What you may need to know
1. Billy Bob Thornton – Actor, filmmaker, singer-songwriter, epic haircut in Fargo, six times married*. ..This man works harder than Miriam O’Callaghan’s child minder and here he is back as Willie in Bad Santa 2, The sequel to 2003’s dark and cynical yet utterly hilarious Ba…. Well you’ve probably already guessed what it’s a sequel to.
2 Alongside Elf (2003) and the same year’s Love Actually (yeah Love Actually, I said it, I love Hugh Grant, I’m a fool to myself) Bad Santa is one of the great Christmas movies imho And the storyline this time sees him reunite with his sidekick Marcus (Tony Cox), to knock off a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve.
5. The movie seems to have had a troubled production as it’s been in development since 2009 however as an eternal optimist I’d like to think they’ve just been working hard to perfect their craft rather than the more likely awful alternative.
6. It’s directed by Mark Waters, the director of Mean Girls (think Broadsheet comments section with American accents) who surprisingly didn’t have to hand back his director’s badge after 2014’s Vampire Academy.
7. Sadly there’ll be no Bernie Mac this time round as he’s deader than the plants in Pat Hickey’s holiday home, but on a brighter note they have drafted in Christina Hendricks,
and Oscar winner Kathy Bates also stars as Thornton’s mother, despite being only
Seven years older than him in real life.
Bertie’s verdict: If it’s half as good as the first one it will pass a couple of hours pleasantly enough.
Bertie Blenkinsop
* SIX times married. Law of averages we’ll all eventually date either Billy Bob or Taylor Swift. Knowing my luck I’ll get Billy Bob.
Billy Bob wasn’t in the 1996 film. No marks.
I was referring to the TV show and I don’t do the links but thanks for your assessment.
He’s excellent in Fargo. Though I will say, I preferred season 2. Kirsten Dunst was fantastic.
Fat Matt Damon from Breakig Bad was great too
That scene with the split shot in the car, where they’re both talking to each other about two different things, and not even listening… It’s great. One of my faves in the whole show.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h_jGiZ34Y3I
*Fargo
Deadly, didn’t know this was in the making.
Billy Bob was in Season 1 of the TV series, not the movie, somehow I’m not blaming Bertie for that one.
Elf is awful.
#critic
I agree but I’m in a minority on this. I think it boils down to whether you can hack Ferrell and/or Zooey wotserface. One of them is enough to set my teeth on edge – the pair of ’em in the same movie and i’m reaching for the pliers…
You’ll do well to find many who dislike it tho’…
In other news, good to see Kathy Bates in something. I suppose it was either her or Margo Martindale…
While I have not a shred of interest in this movie, lines like ‘This man works harder than Miriam O’Callaghan’s child minder’ means I’ll read Bertie’s reviews for the comedy alone.
Likewise in re BB, Spaghetti. Another great ******mas film is Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.
Anyone seen Hostile Hostages? (Known as ‘The Ref’ in the states.) Black comedy with Kevin Spacey and Denis Leary from about 1994.
It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but its sweary Christmas fun. Features some nice Spacey rants.
That’s a good flick, Rory
A’boy Bertie!
deader than the plants………. hahaha someone buy this man a club Orange.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJWS6qyy7bw
Cracking reviews Bertie. Keep them coming.
away all day but glad I saw this. top stuff
Nope. No way.
Great review though.
(The Angry Birds movie was very interesting. Seriously. Funny too)