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.
This thread is now designated the Official Discussion Thread for "Bad Santa" please, post all comments, links to outside reviews, film and box office discussion items to this thread.
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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.
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.
An unusual year, two really top-notch holiday movies. Elf and Bad Santa will both join my DVD collection. I seemed to be laughing more than anyone else in the theater for both of them. The big downside to Bad Santa was the appalling presence of children in the theater. How could a parent possibly bring a child to this, or stay for 5 minutes once they heard some of the dialogue? I loved this movie.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Zwigoff is into 78rpm records, this led to his friendship with R. Crumb and resulted in Crumb, the documentary. Terry's first work was Louie Bluie, also a doc. It's only available on VHS. Third came Ghost World. All of the preceding included scenes showing 78s being played and I decided that would be a good trademark for the director. Sadly, no 78s were used in Bad Santa. :frowning: