Amazon.co.uk 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 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, Amazon.com
Synopsis
Billy Bob Thornton is terrific as Willie T. Stokes; a lowlife department store Santa in Terry Zwigoff's outrageous comedic follow-up to his offbeat hit Ghost World. Every year, Stokes takes a job as Santa in a different place in order to rob the store he's working in. The diminutive Tony Cox plays his horny sidekick, Marcus, the real mastermind, who is even more foulmouthed than Stokes. Brett Kelly is Thurman Merman, an eight-year-old who desperately needs to believe in the real Santa Claus - and just might have a good enough heart to change Stokes's evil ways. Or maybe not. And Lauren Graham plays Sue, a young sexpot who wants to get a different kind of gift from Santa. Providing excellent comic relief in this black comedy is John Ritter, in his last film role, as the mousy mall manager, and Bernie Mac as Gin, the mall security guard who suspects something is not right. Be warned - Bad Santa is not a family holiday movie. It is lewd, crude, and very funny, but it is most definitely not for children. Joel and Ethan Coen, the brothers behind such quirky hits as Raising Arizona and Barton Fink, are the executive producers who came up with the idea in the first place, influenced by the likes of The Bad News Bears and South Park.
Product Description
Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham, John RitterDirector: Terry Zwigoff
