Bad Santa (**1/2)
review by Jon Waterman

Two con men go from city to city every holiday season to rob malls. One dresses as Santa and the other as an elf. On the last day of employment, they rob the mall of all the money and merchandise they can carry, which holds them over until next year. This year things are different. The cops start to get a little wise and “Santa” has to live with a kid who’s parents are no where to be found.

One point kept resonating in my head throughout the picture. The movie is called “Bad Santa.” Why isn’t it actually Santa doing and saying these things? It’s the movies, you can do anything you want. Instead it’s a con man. He has no experience with kids. It’s pretty much expected that an alcoholic criminal such as him would constantly mouth off, look for sex and do virtually whatever he felt like. The story would have been much more entertaining had it been Santa going bad because of something bad that happened in the North Pole.

Because it was just two normally bad individuals, most of the jokes fell flat for me. Most of the audience was laughing in a “how could he say that to a little kid” kind of way, but I wasn’t feeling the shock value. However, even if you’re like me and don’t laugh at the situational humor, there’s still plenty of jokes to be enjoyed. The writers John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (“Cats & Dogs” and it’s sequel) filled the movie up with enough different kinds of humor to make it play to all kinds of audiences. There are surprise sight gags, reveals, the aforementioned failed situational humor and plenty of insults. The insults between adults are usually funnier than between child and adult. However, frustration can be funny and when the kid starts asking hundreds of questions, the build up to the stare-inducing insult works well.

Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox have a good give and take and great comic delivery as the con men combo. I wish BBT would have put more effort into the narrated parts of the film, because they were flat, uninteresting, unnecessary and unfunny. Bernie Mac and John Ritter (in his last film) try to create funny characters, but the main stars overshadow them easily. The kid (played by Brett Kelly) does a good job playing dumb and acting like an inquisitive kid in need of parenting.

The story is far fetched and how he doesn’t get fired for some of the things he does makes no sense at all, despite the poor attempt at rationalizing it. But it’s a comedy and a movie, so it doesn’t totally have to (although it would help). Go in not expecting a whole lot and you’ll come out happy. Just don’t bring the kids. There’s a lot of swearing and vulgarity and unless they’re old enough to handle it, leave them at home.

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