[rating=3.00]
Our relationship with The Holidays is one of the more complex and fascinating aspects of our culture. We all profess to love them, it being the most wonderful time of the year and all, but behind closed doors it’s difficult not to find groups of people bemoaning the extravagance and commitments implicit in the season. Talk of joy and good will is great, but secretly we’re counting the hours until life returns to normal and we can retreat back to our personal enclaves free from the weight of family and obligation.
That’s part of the reason, I think, that subversive holiday films tend to be so well received. Comedy, at its best, is a mirror that reflects our absurdities back to us. In my house, no tree is erected without National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation playing on loop in the background—it’s the perfect way to both get into the spirit of things while reminding ourselves of all the impending stress we’re about to endure. Similarly, last year’s The Night Before perfectly captured the feelings of growing up, starting families, and beginning new traditions.
And then there’s Bad Santa. Oh, Bad Santa, just watching you assures a stocking full of coal. Knowing of your existence is reason enough for consideration for the naughty list. Profane, offensive, and shocking, you’re all at once a kick to the stomach of civility and, oddly, a spirited reminder of the love this season is capable of inspiring. You subvert subversion, entering a new category of tastelessness that’s so delicious, so devious, and so…right.
Too bad your sequel sucks.
Despite the blatantly offensive tone and content of the original Bad Santa, it had a kind of charm and intelligence that elevated it from the quagmire of mere poor taste. For all the raunch, it was a smartly written comedy (probably owing to an uncredited rewrite from producers Joel and Ethan Coen) that managed to have, above all, heart. It punched down so hard its hits landed up, and somewhere between copious f-bombs and politically incorrect humor its sweetness shone through the bitter, salty façade.
None of what made the original so brilliant is present in Bad Santa 2, which leans headlong into offense while forgetting everything about heart. Along the way, it manages solely to retread the path laid by its forebear without being—or even trying—anything new. In short, it’s everything you loved about the original film, minus any semblance of originality.
That’s probably enough for many audiences—admittedly, it was fun to see Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox back together as Willie and Marcus, those foul mouthed grinches with itches to ruin Christmas. This time they’re aided by Kathy Bates as Willie’s long absent mother, Sunny. Together the three hatch another scheme to rob a charity, ran by Christina Hendricks and Ryan Hansen, of its gains just in time for Christmas.
There’s probably no better metaphor for Bad Santa 2 than the inclusion of Brett Kelly, who reprises his role as the clueless child from Bad Santa, only decidedly creepier and less funny now that he’s 12 years older. The novelty of seeing a drunken Thornton vomit bile—literally and linguistically—at a child in 2004 reeks of mean spirited sadness in 2016. Is there a contradiction in there? Probably. But in 2004, the joke was on Thornton; in 2016, the joke is on, well, no one in particular.
And so it goes with 95% of Bad Santa 2, with its slapdash plot and uninspired direction. The laughs are simple but nowhere near ample. In a way, it’s a lot like hanging out with your friends from high school—you know, the ones who never quite got their shit together and who still hang around the same dank and dirty bars as they did when they got their first fake IDs at 17—and realizing that things have just gotten sad in the year since you last visited home. They talk the same, they act the same, they, well, are the same. You wonder why you ever found them appealing in the first place.
Just like a quick jaunt home for the holidays can remind you why you like your new life better than your life a decade ago, Bad Santa 2 makes you long to watch the original, when edgy wasn’t synonymous with stupid and profane wasn’t absent of charm. While the abundance of cheap laughs might be enough, it’s difficult to watch and not remember when it was funnier, and better, a decade ago. Maybe it’s true. Maybe you can’t go home again. Maybe all we’re in store for is the cold reality that our memories of yesterday are better than our realities today. Maybe that’s the reason for our love/hate relationship with this season. If only that were the intent of Bad Santa 2 and not a fortunate accident. Maybe then it could’ve been a movie worthy of its name.
Bad Santa 2 is now playing in theaters everywhere.
