Putting the fun into Christmas

Billy Bob Thornton ought to get an Academy nomination for his title-role performance - as a vile-tempered, alcoholic, kid-hating crook whose every other word is the fourletter one beginning with "f ". But he almost certainly won't, because Terry Zwigoff 's movie, though frequently extremely funny, is too politically incorrect.

Billy Bob is Santa at a department store, assisted by a colleague 36 inches in height, whom he uses to get into the store on Christmas Eve to rob the safe. He has done this up and down the land every Yuletide, but his drinking and obsession with unorthodox sex with large ladies tries the little man (Tony Cox) terribly.

Their plans are momentarily put on hold when Santa meets a very round little boy of eight who thinks Thornton is the real Kriss Kringle and invites him home. The boy's dad, an accountant, is in prison, and Santa begins to teach the boy to defend himself against bullies in one of the most hilarious boxing matches (boy versus dwarf) I've ever seen.

The point of the film is obviously to spread Christmas good cheer in a different way from the Hollywood norm, and I must say it succeeds admirably. I've never seen so many critics come out of the cinema with grins on their faces. Zwigoff, who made the excellent Crumb, had the producing assistance of the Coen brothers.

There are dull patches, but the sight and sound of Billy Bob in full and venomous flow, followed at two paces by Cox's furious aide, makes Dodgeball or The Bad News Bears look anodyne. There's a little sentiment at the end to send Americans out feeling fine. But not much. This is a film you may find childish and tasteless, but it's likely to make a lot of people laugh until they cry.

Bad Santa
Cert: 15