Bad Santa 2

Sometimes even great films don’t benefit from another trip to the well. While the original Bad Santa has rightfully taken its place alongside the modern spate of Christmas classics perennially repeated on basic cable as each year draws to a close, Bad Santa 2 is unlikely to find its way into rotation alongside Elf and Die Hard by the time it’s available for TV. Spotty characterization, uneven performances, problematic pacing and a flaccid third act leave this sequel definitively on the naughty list in all the wrong ways, especially in light of its prodigious potential.

The film opens with Willie Soke (Billy Bob Thornton) providing a hastily appended denouement bridging the 13-year gap between films via awkwardly inserted voice-over narration during an interrupted suicide attempt. While a similar conceit was recently used to great comedic effect in the exemplary A Man Called Ove, here the joke just hangs there like Thornton’s would-be corpse. If Bad Santa 2 suffers in direct comparison to superior films like Ove, it comes up similarly short in the context of its own predecessor. Watching Thornton’s Soke beat another Santa senseless with one of the Wise Men from a church nativity display or hearing him explain the “ejaculate conception” is always funny. Listening to Kathy Bates prattle on about her vagina is not. In short, Bad Santa 2 is not the sequel we needed — it’s the sequel we deserve.

All that said, Soke still feels like the role Thornton was born to play. His delivery of one-liners is as flawless as ever, and his uniquely twisted sensibilities continue to undermine the saccharine sentimentality of the season with admirable zeal. Where the film falters is in its inclusion of Bates as Soke’s mother, Sunny, and with Brett Kelly reprising his role as Thurman Merman (or “the kid,” as he continues to be known in the parlance of Thornton’s character). Bates’ timing is significantly off, relegating her performance to one-note-joke territory, while every single scene featuring Kelly’s Thurman seems utterly superfluous and fails to either advance the plot or provide sufficient comedic justification for inclusion. Christina Hendricks as the obligatory love interest and Tony Cox as Thornton’s little helper are almost criminally underserved in roles as diminutive as Cox’s elfin stature. Everyone one involved in this film deserved better, perhaps none more so than the audience.

Director Mark Waters, whose most notable works are the Lindsay Lohan vehicles Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, is unlikely to be remembered to posterity as a visual stylist, so there’s nothing particularly remarkable to recommend this film from a purely cinematic standpoint. The script features predominantly toothless retreads of the same jokes from the first Bad Santa, with a story that feels like a perfunctory obligation rather than a narrative necessity, but I highly doubt anyone’s considering catching this movie for its deeply considered story and character development. Those dying for another dose of Thornton’s venal vernacular will find themselves entertained for the first 45 minutes, give or take — and at least it’s not as bad as A Christmas Story 2 or Jingle All the Way 2.

Much like the traditions of Christmas itself, familiarity can breed comfort as well as disappointment. Bad Santa 2 is something akin to giving your dad the same tie two years in a row. He’ll probably love you anyway, but don’t expect him to get much mileage out of it beyond that. Rated R for crude sexual content and language throughout and some graphic nudity.

Now Playing at Carmike 10, Carolina Cinemark, Regal Biltmore Grande, UA Beaucatcher, Epic of Hendersonville.