely sustain their tone as well as this film does. Zwigoff really knows how to direct films that portray lonely people with quirky character flaws, and this film sometimes offers a melancholy tone similar to "Ghost World" right before it pulls the rug out from under you for a laugh. The film does not pull its punches, as most films of this type would, by having the characters learn anything. Thornton's Bad Santa does indeed help a child, but it's done with such a vicious touch of misanthropy as to be jaw-droppingly sick and, again, very, very funny. One thing you have to at least say about "Bad Santa" is that it never, EVER gives an inch in its utter nastiness and never truly redeems its characters... even the end of the film relies on a joke that is more riptide than yuletide in spirit. That said, I dare anyone to get offended in renting this or buying it. I mean, the title alone should pretty much tell you what's what, so why whine about it. I myself recommend it!!

Note: I first saw this in the theater around Christmas 2003 (the time of its release), and was having a pretty good time (the theater was filled, the laughter was loud) until I spotted a number of families in the audience. Folks, this ain't a family film. I mean, there were litte kids in there, not teenagers, with their parents, and you know what that tells me? It tells me that all the brouhaha over a culture war and family values is bunk. Taking a kid to see this adult film with its restrictive rating is simply BAD parenting. And yet, these very same parents will make hay out of how awful the cesspool of Hollywood is and how the culture is going to hell in a handbasket. Well, folks you can't have it both ways... and the hypocrisy is getting ridiculous. There are plenty of family films out there as an alternative and plenty of Christmas comedies that children can be taken to (if you like fart jokes), and there really is no excuse for renting or buying this film as a DVD for a minor (intellingent teenagers may get a kick out of it though, but I'd put the cut-off age at 16). Although this film is very funny, it is VERY adult in tone... there is no explicit sex, and very little violence, but there is a lot of talk-- ala "Clerks" --about sex, and the talk is extremely suggestive (and to the Amazon reviewer who obviously has a problem with non-missionary sex... guess what?? Hetrosexuals like THAT position, too!). Showing this film to a kid is really your choice as a parent (until the government starts deciding all of our entertainment choices, and therin lies the danger of getting overly offended by a film like this, while knowing all along what you got yourself into by popping it into your DVD player), but if you do, be careful not to whine to much about how horrid Hollywood is next time a little bit of skin is shown on a commercial for Monday Night Football.

Again, this film is HIGHLY recommended for intelligent people who like a good laugh from the gut. It isn't the least bit intellectual in the way it generates the laughter, but it does offer the kind of base humor that is definitely needed from time to time-- especially around the sanctimonious holiday season.

Rating:
Summary: A Feast for the Ebenezers Out There!
Review: BAD SANTA takes another view at this Holiday season and in trying to debunk (or rather, to parody) all the frantic commercialism that has threatened to drown Christmas, Director Terry Zwigoff has created a solid film noir comedy that will probably manage to have considerable staying power - if only to show the other end of the glitzy spectrum we now know as Christmas.

Billy Bob Thornton once again proves that he is one of our best comedians in the business. True, his comedy is rather dark, but his facial expressions, body language, and his way with double entendres is hard to equal. As a wholly despicable alcoholic, toilet-mouthed, sexaholic, smarmy slob, Thornton cashes in on the Christmas season each year to impersonate Santa in order to get the inside dope on big department stores' huge safes, full of the cash the holiday engenders. He is aided by Marcus the dwarf elf (Tony Cox), chased by the store manager (John Ritter) and store detective (Bernie Mac), and finds refuge in the home of a fat kid (Brett Kelly) whose parents are away and who believes in Santa!

Stir this mix with a generous dollop of foul language and situations of questionable taste and you have BAD SANTA. It is a movie you want to hate, but given the gusto with which all of the actors commit to the project, this is a film that will tickle you dark side funny bone - even if you have to hide your giggles amid the holiday spirit. Grady Harp, December 2004

Rating:
Summary: Bad Santa - Two Thumbs Down
Review: This is an awful and stupid movie. Totally trash. It has so much bad vile language from beginning to end and in front of small children which is unforgiveable. The movie has no plot or story line to it.
Do not waste your money or time on this garbage. TWO THUMBS DOWN!!

Rating:
Summary: Crude, Offensive, Negative... and Funny
Review: It's crude. There's sex (no, not nice sex), drunkeness, unkindness, insults, terrible language, and every offensive thing you can think of. Somehow it all comes out funny and even touching in parts.
You grow to care for the fat boy, who is persecuted, parentless, clueless and yet still tries to believe that this horrible Santa will bring something good into his life. Remarkably, this at-first-unlikeable kid is the redeeming element for the Bad Santa Claus. You can't help but laugh at his lines.
Warning: don't show this to kids. It is definitely for adult audiences. I knocked off a few stars because some of the gross scenes didn't really help develop the character or the plot after a certain point.