Bad Santa – Review

Worth seeing: if you want to see a foul-mouthed misanthropic Santa with an agenda, who's turned by a needy fat kid
Director:Terry Zwigoff
Featuring:Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Brett Kelly, John Ritter, Tony Cox
Length:91 minutes
Certificate:15
Country:US
Released:5th November 2004

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) is a department store Santa and Marcus (Tony Cox) is his elf.

But they’re not your typical festive types; they’re miserable, cantankerous losers.

Even worse than that, their jobs are just an excuse to get them inside the department stores so that they can rob them bare when the doors lock for Xmas.

But deep down inside, Willie turns out to have a heart, which melts when a lonely young boy tries to befriend him.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

Billy Bob Thornton’s on top form as the foul-mouthed, misanthropic, thieving Santa with a heart of gold, buried so deep you’d need a JCB to find it.

Let’s be honest: it’s a one joke film, but if it works for you, you’ll be in stitches from start to finish. If not, you’ll want to leave within two minutes.

Forget the drinking, swearing, thieving and violence: what’s criminal is that we’ve had to wait a full year to see it.

A wicked antidote to emetic Xmas cheer.