Bad Santa 2

The original Bad Santa was a refreshing take on the Christmas movie genre. The joy of the time was replaced by a hard cynicism and the usual happy ending was replaced by the (non-fatal shooting) of the main character. It seems like a pretty easy movie to replicate for a sequel, but unfortunately it misses the mark that the original. That said, it still has a lot of charm to distract you from that fact.

Former thief Willie Soke (Billy Bob Thornton) has hit rock bottom, living in his tiny apartment and spending most of his days getting drunk. Just as he is attempting suicide, his de facto son Thurman (Brett Kelly) comes in and with the news that his former partner Marcus (Tony Cox) has gotten in touch and wants him to come to Chicago to pull a job. It turns out that Marcus has a new associate in Willie's mother Sunny (Kathy Bates), whom he despises. Willie is only convinced to help out as a safecracker when Marcus promises to scam Sunny out of any money they get. The target they are hitting is a charity run by the wealthy Diane (Christina Hendricks), who attempts to turn Willie's life around.

While most of the hallmarks of what made the original good are still there, Bad Santa 2 some how ends up becoming a part of the genre it was originally trying to mock. Yes it is foul mouthed and scandalous, but it almost seems conventional. Gone is the hot un-Christmas-like location of Arizona and in it's place we have Chicago, which is the only other snowy city you want to be for Christmas after New York (for that conclusion see the much better sequel movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York). Unlike the original, Willie's ending is a tad more upbeat and hopeful. He learns a lesson about family, a message that all Christmas movies have. This movie also seems to have a lot of interchangeable parts. Take out Lauren Graham and replace her with Christina Hendricks, replace Bernie Mac (RIP) with some less funny white guy. Thank god they didn't try and replace Cloris Leachman.

Luckily, there are some pretty good jokes. While they seem to be rehashes of jokes from the original; Thurman's possible mental disability, Octavia Spencer's turn as a prostitute, Willie's general demeanour, they are pretty funny. Thornton's reactions to other people's comments are almost as good as his sharp tongue. Lines about General MacArthur's Philippines Campaign go hand in hand with calling other Santas pedophiles. Kathy Bates is a huge boost to the film because just the idea of her being a surly old bitch is enticing enough, but she really carries it off.

To Bad Santa 2's benefit, the amount of time passed between it and the original is just between remembering that the first one was funny and complete loss of memory that it exists. If anything though, that is more a testament to the staying power of the first one than the merits of this movie.

Mark Reviews: Entourage

Hey guys, guess who's back? It's your favorite movie star, Mark Wahlberg. This time I'm gonna tell about a movie I made based on one of my hit TV shows. Not Wahlburgers, you dummies, that's a reality show about my family restaurant, because we had to get Donnie a nice and easy job flipping burgers (but seriously, go support the business, I promise Donnie won't drop the burger). I mean Entourage. Yeah, I bet you didn't know that show was mine, but it was based on my life when I first came to Hollywood.

So in this movie I, I mean the the character Vince (Adrian Grenier), but basically me, am a big movie star and I get the chance to direct my own big budget movie star. Along with me, my friends Eric (Kevin Connelly) and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) are of enjoying the high life in LA, as well as my brother Drama (Kevin Dillon), but we all know that this is just Donnie and we know he won't be as famous as me. Ever. Oh yeah and my agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), he's the head of a movie studio now.

Yeah, it's pretty fun making a movie about me, because I can say what can and can't go in it. So if I want to have a gratuitous amount of nudity in the movie I can because guess what? I had double-D's in my face all day when I was younger, because I was a rapper and you know what else? This young guy right here had an entourage and more money than you will ever have in your life.

You know how much I made just to do that photoshoot? $2 million. Sure, it may not be a lot now, but now I make 15 million just for walking out of my mansion. All the parties and all the action that happens in this movie happened to me. Except for the directing part. Who would ever direct a movie? That's way too much work.

So if you want to see a movie where girls get naked, there are lots of famous people and I (actually me this time, no cheap knockoff or stunt double, kick a door down), this is definitely for you. Even Donnie liked it.

The Judge

Recently, it seems impossible for Robert Downey Jr. to play a character who isn't an arrogant know-it-all, and his role as Hank Palmer in David Dobkin's The Judge is no different. Yet Hank's strong family ties and an iron-will to defend his father at all costs, further proves that Downey Jr. is a fantastic actor.

Henry "Hank" Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is a talented lawyer and the son of a long-serving and highly respected judge, Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall). The two lost connection with one-another many years ago, after a young Hank injured his older brother Glen (Vincent D'Onofrio), in a car accident and his father sent him to a juvenile detention centre. After the death of his mother, Hank returns to Indiana to attend the funeral and once again has a run-in with his father.

After Joseph is suspected of murdering a criminal, whom he sent to prison and was recently released on parole, Hank serves as his attorney and perseveres to prove his father's innocence against the odds of overwhelming evidence, strenuous relations with his family, and the determination of the prosecuting lawyer (Billy Bob Thornton).

This is a film that sets out to prove that blood is thicker than water, from the rocky father-son relationship, to the compassion Hank finds in his siblings. This makes for some truly touching moments throughout, and certainly some very confronting scenes. However these are unfortunately subdued by an overwhelming sense of sentimentality that becomes rather tiring and makes up the bulk of the nearly two-and-a-half hour running time. Instead, it is the courtroom scenes where the movie really comes-alive. It is here, mainly in the second-half of the movie, that we witness Hank's supremacy as a lawyer and where the humanity of the story and the troubled relationships really start to emerge.

Seeing Downey go head-to-head with Duvall is quite astounding. Both prove through their performances that they are some of the most talented actors alive today. I felt that Vincent D'Onofrio wasn't capitalised as much as he could have been, but he certainly shines in his moments in the spotlight, and Thornton, continuing in the wake of Fargo, proves that he is more than capable of playing a total bad-ass.

The Judge has an interesting, if slightly overdone look to it. There's an apparent obsession with panning and tracking shots throughout the film, as if they were afraid to just leave the camera static and let the scene develop, coupled with a huge amount of chiaroscuro lighting that seems to always show Downey Jr. in an angelic light. However once they simplify things, the beautifully gritty look emerges.

Despite some of these faults, The Judge remains a fantastic movie. Supported by a gripping, if slightly too 'Hollywood' story and substantial performances all-round, it never fails to keep you interested, and maybe even just a bit touched.