Comment on Thanks for nothing: “Bad Santa 2” is an unfunny evocation of the original

By Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post One star. Rated R. 87 minutes. If the 2003 Christmas-themed comedy “Bad Santa” was, as critic Stephen Hunter put it, “demographically engineered for the smallest interest group in America: those who hate Christmas,” then its sequel appears to have been made by an even smaller demographic: those who don’t understand why people loved the original. “Bad Santa 2” insults the intelligence and taste of the first film’s audience by including all of the biliousness and vulgarity of the first film, but none —  or precious little —  of its scabrous joie de vivre. Like Willie Soke, Billy Bob Thornton’s lecherous, larcenous, alcoholic and nearly amoral department-store Santa —  now 13 years older, but no less of a lech and a lush, if seemingly a lot worse for wear —  the film has the air of a once vital but now senescent reprobate.