Review of Bad Santa (2003) by Liam C — 31 Dec 2014

Bad Santa is a delightfully nasty holiday offering, featuring an equally nasty lead performance by Billy Bob Thornton.

This is a great movie with a very unique story and a fantastic script; this movie juggles so many subplots at once and successfully weaves them all together, whilst never forgetting the laughs. I think this is one of the quintessential Billy Bob Thornton movies and definitely one that all fans of his should see, he's absolutely fantastic in this. His character just doesn't care about what he does or says to other people and Thornton's absolute commitment makes it all the more funny, he doesn't break character once and it's fantastic. He claims that he was actually intoxicated on set and I believe him.

He is a very annoying character though and not in a bad way that ruins the experience but in a funny way that gets the audiences eyes rolling and makes us laugh at what he does and as this is a comedy, it's doing its job. He's also sympathetic too, we don't know everything about him but we are given hints throughout the movie about his past and we know enough about him to feel sad for him and even when it looks like he's about to turn a corner and he messes up, we still cheer for him to change in the end.

Bernie Mac's character was weird, he had a rather big introduction and build up as we only saw him for about a total of 10 minutes in the first half but he had a much bigger role in the second half but it didn't really go anywhere and he could have been left out. Saying that, he certainly was a welcomed addition and was very funny. Tony Cox was great and had me laughing so much, he was a great addition and he really worked well with Thornton. Brett Kelly was very good and sympathetic also and the relationship he has with Willie is very well written. John Ritter was also really funny and got a lot of laughs, in, very sadly, his final live action role. And Octavia Spencer was in this for about 30 seconds in an odd role.

Oddly enough, this movie really is charming, which might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a drinking, smoking, swearing Santa Claus but it's true! The script really is great and the relationships of these two is where it shines the most, whilst also being darkly funny. However, it wasn't all perfect, there's a subplot involving bullies and I knew exactly what was going to happen in that as soon as it started but saying that, it was still good to see where it went and its conclusion made me smile. Also, a few things happen in the last 10 minutes and while they don't feel out of place, I don't think they really needed to happen, it comes out of nowhere and seeing as how there was only a few minutes left I don't see why it was added. I'm glad the movie ended the way it did or else it would have gone on to be a very odd tonal shift.

Delightfully cynical, darkly funny and gleefully anti-Christmas spirit, Bad Santa is a unique specimen to oppose the overabundance of warmhearted, innocent Christmas movies, that we all love so much. Featuring Billy Bob Thornton as one of his most unrestrained characters, accompanied by a great script and a great supporting cast, Bad Santa takes its unique opportunity and fully accomplishes what it set out to do. Bah, humbug!