Post by StevePulaski on Jul 4, 2011 9:18:16 GMT -5
Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa.
Rating: ★★★½
I can't exactly recommend Bad Santa to someone who is looking for a heartfelt Christmas movie. I can recommend it to someone looking for a piece of dark comedy art, or someone with a very weird sense of humor. Bad Santa is hilarious even in its darkest moments.
Willie (Thornton) is an alcoholic mall Santa who spends the holiday season dressed as Santa having kid after kid sit on his lap telling him what they want. Willie's partner Marcus (Cox) plays a "real-life" elf, and after their season is done, they rob whatever mall they are in by breaking into the safe and stealing everything. Then it's on to another state/town.
This season in Miami is especially different because now Santa has a kid who thinks the world of him. The kid's name is Thurman Merman (Kelly), and he isn't the cute and smiling kid you see in happy Christmas movies like Miracle on 34th Street. Thurman is an outcast, made the punchline of jokes by a group of kids because of his chunky stature. His persistency and obsession with Santa grows quickly as Willie stays at his house also occupied by Thurman's senile grandmother (Leachman).
We also have Sue (Graham) who enjoys having sex with Willie dressed as Santa. The tough mall security chief Gin (Mac) has a sharp eye on Santa, and the mall manager is played by the late John Ritter who died only two months before this was released making this his last live action film role.
The hilarity stems from Willie's offensive remarks. In one scene he is eating lunch, dressed as Santa of course, and a woman with her son walk up. The mother tells her son to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas when Willie angrily replies "I'm on my f**king lunch break!" Then when the mother threatens to tell management he says "If you think you can make my life any worse, you go ahead and try."
My favorite scene is probably when Willie is too drunk to work and Gin and Marcus get in a fight when Gin tells Marcus to carry Willie out back. Marcus is angry because he thinks Gin has neglected to see he his only three feet tall, and they get into a scuffle in front of all the patrons in the mall.
What makes Bad Santa work is how believable it is. We don't learn a whole lot about Willie's past other than lots of abuse led to his future problems with alcohol. But that is enough to believe Willie's hostility towards everyone, and not just think he has chosen to be miserable. Most recently, in Bad Teacher, that was the main problem. The main character had no good reason to be bad or upset other than the fact she probably just feels like it.
What your laughing at isn't the cleanest most humor-orientated material, but in a dark comedy, sometimes even the dirties of jokes make you laugh. Bad Santa's mixing of the comedy and serious drama genre works very well, and while it may not cause holiday cheer, it's sure to please the Scrooges who dread the holiday season. Humbug.
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham, John Ritter, and Cloris Leachman. Directed by: Terry Zwigoff.