Bad Santa 2
Foul-mouthed alcoholic mall-Santa Billy Bob Thornton returns after Terry Zwigoff's hilarious 2003 black comedy. This sequel has long been in the works, originally with director Steve Pink (Hot Tub Time Machine) attached. Production finally began in 2016 with Mark Waters (Mean Girls) in the director's chair. The Coen brothers, who did final rewrites of the 2003 script (but were uncredited), are not involved.
- Director:
- Mark Waters ('Mean Girls', 'Freaky Friday', 'The Spiderwick Chronicles')
- Writer:
- Shauna CrossDoug EllinJohn PhillipsJohnny Rosenthal
- Cast:
- Billy Bob ThorntonChristina HendricksKathy BatesRyan HansenBrett KellyTony CoxJeff SkowronJenny Zigrino
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Aaron Yap
flicksNo, the first Bad Santa wasn’t a great work of art. But it took a single joke — the worst Santa ever — and made something agreeably twisted out of it. For any curmudgeons who would prefer a lump of coal in their stocking than to participate in heartwarming festive cheer, Billy Bob Thornton’s memorably cranky performance as Willie Soke, a sexist, alcoholic, thieving misanthrope, was the ideal whiskey-soaked respite.
2 hours of my life down the loo
OMG what can I say, dreadful. Now if it was crass and funny I would have laughed, but this was just so bad I actually felt bad for these once respected actors. Admittedly never saw the first film but I can imagine it was more of the same only slightly funnier as someone with clout thought it deserved a sequel over a decade later. Billy how far you have...
No more Bad Santa please
Why oh why did they try to show a sympathetic side to Bad Santa? It undoes the whole Bad Santa is an asshole joke. A seriously lame story, majorly wasted talent, but ... a couple of good gross out oneliners, but there was too much of it and the "isn't it funny that we keep saying fuck" gag wore think very quickly. Not worth the price of a cinema ticket.
Not Bad
I really love the original humour in this! they used only a few of the old jokes which was good. I think the story line was a bit boring, however the humour made up for it. The cast was really good, Cathy Bates is so funny!. If you have a sick sense of humour and can take a joke, its the movie for you!
Variety
pressA weary, half-hearted affair that doesn't even have the courage of its own nihilism.
Time Out
pressBad Santa 2 has to make do with director Mark Waters (Mean Girls), who is both more sentimental and more accepting of broad, panicky comedy.
The New York Times
pressWhile Ms. Bates can be a nimble scene stealer, decking her out in tattoos and punk jewelry is not enough to spark an uninspired script.
The Guardian
pressWaters wrings occasional snickers from a patchy script, but the whole feels tamely conventional: misanthropy passed through the usual Hollywood motions.
Stuff
pressCompared to pretty much every other film that has tried to make a buck out of being gross and not much else in the last decade, Bad Santa 2 is better than most.
Hollywood Reporter
pressFor those who've endured the long gap between Bad Santa movies like kids eagerly anticipating Christmas, this sequel brings it on like Saint Nick's overstuffed bag of goodies, with plenty to entertain (and offend) everyone.
Entertainment Weekly
pressAs long as you know what you’re in for, the film is a hilarious good time, a respectable continuation of what made the first Bad Santa so fun.
Empire Magazine
pressA photocopy of a photocopy, this could perhaps be the nadir of the wave of decade-too-late comedy sequels. Only Thornton completists, and hopeless nostalgists, need apply.
Collider
pressThe fact that these gags and one-liners are meant to offend isn't even half as criminal as the fact that the humour in 'Bad Santa 2' is repetitious, poorly timed, and devoid of any real feeling.
Flicks, Aaron Yap
flicksNo, the first Bad Santa wasn’t a great work of art. But it took a single joke — the worst Santa ever — and made something agreeably twisted out of it. For any curmudgeons who would prefer a lump of coal in their stocking than to participate in heartwarming festive cheer, Billy Bob Thornton’s memorably cranky performance as Willie Soke, a sexist, alcoholic, thieving misanthrope, was the ideal whiskey-soaked respite.
Variety
pressA weary, half-hearted affair that doesn't even have the courage of its own nihilism.
Time Out
pressBad Santa 2 has to make do with director Mark Waters (Mean Girls), who is both more sentimental and more accepting of broad, panicky comedy.
The New York Times
pressWhile Ms. Bates can be a nimble scene stealer, decking her out in tattoos and punk jewelry is not enough to spark an uninspired script.
The Guardian
pressWaters wrings occasional snickers from a patchy script, but the whole feels tamely conventional: misanthropy passed through the usual Hollywood motions.
Stuff
pressCompared to pretty much every other film that has tried to make a buck out of being gross and not much else in the last decade, Bad Santa 2 is better than most.
Hollywood Reporter
pressFor those who've endured the long gap between Bad Santa movies like kids eagerly anticipating Christmas, this sequel brings it on like Saint Nick's overstuffed bag of goodies, with plenty to entertain (and offend) everyone.
Entertainment Weekly
pressAs long as you know what you’re in for, the film is a hilarious good time, a respectable continuation of what made the first Bad Santa so fun.
Empire Magazine
pressA photocopy of a photocopy, this could perhaps be the nadir of the wave of decade-too-late comedy sequels. Only Thornton completists, and hopeless nostalgists, need apply.
Collider
pressThe fact that these gags and one-liners are meant to offend isn't even half as criminal as the fact that the humour in 'Bad Santa 2' is repetitious, poorly timed, and devoid of any real feeling.
2 hours of my life down the loo
OMG what can I say, dreadful. Now if it was crass and funny I would have laughed, but this was just so bad I actually felt bad for these once respected actors. Admittedly never saw the first film but I can imagine it was more of the same only slightly funnier as someone with clout thought it deserved a sequel over a decade later. Billy how far you have...
No more Bad Santa please
Why oh why did they try to show a sympathetic side to Bad Santa? It undoes the whole Bad Santa is an asshole joke. A seriously lame story, majorly wasted talent, but ... a couple of good gross out oneliners, but there was too much of it and the "isn't it funny that we keep saying fuck" gag wore think very quickly. Not worth the price of a cinema ticket.
Not Bad
I really love the original humour in this! they used only a few of the old jokes which was good. I think the story line was a bit boring, however the humour made up for it. The cast was really good, Cathy Bates is so funny!. If you have a sick sense of humour and can take a joke, its the movie for you!
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