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Bad Santa (2003)
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Indie film-maker Terry Zwigoff (Crumb, Ghost World) comes unstuck with this charmless black comedy about a grumpy, alcoholic safe-cracker. Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie T Stokes, who scopes out shopping malls to rob by posing as a holiday Father Christmas. As he and his “elf” sidekick (Tony Cox) attempt to perform the scam one last time, Thornton becomes involved with a Santa-loving barmaid (Lauren Graham) and a lonely overweight child (Brett Kelly). Thornton's character is sadistic and abusive, and the constant foul-mouthed shouting becomes dispiriting very early on. The film thinks that it's subversively critiquing Christmas sentimentality, but is so lacking in anything resembling heart, taste or wit that it's just a hard slog. GM
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| Contains swearing, violence, sex scenes. |
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Tell us what you think
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Running time
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88min
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Country of origin
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US / Ger
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Genre
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Seasonal Crime Black comedy
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Original language
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English
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Screenplay
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Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
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Theatrical distributor
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Columbia TriStar
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UK cinema certificate
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15
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UK cinema release date
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November 2004
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| awards information |
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Award |
Category |
Name |
Nominee/Winner |
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| Golden Globe 2003 |
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical |
Billy Bob Thornton |
Nominee |
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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