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| Dvdivas
was founded by John Gabbard in 2000. It's purpose has been and
remains to be to provide you, the entertainment community with
the latest dvds and movie reviews. It will continue to be your
link to the most popular dvd movies. |
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"Badder
Santa"
|
 |
Reviewed
by: |
Wayne
A. Klein |
| Genre: |
Comedy |
| Video: |
1.85:1 Widescreen
anamorphic |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
Surround 2.0 |
| Languages |
English |
| Subtitles |
English |
| Length |
NA |
| Rating |
NR |
| Release Date |
6/22/04 |
| Studio |
Dimension
Home Video |
| Commentary:
|
None |
| Documentaries:
|
None |
| Featurettes:
|
"Behind-the-Scenes" |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
Previews |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
Deleted and
alternate scenes |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
"Badder Santa"
Gag Reel, Outtakes |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Billy Bob
Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Brett Kelly, Lauren Tom,
John Ritter, Ethan Philips and Bernie Mac |
| Written
By: |
Glenn Ficarra
& John Requa |
| Produced
By: |
John Cameron,
Sarah Aubrey and Bob Weinstein |
| Directed
By: |
Terry Zwigoff |
| Music:
|
David Kitay
|
| The
Review: |
Santa may want to check his naughty
list. Willie (Thornton) cracks safes, steals from the needy,
curses a blue streak, constantly drinks and plays Santa at
Christmas time. It provides him and his "elf" Marcus (Cox)
a way to case department stores, steal merchandise and generally
meet women desperate enough to have sex with Santa. When Willie
and Marcus are hired by department store manager Bob Chipeska
(a deft performance by the late John Ritter) for the holidays,
the store manager quickly discovers he made a mistake when
he catches Willie doing things Saint Nick would never do.
It's a perfect set up for the two of them except that Willie's
nasty mouth, proclivity for having sex with customers in the
dressing rooms and generally awful behavior gets them very
close to being fired. Bob contacts the off the wall head of
security Gin (Mac) to find dirt on them so he can fire them
without being sued for discrimination (Marcus is black and
a midget to boot). This gig is almost too good to give up
for Willie, though, when he meets Sue (Lauren Graham). It
seems sue is a Santa groupie and they go at it in a car less
than an hour after meeting each other. ***
OK, well this unrated version of
"Bad Santa" includes all the stuff that had to be cut to gain
an "R" rating for the film. Even the interactive menu has
Willie swearing a blue streak. Some of this film is actually
quite funny but the line between funny and bad taste gets
crossed in every other scene. If you're taste runs to , well,
the "badder" side of things then you'll enjoy "Badder Santa".
It's definitely comedy off the deep end. I've never seen as
dark a black comedy that elects to get right in your face
immediately. None of this is any surprise given that the idea
came from Joel and Ethan Cohen "Blood Simple", Fargo, "Raising
Arizona", "The Ladykillers" ***
Compared to the "R" rated "Bad Santa",
this is the raunchier, bigger, badder brother that always
got into trouble on Saturday night. The language which was
rough to begin with is even worse here as are the suggestions
of sexuality. Something to consider if this might offend you.
Then again, if "Bad Santa"might offend you, why would you
consider watching this? ---
|
| Image
and Sound: |
"Badder Santa"
looks pretty good considering all the nasty stuff he's done
in the name of Christmas. Image quality looks sharp with the
nice, bright day-glow colors one expects from a movie set during
Christmas. The sound doesn't have any distortion and imaging
is quite good as well. |
| The
Extras: |
This is where
"Badder Santa" gets really, really good. We have 3 deleted/alternate
scenes, the outtakes reel (which doesn't really have anything
on the stuff they shot except the actors busting up) and the
"Badder Santa" gag reel. Some of the stuff outtakes material
also ends up in the gag reel as well. There's also a "Behind-the-Scenes"
featurette which bucks the current trend of being a simple promo
piece. It's actually kind of funny. It's interesting to note
that director Zwigoff recollects that when he received the script,
he was told by his agent that the film was so dark that it would
never get made. --- |
| Commentary:
|
No commentary
track from director Zwigoff or star Thornton which is a pity
as it would have been interesting to hear about the decisions
to cut scenes included here. --- |
| Final
Words: |
No commentary
track from director Zwigoff or star Thornton which is a pity
as it would have been interesting to hear about the decisions
to cut scenes included here. --- |
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