Bring in this holiday season with one of the crudest Christmas movies you will ever see. “Bad Santa” is a 2003 comedy directed by Terry Zwigoff featuring Billy Bob Thornton, the late Bernie Mac and the late John Ritter.
Willie Stokes (Thornton) is the protagonist of the story and at times his actions can make it hard to side with him.
He is a foul-mouthed, thieving alcoholic who takes on the occupation of mall Santa as a cover-up. While in disguise, he robs the malls during the holidays and lives off the earnings until the next holiday season.
Willie is not alone in his schemes. He is accompanied by a dwarf (Tony Cox) named Marcus who plays an elf. While Marcus and Willie may work together, they do not like each other. “You are an emotional cripple,” Marcus says. “Everything about you is ugly.”
In the beginning of the movie, you can sense an internal struggle within Willie. After robbing another mall he tells Marcus he’s moving to Miami, and he’s cleaning his act up. Willie keeps good on one of his promises as he relocates to the sunny Miami beaches. But he is far from clean.
Low on cash and tough on luck, Willie resorts to planning another theft with his partner Marcus, at a mall in Arizona.
Now we watch as Willie begins to change his ways.
Other key characters to watch are Bob Chipeska (Ritter) mall manager, who from the start has it in for Willie. And Gin (Mac) the chief security guard with an affinity for a nice pedicure and much like Willie, has a black heart. In one scene Gin catches a child stealing video games, in return threatens the boy and takes the child’s MP3 player.
While in Arizona, Willie develops a relationship with a bartender named Sue (Lauren Graham) who has a fetish for men in Santa suits, and he befriends a young plump boy who seems to be possibly mentally challenged.
While his intentions of befriending the boy may be disingenuous, Willie eventually takes a true liking to him and gives him pointers on dealing with bullies and life in general.
Bad Santa is a “dark” comedy that may not be for all. However, if you are not easily offended and up for a good laugh, you will love it.