Cast and Crew: Terry Zwigoff (Director); Etan and Joel Coen and Bob and Harvey Weinstein (Executive Producers); John Ritter, Adjay Naidu, Octavia Spencer, Cloris Leachman
What It’s About: Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and Marcus (Tony Cox) run the same scam every year: they get jobs as a Mall Santa and his elf, case the place, then rob it on Christmas Eve. Will they be able to pull the scam off in the face of Willie’s alcoholism and womanizing, not to mention Sue (Lauren Graham), a bartender with a Santa fetish; Gin (Bernie Mac), the corrupt head of mall security and an awkward kid (Brett Kelly) that thinks Willie is the real deal?
Why Watch it Today?: Anyone looking for a funny, foul-mouthed break from the usual holiday sentiment could use a dose of today’s film. Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating, and may everyone else enjoy Chinese food and a trip to the movies!
Other Choices: We’ve covered a lot of Christmas themed and Christmas adjacent films over the last four years. Some of my favorites: Black Christmas, Gremlins, Die Hard, Christmas in Connecticut, The Thin Man, White Christmas, Rare Exports, A Christmas Story, Bell, Book and Candle, Big Business
The League of Dead Films 
This, A Christmas Story, Die Hard and maybe Kurosawa’s Scandal are about all I can watch these days when it comes to holiday flicks. Okay, add A Charlie Brown Christmas and Scrooged as well. Ho, Ho and Ho…
I find myself completely burned out by TBS showing A Christmas Story 24 hours a day each Christmas and me inevitably catching some of it at a family gathering. I still love Die Hard but I try to see it less than once a year. Others in the rotation: Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, Charlie Brown, The Grinch, Rudolph (that’s mostly the Baroness’s choice though), Black Christmas (seem to get to it more rarely these days but it was once an annual tradition for me), Gremlins (every few years), and Christmas in Connecticut and White Christmas (again, every few years). The Baroness is partial as well to The Sound of Music and Auntie Mame (even though it only has that one Christmas scene) and I used to try to fit in something I hadn’t seen each year. Now that I have MicroMort this list has been curtailed a lot-this year we only managed Charlie Brown, The Grinch (after Christmas), and Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas. Oh, and for some reason, One Magic Christmas, which may be the most depressing Christmas movie I’ve seen in a while.
Great choices you have there-I need to look up Scandal as I’ve never seen it!
Oh, I do all those films ONCE and back away from the tube to prevent burnout. Also, add Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toymaker to your list. Why? Wellllll, Mickey Rooney as a killer Santa? Yeah, it’s got that going for it. And it’s a pretty whacked out film out side of that nutso casting choice.
Have to try to work it and Elves in some year…