You won't s-h-i-t right for a week

I absolutely adore Bad Santa. I first saw it at the cinema during it's release, and I found it hilarious. I watched it again last night and it was just as funny. I thought the retard jokes might not make me laugh anymore, then I remembered In Bruges.

Bad Santa is a Coen Brothers produced film, written by the folk who wrote Cats and Dogs (the kids movie about canine espionage) and directed by Terry Zwigoff of "Ghost World" fame. At the time of it's release, I seem the remember the trailers playing down the offensiveness, and playing up the Christmas-ness of the film, to the point that when I saw it, it was NOTHING like I thought.

It centres around Willie Soak (Billy Bob Thornton) and his dwarf friend Marcus (Tony Cox) who team up every Christmas to play Santa and the elf in department stores, and then rob them on Christmas Eve. And it's really really funny. The film is about Willie's return to the game, after he quits and delves deeper into the alcoholic depression that is his life. They move to Phoenix, Arizona, and start the process of working in the store, but Willie has become sloppy, and suspicions are aroused.

The funniest and most prominent part of the film is Willie's relationship with The Kid (he has a name, but that's how he's billed) who pesters him at work by thinking he really is Santa. Willie then subsequently takes The Kid home to his massive house and even later on ends up living there. The Kid's dad is in prison and his mother's in heaven (with baby Jesus and the talking walnut), leaving the exceptionally senile grandma to look after the Kid. After weeks of bonding over the Christmas period, they become friends and their activities together hold most of the real comedy in the film.

An excellent support casting comes from Bernie Mac (RIP) who plays the store security guard who wants in on the action. He doesn't steal the show from Billy Bob but he certainly takes centre stage in parts.

This film is the least Christmassy film of all time, Miramax were slated for 'ruining Christmas movies' by creating the 'evil twin of Miracle on 34th Street and all the Disney classics'. But it's the best one by miles (after Elf).