Badder Santa (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Director: Terry ZwigoffStudio: Miramax Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release: June 22nd 2004
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DVD Review
Instantly qualifying as a perennial cult favorite, Bad Santa is as nasty as it wants to be, and there's something to be said for comedy without compromise. The Coen brothers conceived the basic idea and served as executive producers, but it's director Terry Zwigoff (Crumb, Ghost World) who brings his unique affinity for losers and outcasts to the twisted tale of Willie T. Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton), a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, foul-mouthed sexaholic safe-cracker who targets a different department store every holiday season, playing Santa while he cases the joint with his dwarf elf-partner Marcus (Tony Cox). With comedic support from Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham, Cloris Leachman, and John Ritter in his final film, Thornton milks the lowbrow laughs with a slovenly lack of sentiment, warming Bad Santa's pickled heart just enough to please a chubby misfit (Brett Kelly, hilariously deadpan) who may or may not be mentally challenged. As dry as an arid martini and blacker than morning-after coffee, Bad Santa is an instant cure for yuletide schmaltz, and if you think this appropriately R-rated comedy is suitable for kids, your parenting skills are no better than Willie's. --Jeff Shannon
User Reviews
Bad Santa... Bad Movie - Rating: 2/5
I really liked Billy Bob Thornton in Simple Plan and Sling Blade but I find him somewhat annoying is this film. Outside of some good performances by Bernie Mac and John Ritter in small parts and the scene stealing Tony Cox as Marcus the bad little Elf, there is little to like about this film.
ABOUT AS FUNNY AS A RETARDED KID PLAYING WITH MATCHES & GASOLINE - Rating: 1/5
Don't waste your time such as I did. You can never get that time back and after watching this film you have nothing to show for it. Lousy, stupid, horrible acting, ridiculous scripts, and the dumbest plot I've seen since "Ladykillers".
This film is infected with the plague!!!!!!!!!
Bad Santa! No milk & cookies for you! - Rating: 4/5
Well I dunno how bad the regular "Bad Santa" is, but I'm guessin' it ain't nearly as bad as "BadDER Santa." And that's pretty freakin' bad in a bad way some times. I don't think I've ever encountered a more eff'd-up holiday-themed mo-pic than this. I mean, the part featuring a midget and a ten-year-old weirdo exchanging kicks to the nards just about beat all. And the girlfriend with a Santa fetish is... just plain wrong.
Still, there's a sorta messed-up charm to the whole proceedings. They picked the perfect guy in Billy-Bob Thornton for the title role; few folks can pull off the sarcastic a-hole deal quite like he can! Talk about a not-so-wonderful life... heh. The late John Ritter's character's facial expressions in reaction to comments from Bernie Mac's character in a couple scenes are absolutely priceless. Then there's the quasi-autistic chubby kid who is... creepy. And loveable in some sick, eff'd-up way... but mostly creepy.
With all of the odd characters and dysfunctional relationships I was exposed to, I half-expected this movie to have been made by the Coen brothers. Well, I was half-right: apparently they had this movie in development at one point, but handed it off to others to complete. Kinda makes me wonder how much "badder" this bad-boy might have been, had their ultimate involvement been more than just as executive producers. Not that the finished product isn't quirky and weird as it is, heh.
Anyhoo: I wish they'd have let up on the utterance of the f-word in the movie. It just came to the point where the f-bomb-dropping went beyond hilarity, and entered the discomfort zone... just like the airport car-rental desk scene in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." `Course, considering all of the other uncomfortable moments in the movie-- especially the climax to the "police chase-down" scene near the end-- a few extra four-letter words are hardly troublesome.
Also thrown in for extra holiday cheer are the usual special features: several deleted and blooper scenes, many of which were reasonably funny. And we mustn't forget the behind-the-scenes special featuring the actors, producers, et.al., all fawning over each other's "amazing" performances. You know, the same ol' boring interviews you hear on just about every other interview show. I held out a slim hope that Thornton would break the usual format and talk about his bizarre relationship with Angelina Jolie in a brutally honest manner (matching tattoos? Vials of each others' blood???). Or Tony Cox stating how much he really wished he actually DID kick Thornton in the nards in the boxing ring scene. Man, that would've been so refreshing! `Course, they'd have trouble finding work after making such statements... except on the reality TV circuit, where they'd be part of those "washed-up-celebs-living-in-an-apartment-together" shows. Hmmm... continued work in movies, or slumming in crappy reality shows... movies, or reality shows... tough choice...
Bottom line: Overall, I found "BadDER Santa" occasionally funny, but mostly uncomfortable yet oddly compelling. I just couldn't pull myself away from the sick proceedings. If you're into such eff'd-up fare with a yuletide flair, then "BadDER Santa" is just your speed.
`Late
holy cow awsome - Rating: 5/5
Now if you ask me, and many parents do now and again, The Billy Bob Thorton Phenomenon is frightening. I ain't never seen anything quite like it since I come up in Chesterfield County a coon's age ago. Don't get me wrong, this is praise - not criticism.
See, we got three youngin's, me and Mama. The twins are in school and well beyond being interested in Billy-Bob, but Junior, their big brother and our first born, took to Billy Bob when he was just a little weed and he still likes to sit and slack-jaw at the television set whenever his Mama slides Billy-bob Thorton DVD in to the slot. Junior is round about 14 years old and he has all his mental faculties, least that's what the folks at the county health clinic informed us a while back, but that boy is as dumb as a sack of hammers. While his playmates are out starting to discover the fairer gender and are commencing to learn about how cars operate, and how to rebuild basic farm machinery, our Junior is still attached to Billy Bob. Especially late in the day when his blood sugar runs low right before we sit down to get together as a family (the family that eats together, tends to stay together) and commence to eat the spoils of Mama's kitchen craft.
He gets all cranky and flustered and until we can shovel some calories in his cake hole, he is a real pain to be around... so we learned a while back to sit him down in front of the television set and allow him to just be alone and quiet and watch his old friend Billy Bob and it calms his nerves and makes him manageable until we can get the table set and the vittles laid out. Then, we all gather round and sit at the table and wait until the last of the credits have rolled up the screen before Junior will come over and join us. For that reason, I know exactly what length each segment is and time it so as to have it conclude right at the expected time when Mama brings the vittles out to the table and we sit down to eat. On those rare occasions when I cipher the time wrong, then we have to sit there and quietly wait or else Junior gets all crabby and unmanageable.
At Christmas Time we like to place this one in the slot because it has real Christmas carols with the original words and tunes and we can all kind of hum along... but Junior don't like it when we hum too loud because it disturbs him, so we hum along kind of quiet like and respectful as the house fills up with the smells of Mama's cookin'.
The price we paid for this DVD is immaterial. What we got was a convenient way to manage Junior when his blood sugar gets down near the bottom of the scale. Billy Bob is a hero in our household and I don't mind at all when that DVD starts playing and that big piece of white trash starts to sing and dance. Turn the volume up as far as I am concerned, as long as it pacifies Junior and allows us to eventually eat in peace.
By the way, last night we had pork chops and gravy, peas, corn, corn bread, mashed taters, iced tea, and cobbler for desert.
Not that Christmassy, even though it's about Santa - Rating: 3/5
I've only been going on and on about this film since last year, when my boyfriend saw it, and claimed he died laughing during. OK, I didn't go quite that far, it was funny, but also sad at some points too. This isn't your typical sweet Christmas film, but instead, it has a foul mouthed Billy Bob Thornton, who admits he was drunk during most of filming. You'll never sit on Santa's lap again after watching this. We've all met this Santa, who couldn't give a toss about the kids, just wanted the money or to meet the mums.
I've had a bit of a thing for Billy Bob since I saw him on Armageddon, in this, he's not as nice, but the film does have the benefit of him getting nekkid a couple of times. (Someone pass me a razor.) I loved the little romance between him & the girl, she seemed to make him slightly better, but the romance was never really wound up in any way.
If you're offended by swearing, then this isn't the film for you, but it's harmless, and you shouldn't get offended over a stupid thing like swearing. And for you sad people who sit and count the amount of times there's a 'profanity', let me save you the trouble. In the rated version of the film, there's 243 words which could possibly cause offence, but heavens, the unrated version has just slightly more profanities, 286 in various forms. I wouldn't criticise a film just because of the swearing, if you're that shallow then you shouldn't be watching it, or reviewing it. Never mind counting the number of profanities, look up IMDB, some idiot's already done it for you.
I feel sorry for the kid, who is simply credited as The Kid, although his name is given as Thurman Merman, but apart from once or twice, Billy Bob's character doesn't call him anything, apart from the occasional "kid". He lives practically alone, with a slightly senile grandma, his mum appears to be dead, and his dad is in prison. He's bullied, by a kid who looks remarkably like Aaron Carter, but who gets his comeuppance in the end. The never ending questions do get irritating, and you wonder why the kid is never at school - even our school holidays didn't start that early! The only hint of school is getting off the bus occasionally.
The finale is really sad, and I think I would have started crying if the credits had rolled. But it continues for another couple of minutes, so wipe away your tears.
This is an absolutely fabulous film, although I'm afraid it didn't get me in the Christmas spirit - an episode of the Simpsons afterwards did, but there was just something about it, that doesn't make it overly sickly sweet Christmassy, and I can't put my finger on it.
Just a quick question: why is there a special thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio of all people in the credits?
