Glorious. That's all that can be said about "Bad Santa" or, better yet, it's more subversive "Badder Santa" on DVD. Yes, the film has it's weak moments, but they are more than compensated for scenes like the one quoted in my one line summary wherein Billy Bob Thornton screams at a soccer Mom who dares to bring her bright eyed little boy to see Santa eating lunch in the mall's food court only to be rudely (to put it mildly) berated. Everything about the film reeks of foul moods. It cuts through the bull quite effectively even when it's moving toward a suprisingly emotional ending/payoff.
Thornton has, in some of his last movies such as "Monster's Ball" and "The Man Who Wasn't There" seemed so blank as to be almost non-existant. In both of those films, it COULD be argued that he was trying for a feeling of disillusionment but the actual effect was a reticence bordering on nothingness. Here, in "Bad Santa" he's totally ON, totally ALIVE and totally GREAT. Best Performance by any actor I've seen all year. This is one film that is BOUND to be a classic.
I've read through nearly all the user comments on this film and I notice a pattern that I detected I would see after I saw this movie. People are either going to "get-it" and love it or they're going to loathe the movie so completely that they're going to feel impelled to warn others to stay away lest they get infected by it's unseemliness. Go see it for yourself and judge it for yourself.
Great cast, some of whom are wasted such as Ritter in all too brief role as a prissy (though not gay) department store manager and Cloris Leachman (doing next to nothing) in a thankless role.
Thornton has, in some of his last movies such as "Monster's Ball" and "The Man Who Wasn't There" seemed so blank as to be almost non-existant. In both of those films, it COULD be argued that he was trying for a feeling of disillusionment but the actual effect was a reticence bordering on nothingness. Here, in "Bad Santa" he's totally ON, totally ALIVE and totally GREAT. Best Performance by any actor I've seen all year. This is one film that is BOUND to be a classic.
I've read through nearly all the user comments on this film and I notice a pattern that I detected I would see after I saw this movie. People are either going to "get-it" and love it or they're going to loathe the movie so completely that they're going to feel impelled to warn others to stay away lest they get infected by it's unseemliness. Go see it for yourself and judge it for yourself.
Great cast, some of whom are wasted such as Ritter in all too brief role as a prissy (though not gay) department store manager and Cloris Leachman (doing next to nothing) in a thankless role.