*** Official BAD SANTA Discussion Thread

Personally, I thought the film was horrible...

The opening showed lots of promise and then settled into a miserable experience....

I would stand clear of this film....

Dugger

Yeah, I'm gonna have to call shenanigans on Drudge as well. Disney owns E! fer Chrissakes. Home of the "Wild On..." series. Disney hasn't been true to Walt's spirit since the mid-80s.

Frankly the trailers aren't that great, but I've read so much positive buzz about the film that I would like to see it.

At first, the audience in attendance at the showing I was at tonight nervously laughed at the amount of crude language flowing out of Billy Bob's mouth, but as the film went on, the laughs from the audience became more free flowing as they were getting into the film, and understanding what kind of ride they were getting themselves on.

Personally, I haven't laughed this hard at the theaters in months, perhaps years.

It looks hilarious to me. The trailer alone has given me a few good chuckles. But I tend to enjoy low-brow humor.

just got back from it. it definitely has some funny moments. overall i liked it.

Glorious.

The ideal film for those that hate the holidays.

And a great performance from Thorton. Kind of like Jeff Bridges's The Dude from Big Lebowski, only a terminally pissed off drunk. Of course Thorton may have just been playing a version of himself.

Bad Santa is a bitter cough syrup to all the candy-caned-ass films that want to smother you with their good cheer.

I also enjoyed this movie very much. It was funny. I mostly saw older teens and adults watching the movie. The crowd was really into it. This movie is not for everyone. that is for sure. I never saw the previews or anything. I read the reviews and it got better reviews then the other movies that opened that day.

JACOB

I hoped I'd love it, but it was barely even good. One-note and strained, and the only Christmas convention it adequately skewers is mall Santas. Thornton is good, as usual, but the movie's just trying too hard. Its attempts to shock mostly consist of Thornton wearing a Santa Claus hat while swigging liquor and using the F-word (Ho! Ho! How cutting edge!). There are a couple laughs, and the dramatic elements sometimes work in the way that Alexander Payne's do, but the premise demanded something more subversive.

My review is up at MovieContests.com

It certainly seemed to evoke laughter out of the audience I saw it with, but overall I just felt it had little more going for it than shock value humour. It just seemed so easy to write this, having Santa Clause swear and have sex, and be otherwise crude seemed to be the extent of the humour here. I'm not saying it was bad, I just don't find shock humour to be all that appealing. I prefer it when the writers try to be a little more ingenious with their jokes ala Mike Myers. (I have not seen Cat In the Hat and I don't recall Myers having any involvement in writing it.)

For comedies, I try not to over-analyze them. They either make me laugh, or they don't, that's my main criteria for comedies. Sure, some of the laughs are scatological, sexual, and psychotic in nature, as do the laughs that come from the self-destructive side of "Bad Santa", but I thought the film did a good job of wringing out as much comedy as possible given the characters and premise. Were these characters fully fleshed out? By no means, no, they weren't, but for 90 minutes or so, I had a fun time laughing at them and with them.

Yes, indeed and this comedy made me laughed throughout the entire film.

I just saw it and it's profane, perverted and raunchy
FUN!!!!!

I'll probably add this one to my DVD collection. I
enjoyed how politically incorrect the film is. The
audience in the theater was laughing right along with me.
We all got into it. Thornton is great!

Well, I was displeased with what I received. I expected an off beat comedy, yes crude more something akin to farley brother crude. What I got was an hour and a half of depraved vulgar language and enough blasphemy to last me a lifetime.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many of my peers would take this movie as being humerous. Billy Bob, did an admirable job depicting one wretched lost human soul. I wonder how close to home he was in this role.

At my second viewing, still LMAO BTW, about 15 minutes into the movie, a mother finally had had enough and took her daughter out of the theater due to the "R-rated" material. What is it with some of these parents that don't heed the rating/warning, or do their homework before taking their children to R-rated movies? Yeesh!

Anyhow, the audience just about rolled into the aisle during the boxing lesson. Plus the kid's reaction (or non-reaction) to Will's vulgarity always produced a laugh.

bad santa went to number 1 on monday box office.

JACOB

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/

Yup me too... I hardly laughed at any of the jokes or lines.

The only line that had me laughing was the :Warning foul language ahead:

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Other then that....... Bland........

R~

I enjoyed watching John Ritter in his last film role.

And as a big fan of Gilmore Girls, I don't think I'll be able to watch Lauren Graham in quite the same way ever again.

Rob

funny funny movie
as previously mentioned I hardly ever like any christmas movies, to like two (elf) in one season just makes me giddy.

(In which Vickie gets a bit pissy)






Just out of curiosity, what's up with this? Billy Bob Thornton is an ACTOR. One of our finest. I don't recall people wondering if he might have been playing a version of himself when he played the chilling killer in One False Move, or the tragic, mentally-disabled Karl in Sling Blade, or the sad, lonely man in A Simple Plan, or the brisk, no-nonsense NASA suit in Armageddon, or the hot-shot air traffic controller in Pushing Tin, or the taciturn blackmailing barber in The Man Who Wasn't There, or the neurotic, hypochondriac bank robber in Bandits, or the hard-assed prison guard in Monster's Ball, or the grinning, glad-handing "oil tycoon" in Intolerable Cruelty, or, hah, the President of the United States in Love, Actually. Among others.

So, he plays a liquored-up, irresponsible, fucked-up sad sack in this movie, and people hint, even in jest (yeah, I caught the winky), that he's playing himself. That's just unbelievable.

While in curiousity mode, I did a web search, trying to find any incident where Thorton got drunk and got in trouble or made a public spectacle of himself in any way. Couldn't find any. I did another search trying to find any mention of him being unusually profane. Couldn't find any. Pissing off co-workers? Nope. Being unprofessional in any way, shape or form? Nada. Not a mention, not a hint, not a whiff.

The man seems to be a lousy husband, no doubt about that. He's got some pretty unusual phobias (antiques?) and beliefs (says mother is a "psychic" - oookay). He and Jolie were kinda edgy and weird there for a while, though I really believe that part of all that was just messing with journalist's minds for fun. I don't blame them. It worked.

Other than being unusual personalities, where's the connection? Give me ONE SINGLE SOLITARY connection to Billy Bob Thornton the man and the actions of the Bad Santa character Willie T. Sokes. That they both have used their penises and have both let alchohol pass their lips do not count.

I know, I know, I'm taking this waaay too seriously, but come on, really, the man deserves some respect for his quite considerable acting ability, and to even hint that he was playing something close to himself is a major insult to his talent. Not only to Thornton, but to the hard-working professionals who hire him, work with him, and sing his praises, such as the Coen brothers, Terry Zwigoff, Sam Raimi, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone and so many others.

Here's a pretty good interview, conducted by fans, for fans, where he talks about some of the more asinine rumours and gossip written about him. It's in 3 parts and they're all interesting.

http://www.billybobthornton.net/interview1.html

Here's another good interview.
http://mixonline.com/ar/audio_billy_bob_thornton/

(/pissy mode off)

I liked Bad Santa and thought it was VERY funny. As much as a jackass Willie was, I felt sorry for the jerk too.

I loved the Cloris Leachman character, what a surprise to see her in there!

Saw this last night. But for a couple funny moments, the movie was not good. I swear as much (or more than) the next guy, but the movie reminded me of the South Park episode where they said "shit" just for the sake of saying "shit." The language in Bad Santa became just too much, and regardless, the story line lacked any real purpose. If movies are meant to entertain, this movie didn't come close. Stay away. Stay far, far away.
-Erik

Definately in the top 5 movies I have seen in the theatre this year... this film had me laughing more than I have in at least the last 2-3 years in theatres. It was a smart, yet decidedly low-brow comedy that had both its' own sober and drunk moments. Terry Zwigoff has once reaffirmed his godlike view in my eyes.

Next up for Zwigoff is another Daniel Clowes-written piece (ala 'Ghost World'): Art School Confidential. Nice to see he isn't going to "sell out"

I saw it tonight and think this is going to be a classic.

One thing though, doesn't Billy Bob have a phobia of midgets? I believe I've heard him state this more than once.

I'll just take your word for that. Tony Cox is not a midget, he's a dwarf. So, no phobia problem there.

Wow, this movie was the crudest movie I've ever seen! I loved it!