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BAD SANTA
The recent release of the sequel motivated me to check out 2003's Bad Santa, an outrageous black comedy that offers sporadic laughs as long as you don't think about it too much and as long as you accept going in that nothing that happens in this film can happen in real life.
Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie Stokes, a lazy, alcoholic safe cracker who, along with his partner, the miniature Marcus (Tony Cox), work once a year. At Christmas time, they get themselves hired as a department store Santa and his elf helper and then on Christmas Eve, they break into the store safe and clean the place out. As the story opens, they have already robbed seven stores and they have now arrived in Phoenix where Willie befriends a young boy (Brett Kelly) who is bullied at school on a regular basis and seems to believe that Willie really is Santa and a pretty bartender (Lauren Graham). Their plan is complicated by the store's security officer (the late Bernie Mac) who is asked to keep an eye on them by the tight-assed store manager (the late John Ritter), who does a little detective work and finds out exactly who Willie and Marcus are.
Since Joel and Ethan Cohen are billed as executive producers, it was assumed that what was about to follow was not to be taken too seriously. In the spirit of films like The Ref, I suspect this is supposed to be the Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas movies and if that was indeed the intended demographic, a bullseye was scored here, but if you're looking for anything resembling logic or realism, you've got the wrong movie. I just went with it...I went with the fact that Thornton, who looks anorexic in this movie, doesn't even bother to pad his Santa costume...I went with it that the character was drunk for the entire running time, including the time he was asking small children what they wanted for Christmas...I went with it when the title of the film flashed on the screen while Willie was bent over a garbage can behind a bar throwing up...I went with it when this kid kept calling Willie Santa even though I knew there was no way this kid could believe this guy was really Santa, but you know when it all became OK? When Willie notices the kid's black eye and goes to his school and beats the crap out of the kid who did it.
Director Terry Swigoff has an imaginative directorial eye and the screenplay by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa is peppered with enough adult language that the 18-34 demographic will be amused. Billy Bob Thornton does give a terrific performance in the title role and gets solid support from Mac and Cox, but the film has some long stretches that might make you drowsy, especially involving this clueless kid, but Thornton's performance alone makes this worth a look.
The recent release of the sequel motivated me to check out 2003's Bad Santa, an outrageous black comedy that offers sporadic laughs as long as you don't think about it too much and as long as you accept going in that nothing that happens in this film can happen in real life.
Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie Stokes, a lazy, alcoholic safe cracker who, along with his partner, the miniature Marcus (Tony Cox), work once a year. At Christmas time, they get themselves hired as a department store Santa and his elf helper and then on Christmas Eve, they break into the store safe and clean the place out. As the story opens, they have already robbed seven stores and they have now arrived in Phoenix where Willie befriends a young boy (Brett Kelly) who is bullied at school on a regular basis and seems to believe that Willie really is Santa and a pretty bartender (Lauren Graham). Their plan is complicated by the store's security officer (the late Bernie Mac) who is asked to keep an eye on them by the tight-assed store manager (the late John Ritter), who does a little detective work and finds out exactly who Willie and Marcus are.
Since Joel and Ethan Cohen are billed as executive producers, it was assumed that what was about to follow was not to be taken too seriously. In the spirit of films like The Ref, I suspect this is supposed to be the Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas movies and if that was indeed the intended demographic, a bullseye was scored here, but if you're looking for anything resembling logic or realism, you've got the wrong movie. I just went with it...I went with the fact that Thornton, who looks anorexic in this movie, doesn't even bother to pad his Santa costume...I went with it that the character was drunk for the entire running time, including the time he was asking small children what they wanted for Christmas...I went with it when the title of the film flashed on the screen while Willie was bent over a garbage can behind a bar throwing up...I went with it when this kid kept calling Willie Santa even though I knew there was no way this kid could believe this guy was really Santa, but you know when it all became OK? When Willie notices the kid's black eye and goes to his school and beats the crap out of the kid who did it.
Director Terry Swigoff has an imaginative directorial eye and the screenplay by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa is peppered with enough adult language that the 18-34 demographic will be amused. Billy Bob Thornton does give a terrific performance in the title role and gets solid support from Mac and Cox, but the film has some long stretches that might make you drowsy, especially involving this clueless kid, but Thornton's performance alone makes this worth a look.