♥♥♥♥♥
+ Best Dark Comedy of the Year
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| Billy Bob Thornton and Lauren Graham in Terry Zwigoff's Bad Santa |
QUICK REVIEW:
We meet the world's worst mall-Santa and his midget side-kick, who rob the malls on Christmas night. This Christmas, Santa moves in with a little fat kid with problems.
Film Excess-treasured director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World (2001)) directs a script by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Philip Morris (2009), writer-directors), which mostly doesn't hold much evolution for its characters, but instead wallows in really awful people in a sick society.
Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox in Bad Santa
Bad Santa is Zwigoff in his blackest corner with fine images and a great lead in Billy Bob Thornton (The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)), with great supporting performances from Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls (2000-07)) and John Ritter (Hacks (1997)) in his last live-action role before his premature death. - And from Brett Kelly (Trick 'R Treat (2010)), who plays the afflicted kid really well with great honesty and realism.
This film is very funny, very sad in a way, and taboo-breaking (the whoring, boozing, abusive, thieving Santa), - and it has a moving end. The achieved realism is quite something.
Bad Santa isn't for everyone; people who never reach a limit for their endurance of holiday spirit and materialism will probably loathe it. For all of us who do get enough sometimes, though, Bad Santa is a perfect anti-Christmas present. A Christmas-deterrent, if you will.
There's been talk about a sequel for years now, and it seems that production will commence in '14, but without Zwigoff as director, I don't expect much from the film, although Thornton is returning.
This picture really has nothing to do with the film, only that it came up when I browsed for Bad Santa-pics. If you don't find anything humorous about this picture, Bad Santa won't be for you:
Ho ho ho ho ...
Related posts:
Terry Zwigoff: Art School Confidential (2006) or, World of Phoney
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Watch the trailer here for Bad Santa, positively one of the best Christmas movies ever made
Budget: 18 mil. $
Box office: 76 mil. $
= Big hit
What do you think of Bad Santa?
Other anti-Christmas films that you think are great?
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