by Derek VanLeenen
It’s now official – 9 out of every 10 Christmas movies are about someone being changed by the magic of the season. Bad Santa is no exception, the only thing new we see with this offering is the universal idea that studios are still trying to ?out-shock? us even during the most magical time of the season. Can you think of a better way to spend $10 this year than to watch a drunken old man in a Santa Claus suit swearing at 4 year olds?

Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie T. Stokes, a low-class con artist who, along with his partner Marcus (Tony Cox), puts on a Santa suit one month a year to complete a heist. The problem? Willie hates children, in fact, Willie hates everyone including himself. So when a clingy youngster named Thurman Merman (Yes, that’s his real name!) latches on to Willie, Willie has to live with someone actually caring about where he goes and what he does.

Thornton was good in this movie, he really does a good sense of comedic timing. Unfortunately the material he was given does not do him justice. The movie starts off as a black comedy heist movie, but ends in a horrifying climax of seasonal confusion. Why make this a Christmas movie when the main character doesn’t care about the season until three-fourth’s of the way into the film?

The best part of this movie had to be the relationships that were developed in it. Thornton and Lauren Graham have a sort of uncomfortable yet passionate relationship that is absolutely hilarious at times. The one thing this movie will always be remembered for is a catchphrase used by Graham while making love (it involves a Santa fetish), and if the movie had stuck to being a film about relationships being developed it would have been effective. The late John Ritter is also fantastic in his straight man role (also his last), it really did make me appreciate what a talent the world has lost. He comes across as awkward, conservative and kind of geeky, but he does it with his typical charm.

I know to fully enjoy this movie you have to have a different sense of humor. This is a black comedy that attempts to appeal to one’s ?dark side? at Christmas. Unfortunately for me, it just didn’t work. I was more shocked that people would laugh at the treatment of kids onscreen than I was at what was actually being said. The same kind of laughs I got out of this were the laughs I got in junior high school whenever someone uttered the ?f-word?.

I usually enjoy black comedies, and I think I might have enjoyed this one more had it not come out so close to Christmas. Maybe this is what the world needs, a ?grown-up? movie out at the holidays, unfortunately for me it just didn’t seem or feel right. Maybe I’m just too naïve to see that this is what Christmas has turned into. But I’d like to think I’m not and that there still is a magic out there at this time of season. Do we really need a movie that takes away from that by being a character study in dysfunction? If you don’t have a dark humor side – avoid this like the plague! If you do – avoid this until the offseason!

Derek VanLeenen