Bad Santa

Bad Santa aims to be several films at once. A heart warming Christmas tale of reform. A darkly black comedy about everything wrong with Santa and Christmastime. A sarcastic poke at all the tiny gags and jokes that other Santa films work in half-heartedly.
Sadly, it fails in its attempts at all three and feels like a long string of tiny jokes hooked together in haphazard fashion.

Billy Bob Thornton is Willie, a mall Santa for the Christmas season that hates his job. At the start of the film we see him, several days worth of beard on his face, chainsmoking and slamming down shots at the local boozer before stumbling into the alley behind the pub and projectile vomiting. Freeze frame. Movie title. We get it, he's a bad Santa.

The last day of work, Willie manages to soil himself and insult the security guard before leaving for the night. As the security alarm counts itself down to 30, a snowman from the Santa display runs pell-mell through the store to abort the countdown. The costume comes off to reveal Marcus, Willie's partner in crime and they proceed to rob the store together.

A year later and they team up to do it again, this time in Phoenix, AZ. The mall's entertainment director is a loveably Mormon-esque John Ritter who manages to pull off an almost Ned Flanders-style goofiness and innocence.

As Willie's an insufferable alcoholic, his travels take him to a local bar where Lauren Graham checks out his Santa outfit and pours him drink after drink. A few moments later and they're off in the car where she confesses to having a Santa fetish.

Shortly after she leaves, Willie gets attacked by a crazed homophobic bar patron and then he meets "The Kid" (his name is not actually used more than once in the film, but is perpetually referred to as The Kid), a persecuted heavyset child who saves Willie. He drives the kid home and no sooner than he can say "I live alone with my senile grandmother in an opulent house", Willie's pulled on the obligatory ski mask and is ready to rob the place. Grandma offers him some sandwiches and Willie stands down from a smash n grab and comforts himself by stealing the family car instead.

The movie continues in the same vein, with Willie being offered chance after chance to redeem himself but he continues to sink lower and lower. The verbal abuse he gives to the Kid, the constant drinking, the abuse of his partner Marcus, and the steady deterioration he has at work. The few positives he shows are the only truly humourous portions of the film. Beating up the Kid's bullies, his relationship with Lauren Graham, and his quest to get the Kid his christmas present - no matter what.

I'd suggest waiting till rental dates for this one, as it is certainly a depressing film to be showing this close to the holidays.