• Though not a formal consistency (the opening is just a Billy Bob setting the scene and the ending is a letter to Thurman) Billy Bob’s sardonic voice-over is so well written and performed- harkens to his work in 2001 in the Coen brother’s The Man Who Wasn’t There and film noir
  • The screenplay (and laughs) is layered. I laugh at different parts every time. It’s one of the best screenplays, comedy or other, of 2003
  • Unfortunately couldn’t find a shot of it (a year later I did– behold!) but there is an absolutely gorgeous shot of him throwing up in the snow in the alley just before (and as) the “Bad Santa” title comes in in the beginning of the firm- brilliant wall-art on a museum photograph
here is an absolutely gorgeous shot of him throwing up in the snow in the alley just before (and as) the “Bad Santa” title comes in in the beginning of the firm- brilliant wall-art on a museum photograph
  • Writing brilliance a plenty “are you off your meds?” and “queer as a $10 bill”- even the Bob Chipeska name for the John Ritter character is inspired- no detailed spared here in top notch script
  • Repetition in the dialogue- again something used by the Coens- “sandwiches”
  • I adore the “I beat some kids up today” speech- wonderful writing
  • We get the Scorsese Mean Streets reverse POV drunk “Rubber Biscuit” shot that falls with Billy Bob as he passes out drunk
  • It touches the classics and then debunks it—we get Billy Bob grabbing his girlfriend’s ass while Bing Crosby croons on gloriously — we get Dean Martin’s “Let it Snow” while the two are walking in the sun in Phoenix
  • Recommend