Christmas

Bad Santa (2003) Movie Review, Cast & Crew, Film Summary

Bad Santa

Bad Santa (2003) Christmas movie

Rating: 7/10

Plot: Billy Bob and his little buddy Marcus love Christmas. It’s all about tradition with those two with Billy Bob dressing as Santa and bringing delight to children at malls while Marcus plays his elf helper. And when the Christmas season is ending, they rob the mall and run off.

With each passing year, Billy Bob’s drinking and sexual exploits get more and more in the way of the duo’s plans. But this season, meeting a chubby kid and a new ho ho ho threaten to change him.

This was the perfect movie to wash Meet Me in St. Louis out of my mouth although I must admit that I’m almost ashamed that I like it. It’s just funny to watch Santa Claus piss himself, curse, drink, and nail Lauren Graham.

It’s almost too easy, and I don’t want to give the writers any credit. It’d be like crediting the writers of America’s Funniest Home Videos for all those shots of people being hit in the groin. Or crediting zookeepers with monkeys being funny. Still, this is a very funny and often unpredictable movie, and Billy Bob’s performance as the titular Santa is award worthy.

I also thought John Ritter was hilarious in every one of his scenes, and I liked the kid, apparently named The Kid, played by Brett Kelly. I’m envisioning a mash-up between this and Meet Me in St. Louis actually where The Kid eats Tootie. No, there’s nothing really sweet about this movie, and I can’t see it putting anybody in the Christmas spirit, but it’s a ton of fun. As I’ve always said, the Christmas season would benefit from more cursing.

The Ref (1994) Movie Review, Cast & Crew, Film Summary

The Ref

The Ref (1994) Christmas comedy

Rating: 7/10

Plot: A jewel thief’s partner leaves him behind during a burglary gone wrong, and he’s forced to abduct a bickering married couple on Christmas Eve. As he plans his escape, things get even more complicated with the arrival of their mischievous son and some other relatives. Can Gus the jewel thief escape before the family drives him completely insane?

I thought this was more irritating than funny. I don’t really like Denis Leary anyway, probably because of the way he spells his first name rather than anything to do with his talents or personality, and it seems that all the other characters were written to be obnoxious. I couldn’t find a single laugh anywhere in this thing, making it just dark instead of a dark comedy.

The premise is clever but predictably written, and majority of the dialogue sounds like it was penned for the purpose of showing audiences how witty the writers are instead of creating realistic, complete characters.

There’s a lot of talent involved, but it’s going to be hard for me to like a movie where I don’t actually like any of the characters. The actors try very very hard (probably too hard), and each gets a chance to deliver these foul-mouthed diatribes that come across as mean-spirited but seldom funny. It’s impossible for even the best funnymen and funny women to be funny without material. Oh well. At least there was a recurring urine joke.

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