Méchant Père Noël 2

First of all, I loved the first one. My absolute favorite Christmas movie of all time. Most other Christmas movies are about magic and all that. How about some realism, dosed with cynicism, sarcasm, curses and other insults? Now that's what Christmas deserves and that's what we all deserve for Christmas.

Some of the comments referred to the first movie as *the original*. Not quite accurate, because this is no remake.

Two reasons I liked this one too:

• Billy Bob & Tony Cox .. a dream combo .. foul mouthed and screwed up to the bone. I'd watch these guys just sit opposite each other and talk trash to each other for days.

And one more thing: Of course this movie can't beat the first one. Also, it doesn't need to. It's fun. That's what any holiday should be about. I had fun watching it. Merry Christmas!

6.4/10

"Bad Santa 2" is frequently hilarious, if one enjoys raunchy no-holds-barred humor. In a world of oppressive mandates for politically correct action, speech and thought, it is a breath of fresh air, mercilessly lampooning every liberal sacred cow imaginable.

It is not a great film. "Bad Santa" was amusing, but not particularly memorable and the sequel will undoubtedly also quickly fade from memory. The plot is largely familiar. The characters don't grow emotionally and are roughly as misanthropic, misogynistic, cynical, self-destructive, abrasive, etc., at the conclusion as they were at the start. It succeeds in creating humor by placing ridiculous characters in improbable circumstances. The humor is bawdy, uninhibited and confrontational. The jokes would make Lenny Bruce blush.

The film fails to rise above its station in its use of alcohol and nudity. Alcohol can be used for burlesque effect by turning a normally staid individual into a stumbling clown, or it can be used to strip away the character's inhibitions, exposing raw anger, resentment, fear and other emotions for all to see, as in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Nudity can be used for titillation, or make the character seem vulnerable, primal or honest, as in "Teachers."

BS2 uses uninhibited, unrestrained, brutally honest language to convey the frustrations, anger and other emotions of the characters. It is at times shocking or amusing, but consistently honest. But alcohol does not strip away any emotions or public façades, as these characters have no inhibitions to strip away. The brief nudity seems immature and puerile compared with the dialogue. One character has on-camera sex in half a dozen scenes with several different partners, with both partners fully dressed (at least from the camera's POV). This is an actor known for a highly erotic scene in a 2001 film. What little nudity is presented in the film seems cheesy and dishonest compared with the brutally honest dialogue.

The film delivers more laughs than many comedies. Production values are adequate. Performances are uniformly excellent. The script is underdeveloped with several major plot holes. It isn't destined to become a classic, but succeeds admirably as a raunchy celebration of political incorrectness.

As far as unnecessary sequels go, Bad Santa 2 isn't awful even if those moments are present. It lacks the heart of the original and despite its willingness to provoke, still feels like the edges have been sanded off. However, thanks to an opening front loaded with the best jokes and the very smart choice to keep it around the 90 minute mark, it remains passable.

Billy Bob Thornton's jaded cynicism still works for this character even if it's probably just him doing it for the paycheck this time round. Kathy Bates as his mum is a fun casting choice she clearly has some fun with and it's so nice to see Brett Kelly as Thurman Merman again. He's the closest thing this film has to a heart and it's worth watching just for his cute performance.

Mark Waters was a very strange choice to direct this since he's somehow both over and under qualified for the material and yet he does an okay job. It's shot like a sitcom in an inoffensive fashion and it's more than happy to let the writing do basically all the heavy lifting for the comedy rather than utilising any clever visual gags.

"It's starting to feel like Christmas." Willie Soke (Thornton) has been living a whiskey filled existence since the double cross he experienced during Christmas a few years ago. When his old partner shows up and wants him to get back into the game he agrees because… he's Willie. After realizing that their new partner is his mother (Bates) he second guesses the entire thing, but the chance of stealing millions changes his mind. Everything is going to plan, until Thurman shows up. This is a movie that I changed my opinion on after watching the special features, which never happens. While watching it I did laugh, but it was basically the exact same movie as the first one. No twists were surprising and even most of the jokes were reused. I loved the first one and did enjoy this but kept thinking, this is just another sequel that seemed to be made to make money off a name and that's it. While watching the features Billy Bob said that this is a movie made for fans of the original. He said the movie was made with them in mind and if they get new fans that's great but it wasn't the goal of the film. After hearing that context I have to think the movie did what it set out to do. That being said, if you liked the first one you will like this as well, nothing new but just a funny movie with heart that is worth your time. Overall, basically a remake of the original, but I did laugh quite a bit. Not as good as the first one at all but worth seeing if you are a fan of the first one. I give this a B-.

I really enjoyed this. I tend not to have particularly high standards when watching movies. I expected a degenerate comedy, chock full of inappropriate humour and also laced with profanity. There were also countless scenes that made one want to laugh and throw up a little, given how distasteful they were! (Which is great!)

I wanted to see more of Bad Santa, the little person, and Therman Merman! Bad Santa 2 did not disappoint! I was laughing throughout. I'm not one to look at movies through a critical lens. Even so, I could see this movie wasn't as good as the first one, in terms of overall plot and character development.

Nonetheless, I got to see my favourite characters one more time on the big screen. And I laughed throughout. It was like seeing old friends again!