the audience applauded

Pretty Good

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It starts slow. Everything the movie seems to be about is incorporated very quickly and nothing new happens for a bit of a while and the comedy isn't where it should be during that time. Then, it picks up.This is a cold, verbally and sexually explicit dark comedy that is probably a little bit too cynical in tone, but that holds itself up just about well enough all in all.There's certainly a sense of lingering and repetition, with the constant redundant swearing, scenes that are practically built off facile swearing dialog lines, but if one persists enough there's a pretty fun plot at the center of it, a sort of anti-Christmas Christmas magic about it with the kid and the relationship he builds with 'Santa', pretty funny secondary characters like the late Ritter (major stuckup), the late Bernie Mac or Naidu's hilariously random and unnecessary cameo scene.There's even something of a moral at the end. It's fun, coherent but lacks a bit of content even for a comedy running at 1hr30min.6.5/10.

Sometimes genuinely obnoxious movies can prove entertaining. "Ghost World" director Terry Zwigoff doesn't pull any punches in his sarcastic, sacrilegious, but sizzling saga about a pair of thieves that dress up like Santa Claus and his Elf accomplice and rob a departmental store of everything at Christmas time. The first thing that is going to rile prospective spectators is the abundant profanity. According to the Kids-in-the-Mind website, the F-word or its derivative is uttered 130 times. This should slash a third of the audience for this interesting, artsy, crime thriller/ character study. Oscar winning actor Billy Bob Thornton is thoroughly persuasive as a down-on-his-luck individual who has dedicated himself to a life of debauchery and wound up masquerading as Santa Claus once a year as part of an elaborate crime. Willy (Billy Bob Thorton) is not the brains behind this skulduggery. Instead, Marcus Skidmore (Tony Cox) organizes everything. Marcus is as ruthless as he is short. He is a small person. Nevertheless, nobody should let Marcus' lack of height lull them into a false sense of security. He uses Willy to break into the safe so they can loot it for an eleven-month holiday until time comes for them to look for a new target. This time, they run into a challenging adversary, a Department Store Security Chief (Bernie Mac") who is as smart as he is cunning. In one of his final theatrical appearances, John Ritter plays a sensitive story supervisor who discovers Willy having anal sex with a customer in a ladies' dressing room. The second reason you won't like "Bad Santa" is the amoral behavior of the hero. He drinks himself into a stupor and often winds up bedding down a single girl. His only dictum is that she must cry "Santa" during their sexual follies. "Bad Santa" is a crude, rude, lewd character study with a surprise ending for what is basically a matter-of-fact crime comedy.

I know it's still only early November as I type this, but the ads on TV are already gearing up for Christmas, so what the heck… a big dose of seasonal humour in dubious taste is just what I need to help get me through the imminent long dark winter. Unfortunately, Bad Santa is not the film to fill me with cheer: despite critics claiming it to be uproariously funny, the film delivers about as many laughs as a double bill of Leaving Las Vegas and Requiem For A Dream.Billy Bob Thornton plays low-life drunken conman Willie, who teams up with 'little person' Marcus (Tony Cox) to pose as Santa and his elf to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. When Willie meets a troubled kid at his grotto, it looks a though this might be a turning point for the booze-addled screw-up, but no… he continues along his self-destructive path, being thoroughly obnoxious and foul-mouthed for the entire movie. Thornton's grouchy, abusive, misogynistic, self-destructive Santa is the be all and end all of the entire film—a one-note joke that isn't funny in the first place.

Along with Home Alone that's my favorite Christmas movie. But beware cause this an utterly politically incorrect black comedy. Billy Bob Thornton is absolutely brilliant as Bad Santa and even got a Golden Globe Nomination for his performance. Even winning an Oscar wouldn't have been a surprise. The story goes as follows: "A miserable conman and his dwarf partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid." Wtf, even the fat blond kid plays perfectly! The movie manages to successfully combine drama, comedy and crime and is hilarious without being ridiculous. At the same it's serious without being depressive. Nevertheless it isn't suggested for little kids and for those who can't stomach a sometimes rude and offensive black comedy.