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See the rest of the reviews here.

Bad Santa

Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Bernie Mac, John Ritter, Brett Kelly. Directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Story: An arsey alcoholic Santa rips off department stores every Christmas.

Running Time: 1hr 31 minutes.

Certificate 15.

What's the perfect antidote to the spate of sickly, vomit-inducing, happy-clappy Christmas movies that are just about to hit our cinema screens? How about a story where the mall Santa is actually a melancholic alcoholic who can't stand kids and only does the job so he can rob the place on Christmas Eve? That should do the trick.

Bill Murray would be the obvious choice for this role, and in fact he was the first choice, but pulled out to make Lost in Translation. Billy Bob Thornton makes a suitable substitute, as he glowers and growls his way through the endless line of slobbering kids, swearing at them and causing havoc through being mullered all day. Chaperoning and trying to kick him into shape is his dwarfish sidekick Tony Cox who, amusingly, was an Ewok in Return of the Jedi. Despite being a grumpy slob, Billy Bob Claus still manages to pull the birds, the most significant of which is Lauren Graham, a bartender with a Santa fixation. Bernie Mac is the malevolent head of security at the mall, with John Ritter (TV's Hooperman) delivering a wonderfully snivelling store manager.

So Bad Santa is the perfect antidote to Christmas saccharin then? Well, no, not really. The trouble is, this is Hollywood, so big bad Bob has to go and meet a fat kid (Brett Kelly) and ... well, you can guess the rest. The foul-mouthed Santa routine becomes old hat pretty quickly, but fortunately there is enough novelty and good cinematography to keep the viewer entertained nonetheless. The Coen brothers are credited as executive producers and it looks to me as if there is a little Coen DNA here and there, which helps to keep a feeling of freshness and innovation.

Bad Santa then, is an adequate black comedy with enough to please the majority, but will not be featuring in many people's highlights of the year. Putting grumpy people in a fluffy situation is a tried and tested formula and this in itself generates enough humour to warrant your going to see it - just bear in mind it isn't a British film, so it isn't as sugar-free as it claims. And they say f**k a LOT.

I enjoyed this film: 3/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 4/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 4/5 "F**k me Santa!", dwarf jokes, alcoholism, car chase, Santa behaving badly - it's got everything naughty except nudity.

To enjoy this film you should be: Scroogey and/or cynical.