Climactic uplift is far less important than the bawdy, nasty, inappropriate hilarity peddled by Terry Zwigoff’s 2003 gem, which also benefits from the participation of the late Bernie Mac and John Ritter.

| Dec 5, 2022

In the annals of movie profanity, this movie would rate an Oscar, but it's actually pretty sweet at heart, although never sentimental. And if you don't believe me, you know what you can do.

| Dec 14, 2014

An antidote to forced holiday cheer, this scabrously funny misanthropic comedy is not for the whole family.

| Dec 14, 2014

If Bad Santa does well at the box office, Zwigoff will get credit for being a savvy player. That Bad Santa is as vile and stupid as Ghost World was insightful and touching is something Hollywood has no interest in measuring.

| Dec 14, 2014

Bad Santa is definitely not PC, it's rude and crude and, I think, very funny.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 14, 2014

Once the rude shock of a profane Claus wears off, there's not really much to do except await the next outrageous remark.

| Dec 5, 2013

Even when the film threatens to turn feel-good, it thankfully resists the urge.

| Dec 5, 2013

Best of all, it plugs into -- and electrifies -- the mostly unacknowledged grimness that lies just beneath our holiday cheer.

| Dec 5, 2013

Much like School Of Rock, Bad Santa salvages a tired, paint-by-numbers formula by resisting it every step of the way, stubbornly refusing to stop its juvenile fun until the last possible moment.

| Dec 5, 2013

I wanted to believe in Bad Santa. At least half of the time I did.

| Dec 5, 2013

Zwigoff and company wring some laughs out of it, though the tone is uniformly mean and vulgar.

| Nov 27, 2007

A delightfully obscene alternative to the usual Christmas tosh.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Wonderfully tasteless, gloriously non-PC, admirably bilious; humourless souls should steer clear.

| Jan 26, 2006

An uproarious all-out assault on propriety.

| Original Score: A- | May 3, 2005

It's a one-joke flick, really, but a rib-cracking one at that.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2004

Bad Santa is my kind of Christmas movie -- profane, subversive, and swarming with scuzzballs.

Full Review | Aug 7, 2004

The funniest send-up of bad Christmas karma I have ever seen.

| Dec 11, 2003

Thornton's performance is -- there's no other word -- beautiful.

| Dec 5, 2003

I laughed at loud at a lot of the stuff.

Full Review | Dec 1, 2003

And into this season of sugarplums and stockings, glad tidings and goodwill toward men, comes Bad Santa. And the first words out of the mouth of Santa Claus? 'Hey, can I get another drink down here?'

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 30, 2003