BAD SANTA A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2003 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
How bad is "Bad Santa"? Pretty bad. It's definitely not for kids and, unless pervasive profanity in the face of our impressionable youth makes you titter, it's not really for adults either, discerning ones that is, since those tend to prefer a little cleverness and imagination mixed in with their vulgarity--heck, even the Farrelly Brothers have been accused of a little subtlety every now and again. But subtle this Santa ain't. Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox play a couple of deadbeat crooks who pose as Santa and his elf for the holiday season, ripping off the department store they work for after hours (Willie's Dad was a safecracker and taught his son well). The lewd, lascivious Willie favors GrandDad and Stoli over milk and cookies so he's always showing up drunk to his Santa gig, much to the chagrin of his diminutive assistant Marcus not to mention Willie's boss (the late John Ritter, puffed up for the holidays). Bernie Mac plays the store's orange-eating head of security and I did laugh during one expertly edited exchange between him and Ritter but the rest is pretty gross, a one-joke affair ("Santa swears") that wears out its welcome early on. It's hard to believe this film is directed by Terry Zwigoff, the person responsible for last year's sublime "Ghost World"--the Coen brothers also had a hand in it. Plaudits to Brett Kelly, however, who plays the naïve, clueless kid Willie shacks up with. This young foil to Thornton's crude and obscene drunk never breaks his concentration for a second, and with "130 F-words and derivatives, 1 obscene hand gesture, 13 sexual references, 62 scatological terms, 43 anatomical terms, 22 mild obscenities, 1 derogatory term for homosexuals, 17 religious profanities, and 24 religious exclamations" to contend with, that's pretty impressive.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf" online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
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