It’s been 13 years since a miserable con artist named Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) joined forces with a ‘little person’ named Marcus (Tony Cox) posing as Santa and his elf, in order to rob the mall of their Christmas money.
In all this time, Willie (Thornton) has gotten all the more miserable. Even preheating an electric stove to stick his head in the oven, takes too long to die. So giving the holidays one last shot…of tequila that is…he finds a new lucrative target. Charities.
With his equally-miserable, mother (Kathy Bates) who takes the word ‘maternal’ to an entirely new low (contact the Dept. of Social Services asap) the two decide on Giving City charity (think Salvation Army knock-off). It’s run by the very sexy Christina Hendricks. But there’s one problem…Thurman ‘the Kid’ (Brett Kelly) is back, now grown, and still behaving like the spacey and evasive ‘good’ angel on Willie’s shoulder. He works at Hungry Hogan’s a local sub shop and walks around in tight fitting hand-me-downs half his size; or perhaps from wardrobe of the original Bad Santa. All he wants for Christmas is to be with his family…Billy Bob Thornton. Except delusional Thurman can’t seem to register that Billy Bob is NOT his family.
The movie is laugh-out-loud raunchy and abrasive. It works because it dares to go places we would never dream and taps into all that is sacred: The mother and child reunion… the tradition of Christmas…the Nativity scenes gone nasty.
All its vulgarity is seen through the eyes of the innocent Thurman, making it all the more funny. He’s oblivious. This plot is everything that’s the anti-Christ of Thurman’s character. Or is it? The Silent Night scene will have you watering up, remembering how important it is to have a parent at your Christmas school play, and realizing that troubled childhoods are with us, even all the way to the bank. Even if you’re robbing one.
This film is a Holiday ‘The Hangover’ on helium. 4 tiaras