Bad Santa 2 (2016) Broad Green/Comedy RT: 87 minutes Rated R (crude sexual content and language throughout, some graphic nudity) Director: Mark Waters Screenplay: Johnny Rosenthal and Shauna Cross Music: Lyle Workman Cinematography: Theo van de Sande Release date: November 23, 2016 (US) Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Tony Cox, Christina Hendricks, Brett Kelly, Ryan Hansen, Jenny Zigrino, Jeff Skowron, Christina Rosato, Mike Starr, Octavia Spencer, Ranee Lee. Box Office: $17.8M (US)/$23.2M (World)
Rating: ***
Right off the bat, Bad Santa 2 had one big strike against it. It’s a comedy sequel and we all know how those usually turn out, right? Of the many nuggets of movie wisdom I’ve dispensed over the years, one of the biggies is that the joke is almost never as funny the second time. The word “almost” is there to cover sequels like Bad Santa 2 that don’t completely suck. While not as hilarious as its 2003 predecessor, it does have a fair amount of laughs in it. By no stretch of the imagination is it a great movie, I’m not even sure it’s a good one, but it is funny which is more than I can say about many of the so-called comedies that Hollywood inflicts on us throughout the year.
As we catch up with our favorite fake Santa Willie (Thornton), we see that his happy ending from the first movie didn’t last. He’s alone, broke and deep in the throes of alcohol-fuelled depression. In one of the movies funniest scenes, he tries to asphyxiate himself in his oven which turns out to be electric. In the midst of his second suicide attempt (by hanging), a faint glimmer of hope shows up in the hands of Thurman Merman (Kelly), the kid from the first movie, now an in-years-only adult.
Willie’s old partner-in-crime, the diminutive Marcus (Cox), has reached out to him. As you recall, they didn’t part on the best of terms at the end of the first movie (Marcus tried to kill him). The little guy wants to make it up to him or so he says. An anonymous third party has set up a job in Chicago and needs a good safecracker. The third party turns out to be Willie’s estranged mother Sunny (Bates, The Waterboy) who plans to rob a lucrative children’s charity during the annual Christmas Eve concert and needs their help.
Like the original, Bad Santa 2 is foul-mouthed, dirty-minded, crass, vulgar and gross. It earns its R rating and then some. But underneath all the filth, it does have something resembling a heart with its message about the meaning of family. The mother and son reunion isn’t one those happy affairs with hugs, hearts and tears. Just because Sunny gave birth to him (at age 13 in a juvenile prison), it doesn’t mean she loves, likes or cares about her son. Old wounds still haven’t healed. He doesn’t trust her (nor she him) so he’s not thrilled about the prospect of working with her. When he’s not trading barbs with Mom, he and Marcus are spewing venom at each other. Contrary to what he claims, anybody with even half a brain knows not to trust Marcus. Meanwhile, Thurman still sees Willie as a father figure and continues to stick around despite repeatedly being told to get lost. He even goes to Chicago to find Willie so he won’t be alone for Christmas.
And now a few words about Thurman. Earlier, I referred to him as an “in-years-only adult”. He may be 21 now but he has the worst case of arrested development I’ve ever seen. He looks and acts like an overgrown 8YO. He’s also as dumb as a bag of rocks. A conversation about having his cherry popped (as it’s so eloquently put in the movie) takes a turn that can only be described as disturbing. Willie’s description of the mechanics of sex will turn you off of sushi for the rest of your life. To be honest, Thurman is kind of creepy. He’s also the only genuinely good person in the whole movie. Even the seemingly-sweet wife (Hendricks, Mad Men) of the charity’s dishonest head has a dark, perverted side. She takes Willie to an AA meeting, a scene disappointingly mishandled, only to have dirty sex with him afterwards in a dark alley next to a trash dumpster. Yeah, that just oozes class from every pore, right?
Bates delivers a funny performance as the worst on-screen mother since Mommie Dearest. If a mother’s job is to love and nurture, she fails at every turn. It’s really pointless to discuss Bad Santa 2 in terms of things like performance, character and story development or most other things critics look at when reviewing a movie. The cast does a good job. The story unfolds and concludes in a predictable manner. The dialogue, such as it is, consists mainly of profanity, vulgar terms, insults and a disturbing amount of references to “teabagging”. The main character once again finds redemption at a crucial moment. It’s pretty much a rehash of the first movie.
As directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls), Bad Santa 2 is a faint echo of the original. Gone is the subversive quality Terry Zwigoff (Crumb, Ghost World) brought to the first movie. It doesn’t have the edge or cult potential of the first Bad Santa. It is, however, funny. I laughed a lot, definitely more than I should have. Like the first, it’s about as perverted and politically incorrect as you can get. It’s all in bad taste and good fun. If you like the first movie, there’s no reason you won’t like this one too, just not as much, making it one of the better comedy sequels to come down the chimney.
