Bad Santa – Blu-ray Disc
December 26, 2007 – 4:29 PM - Posted by: Justin SlussTags: Bad Santa, Badder Santa, Billy Bob Thorton, Buena Vista, Roger Ebert, Terry Zwigoff
has an average rating of 7.2 on IMDb
1080p in AVC & VC-1 on a 50gb disc
PCM 5.1 @4.6Mbps & Dolby Digital 5.1
include Ebert & Zwigoff interview
– 
& 
– 2003
– 98 minutes “Unrated” / 88 minutes “Dir. Cut“
– Miramax (Buena Vista)
Buy it for $20.95 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by Justin Sluss
The Movie Itself is Directed by Terry Zwigoff who most of you might remember from such films as “Art School Confidential“, “Crumb” and “Ghost World.” The original idea for the film originated with Joel and Ethan Coen (a.k.a. “The Coen Brothers“) and then turned into a script written (with some help from the Coen‘s) by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The script landed in the hands of Director Zwigoff who got a call from one of the Weinstein brothers who at the time was over their company Miramax. Long story short they put a “green light” on the film and the rest is history. It’s just that back story that should really be known by viewers I think seeing this film for the first or tenth time. Now on with the story to the film.
The story follows a man named “Willie” (played by Billy Bob Thorton) who’s a part-time Santa Clause at malls during the holidays as a front to rob them after the work is done being Santa. See, Willie is an expert at cracking safes which his father taught him. His accomplice in all this is his midget (scratch that, “little person“) friend “Marcus” (played by Tony Cox) that poses as his Elf sidekick in the Santa charade. It’s safe to say this guy IS truly the definition of a “Bad Santa.” But to beat that he’s a complete alcoholic with a sexual addiction as well. The man is not well, this much is for sure. But it’s his new found friends like a little kid named “Thurman Murman” (played by Brett Kelly) and a bartender named “Sue” (played by Heather Graham) that make him decide to change his ways, well a little bit anyway.
This film IS NOT your conventional holidays comedy but it IS absolutely full of laughs but sure to offend some people. Just keep an open mind when watching this film is something I’d like to strongly remind you. I personally think it’s some of the best acting Billy Bob Thorton has done aside from “Sling Blade.” The film also offers a supporting cast of actors like the always funny Bernie Mac and even the late John Ritter who gives an amazing performance. One thing worth noting in this portion is that this release on Blu-ray Disc includes 2 VERSIONS of the film that were never seen in theaters, both on the same disc. The versions included are discussed in more detail below in the video quality portion of the review.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in both AVC MPEG-4 (“Director’s Cut“) and VC-1 (“Unrated Version) on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Dual-Layered Blu-ray Disc). The reason two different video codecs are used is because for starters, the release features two versions of the film but doesn’t use a seamless style branching like “Close Encounters of the Third” also on Blu-ray Disc did.
The first version included is “The Unrated Version” (that was originally released on DVD with the title “Badder Santa“) and the second version is the “Director’s Cut.” The choice of Buena Vista to use AVC and VC-1 codecs on the two different versions of the film sure, offers us a choice between the two video codecs but supposedly they aren’t from the same source material. So it offers in no ways as a comparison. It honestly left me a tad bit upset. The VC-1 encoded transfer of “Badder Santa” is treated with less quality (almost like it’s a bonus material). It also seems to hold more noise and artifact problems as well as a little bit of pixilation. However the “Director’s Cut” encoded in AVC gets the full treatment and seems to honestly be the better quality version of the film. That’s cool maybe to some people but I honestly like the “Unrated Version” (a.k.a. “Badder Santa“) more than the “Director’s Cut.”
However, the improvement in this High Definition transfer in comparison to the video quality on the original DVD release, I’ve found is almost like “night and day.” The color palette is excellent (with strong emphasis on reds obviously) and the flesh tones are nice as well. The black level seems to be overall pretty solid. Overall, have to say I’m somewhat impressed by the video quality despite the choice to use two different video codecs instead of “Seamless Branching.” This easily in my opinion is a nice improvement over the previous DVD release(s) as I mentioned earlier and deserves a “3 ½ Star Rating” for the video quality on this release.
Audio Quality on this release is in Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 @4.6Mbps & Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps for both versions of the film presented. This film has never really had a good surround rear channel presence even on the original Dolby Digital 5.1 on the previously released DVD versions of the film, so it comes as no surprise probably for me to tell you that even the PCM 5.1 tracks (for both films) really seem to be heavily driven from the front 3 speakers (Left, Right and Center Channels). There’s a faint amount of rear channel presence at times for mostly the Score / Soundtrack or sound effects.
The rear channels are pretty much silent about 80% (I’m roughly guessing) of the film. So it’s with that I say this doesn’t seem to have a full amount of dynamic range or LFE totally present in this mix. I’m not saying this is a problem with the subject material at hand here. The film is mostly dialogue driven which is delivered perfectly in the front channels. The amount of music we get as well as sound effects is enough rear channel presence to justify it being a 5.1 mix I guess but not one I’d use as an example of surround sound. It does get the job done well enough to earn itself a “3 Star Rating.” No huge complaints but then again no huge amount of praise here either.
Bonus Materials are all (except for the “Movie Showcase“) presented in standard definition 16:9 (Widescreen) MPEG-2 video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound @192kbps.
- Audio Commentary track from Director Terry Zwigoff can be found on the “Director’s Cut” of the film only.
- “Interview with Roger Ebert, Director Terry Zwigoff and Editor Robert Hoffman” (27 minutes) is taken from a film festival that “Ebert” throws yearly and is highly entertaining as well as informative. This is definitely a MUST SEE for fans of the film!
- Deleted and Alternate Scenes (5 minutes)
- “Behind-The-Scenes Special” (9 minutes) is basically your average (but short) “making of” featurette. We get interviews from the filmmakers, cast which includes Billy Bob Thorton, Tony Cox, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham and even Brett Kelly who played the kid “Thurman Murman” in the film. This also offers a great tribute to the late John Ritter and his work in the film. This is old material ported over from the original DVD releases but still very much worth watching.
- “Badder Santa” Gag Reel” (1 minute) was originally taken from the bonus materials on the DVD release of the “Unrated Version” of the film which went by that title.
- Outtakes (4 minutes) This is absolutely hilarious! Thorton, Cox and Mac all has some great screw ups but the late John Ritter truly steals the show here. This is totally worth watching for that alone.
In closing, I have to say the interview with Ebert and the film’s Director Zwigoff really offers up as a nice holiday treat of sorts. Sadly the video quality in it isn’t that great but the real amount of quantity of informative and entertaining material totally makes up for it. The ported over original bonus materials from the previous DVD releases come with great welcome and are all definitely worth watching. I got all I really expected here and actually more including the Ebert interview. This is pretty damn decent bonus materials for the film but still nothing super impressive. It gets the job done.
