Movie #24 of 2017:
Bad Santa 2 (2016)
It’s hard to really justify this movie’s existence. The first Bad Santa movie (2003) wasn’t exactly a modern classic, but it was a funny spin on the darkness that can underlie the holidays with a surprising amount of heart to it. This one is mostly just mean and sad, and it never gets around to explaining just what about the original story or characters necessitates revisiting after all these years. The budget doesn’t seem low enough (or its predecessor popular enough) to call this sequel a blatant cash-grab, but I’m flummoxed as to why else such a low-quality project could have been greenlit.
★☆☆☆☆
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