Bad Santa 2

I'd like to think that a lot has changed in the thirteen years since the original "Bad Santa" became an improbable hit: America's first black president served two successful terms; the third wave of feminism crested high over its academic base and surged into the popular vernacular; and Black Lives Matter steered that momentum towards a more inclusive civil discourse.

But not everyone was riding the wave. The progressive current of the last thirteen years came grinding to a halt as it crashed against a bloc of reactionary white voters, all of whom fought like mad to recede from the high watermark. In light of the last election, it's hard not to view "Bad Santa 2" -- also about a bigotry-spewing misogynist posing as a Christian and doffing an idiotic red hat -- as an allegory for the greedy, self-serving electorate who are too stupid to get out of their own way.

Fundamentally, "Bad Santa 2" takes the original's formula for another spin: the returning players -- omnivorous addict Willie Sokes (Billy Bob Thronton) and the diminutive Marcus (Tony Cox, playing not only the movie's token minority, but its thoroughly battered punch-line) get the band back together for a big heist on a mismanaged non-profit (A crooked charity? Lock her up!), all while trying to recapture the irreverent magic -- and respectable box-office draw -- of its predecessor.

But what it proves, if anything, is that you can't go home again, and what transpires is the humiliating film equivalent of perusing your high school yearbook: recognizable, but, Jesus Christ, what were you thinking back then?

Actually, it's worse. For example: early on, Willie queries his de facto adopted son and moral counterweight, Thurman Merman, whether or not he is gay, saying, as delicately as his character is able, "You didn't turn funny on me, did ya?" The anachronism is about three decades out of style, but that's not why it's jarring. In the context of this regressive political climate -- for a constituency whose slogan, "Make America Great Again," means scraping back their salad days, turning back the clock to a time in which this kind of barely-veiled contempt for the other is inextricable and even encouraged -- the implications are worse than humiliating. They're goddamn terrifying.

Of course, "Bad Santa 2" isn't intended as a mirror up to the corn-fed Christian mob -- it's just a coincidence. As Thornton points out in the red band featurette (found among the smatterings of extras on the Blu-ray), the film is merely "a profane comedy," and to that end it half-succeeds. Also included on the disc are glimmers of a decent movie, with two more heartfelt scenes that book-end a different cut: the alternate beginning, in which Willie dives for alcoholic cover at the slightest provocation (a kernel of truth), and the alternate ending, which pardons its consort of deplorables with a broad stroke of compassion.

"Bad Santa 2"
Blu-ray
$17.96
http://www.miramax.com/bad-santa-2/