Bad Santa
DVD rental/£19.99, Sony

All the far-too-early shop decorations and TV adverts are presumably drumming up a fair amount of festive cheer for those with nothing better to occupy their minds, but what of the rest of us? What is there for those who are counting the remaining stroppy days until Christmas?

That's where this movie comes in. This is the least festive holiday movie yet. A superb Billy Bob Thornton plays a deeply heartless and cynical crook who exploits the season of goodwill, along with his little helper, to rob shopping malls of their swollen safes by getting a job as the store Santa. Thornton's character hates kids (and everyone else) and is either aggressively drunk or aggressively hungover. Against all the odds, one troubled young kid thinks he's the real deal and invites him to stay with him and his grandmother.

This seems like the set-up for a tale of change and redemption. It's nothing of the sort. With 147 deployments of the F-word (surely a record for a Christmas movie) and brilliant turns from John Ritter and Bernie Mac, this is a slice of entertainment for those not that impressed by pretty lights and a bit of tinsel.

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