In this R-rated Christmas, Santa or Willie is rude and crude, bad-mouthed, and drinks and fucks everyone he wants. Billy Bob Thorntons is as expected a very troubled, alcoholized con man who gets in bed with women, and drinks booze but has a tender heart for a kid.

The story is a struggling Scrooge story turning a bad person into a good one. It’s hard to tell if Thornton is serious about his performance, but the script doesn’t save him. It’s surprisingly choppy and crumbles in the plot as it tries to balance the rude and humane side of the comedy.  With the 2003 standard of comedy, there are no limits to the observation of the main character. It exposes how ill-hearted criminals both Willie and Marcus are. The exaggeration of the performance of the main lead takes a toll on how the story progresses.

The story plays also with the norms of how Santa should be and what he should and shouldn’t do. The heart of the story is truly the relationship between Willie and The Kid aka Therman Merman that slowly progresses to a father-son relationship as the kids’ parents are gone on trips. This contrast is one of the better parts of the film, in which way Willie shows a certain relationship with the boy of responsibility. The editing is probably the worst of the film. It does not have a clean smooth pace, and it departed in different sections where it’s an obvious scene and the overall film doesn’t seem to flow as a collective unit.

Lauren Graham makes a standout performance but doesn’t solidity her performance as one of the best in her career. Her characters have the function of a girlfriend to our bad Santa friend, who seeks to rob everyone and everything he can get his hands on. It’s a decent holiday film, featuring a vicious Santa who goes against the stream.

It’s a rude film for sure but not a memorable one that stands out from the crowd or is even a crowd-pleasing film that reaches the broader spectra. It tries hard to connect with an audience but fails once the predictable plot weaves up.