Review of Bad Santa 2 (2016) by Alex L — 31 Aug 2017

I didn't enjoy the original Bad Santa movie, but even though I am rating this movie higher than the first one, I think that the first movie was rated too low by me, as I found this one to be much worse, but not terrible.

The jokes in this movie didn't work, and although a lot of them weren't great in the first movie, this movie's attempt at those same jokes was just sad. Tony Cox (Marcus) in particular was way better in the first movie than he was in this movie, he had more of a role before, and actually had some good jokes, whereas in this one is was clear he tried to bring back that character in full effect, however it didn't work.

Also, Brett Kelly (Therman Merman) was barely in this movie, and while he was the cute and pretty funny kid in the original Bad Santa, he was just annoying in this movie, and wasn't in it enough for me to really care about his character anymore.

I think that's where this movie really took a hit, it had some of the wit and humour that the first movie had, however it lacked the relationship that Therman Merman and Willie Soke (Billy Bob Thornton) had, and ultimately felt pretty empty.

They also tried to introduce some new characters in this movie, such as Sunny Soke (Kathy Bates), Willie's mother, who really did nothing for me in this movie, although there were a few scenes where she made me laugh a little, her overall character wasn't really developed well, as there has always been tension between Willie and his mom, however I could never tell if that tension is something the movie wanted to focus on, because it kept jumping in and out of that topic, and it was a little weird to watch.

All in all, "Bad Santa 2" was worse than the original (even though my first impressions with "Bad Santa" were pretty negative), and ultimately a sequel that never needed to be made.

"Bad Santa 2" is definitely not worth watching.