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Bad Santa

Bad Santa (2003)

tomatometer

77

Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 188
Fresh: 144 | Rotten: 44

This black comedy isn't for everyone, but grinches will find it uproaringly funny.

80

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 8

This black comedy isn't for everyone, but grinches will find it uproaringly funny.

audience

73

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 178,397

My Rating

Movie Info

The Christmas season just got a lot less joyous in this very dark comedy. Willie T. Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) is a con man and a thief who teams up with his friend Marcus (Tony Cox), a midget, for a very special scam each year during the holiday season. Willie gets a job as Santa Claus at a shopping mall, his pal tags along as an elf, and they use their employee status to crack mall security and rob stores blind just before Christmas. However, there's one flaw to this plan -- Willie is a

R, 1 hr. 31 min.

Comedy

John Requa, Glenn Ficarra

Jun 22, 2004

$59.9M

Miramax Films

Bad Santa Trailer & Photos

More Photos (22)

Cast

Critic Reviews for Bad Santa

All Critics (192) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (152) | Rotten (46) | DVD (43)

Zwigoff and company wring some laughs out of it, though the tone is uniformly mean and vulgar.

November 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Bad Santa is my kind of Christmas movie -- profane, subversive, and swarming with scuzzballs.

August 7, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
Peter Rainer
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The funniest send-up of bad Christmas karma I have ever seen.

December 11, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Thornton's performance is -- there's no other word -- beautiful.

December 5, 2003 Full Review Source: Slate | Comment
David Edelstein
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I laughed at loud at a lot of the stuff.

December 1, 2003 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | Comment
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I found the escalating disreputability of Bad Santa completely cathartic.

November 29, 2003 Full Review Source: Salon.com | Comment
Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Too naughty for kids; nice for some grown-ups.

September 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Teresa Talerico
Common Sense Media

George Bailey never kicked Mr. Potter in the nuts.

February 16, 2010 Full Review Source: Stranger Song | Comment
Rob Humanick
Stranger Song

Bad Santa is in fact the most belligerently crass and profane comedy to slither out of the studio system in at least a year--although it's also much less interesting than that sounds.

August 21, 2009 Full Review Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul | Comment
Rob Nelson
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

The movie revels in a gloriously pessimistic tone and manages a few brief moments of hilarity amid the satire.

May 9, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comment
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Bad Santa is the most fun you'll have while watching someone destroy themselves.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile

It's not nearly as smart or funny as it could have been, and for me, that's the biggest lump of coal.

November 18, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
James Plath
Movie Metropolis

With Christmas mischief like this, who needs Halloween.

August 1, 2007 Comment
Prairie Miller
NY Rock

The movie is less about gaining the Christmas spirit than about defying the corporate ethos that hijacks and then abandons that spirit every year.

July 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

A movie that grows on you...Underneath layers of anger, sarcasm, profanity and booze, Bad Santa ultimately reveals a soft heart.

November 28, 2006 Full Review Source: FulvueDrive-in.com | Comment
Chuck O'Leary
FulvueDrive-in.com

...deserves a place among treasured Christmas pictures - as it certainly provides a welcome respite from the relentless holiday cheer that generally accompanies such films.

October 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

With an open mind and a high tolerance for obscenity, Bad Santa can be a laugh-out-loud frolic. (Director's Cut)

October 8, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
John J. Puccio
Movie Metropolis

full review in Greek

October 3, 2006 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | Comment
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses

Bad Santa forme au final une comédie dépravée et grinçante dont on ne peut que savourer chaque excès avec un plaisir coupable

June 5, 2006 Full Review Source: Panorama | Comment
Jean-François Vandeuren
Panorama

A delightfully obscene alternative to the usual Christmas tosh.

April 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Adam Smith
Empire Magazine

Wonderfully tasteless, gloriously non-PC, admirably bilious; humourless souls should steer clear.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment
Geoff Andrew
Time Out Source: Time Out
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Bad Santa

View All

This narratively clichéd yet entertaining alternative Christmas film is one definitely worth seeing if you're sick of 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Willie, a safe-cracking crook who masquerades as Father Christmas every December in shopping malls across the United States. His token elf

December 23, 2011
Jack Hawkins
Jack Hawkins

Super Reviewer

Not as grinchy and evil as I had hoped. The plot of Bad Santa is all over the place and sometimes the edginess is lost by dramatic changes to it's story. It didn't score an outrageous number of laughs but Thornton and Mac really shine.

December 26, 2011
Michael M.
Michael Miller

Super Reviewer

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December 17, 2010:
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