Filled with cursing, sex and alcoholism, \Bad Santa"" reinforces two comedic principles: 1) Everything is funny when you put the f-word in front of it, and 2) Everything is even funnier when it involves a little person.
""Bad Santa"" stars Billy Bob Thorton as a liquor-swigging Santa Claus and Tony Cox as a politically incorrect little person-and is not typical heart-warming holiday fare. This movie will destroy virgin ears and violate all sensibilities. With a cast that includes Bernie Mac and the late John Ritter and producers Joel and Ethan Coen, ""Bad Santa"" has some tear-inducing moments.
Willie (a.k.a. Santa) and Marcus (a.k.a. the Elf) are con men who find jobs as department store holiday characters, pushing through lines of children (who all, of course, have some disgusting habit) until Christmas Eve, when they crack the safe and steal the store's money and merchandise. The most difficult part of the con is not the robbery, but keeping a constantly drunk and horny Santa from getting them fired.
In the spirit of Christmas, the plot centers on Santa's feeling worthless. When he meets the Kid (Brett Kelly), a pudgy preteen whose non-existent confidence is obvious for several reasons, including his name (revealed toward the end of the movie), Santa begins his mini-transformation into an almost bearable adult. The Kid, whose father is in prison and mother has left, is living only with his senile grandmother in a giant house in the suburbs, and Santa joins him when discovering the lucky situation. The addition of a female bartender with a Santa fetish enhances Santa's new-found emotion, as well as giving the audience some dirty ideas. The rest of the story is predictable, but it is suitable due to the low plot expectations for a movie of this type.
It is key scenes of crude, surprisingly funny comedy that keep the audience entertained. Though the not-so-funny moments are more frequent than the hilarious ones, and Thorton and Cox fail to connect on timing in some scenes, when the comedy clicks it produces some memorable incidents-that is, if fornication, beating up kids and peeing your pants is good comedy. And face it-the involvement of a little person is naturally funny.
