Bad Santa 2

If you've noticed more and more bad behaviour on the big screen over the last decade or so in celebrations of rudeness and rowdiness like Bad Grandpa, Bad Neighbours or Bad Moms, there's one particular movie that could be considered patient zero for the whole epidemic. That'd be 2003's Bad Santa, certainly not the first movie to have a sketchy lead character as the 'hero' or to have the word 'Bad' in the title.

But Billy Bob Thornton's all-in performance as a drunken, foul-mouthed small-time crook using a grubby Santa suit as a disguise for his dirty deeds set a new standard for the scuzzy antihero, which many movies subsequently tried to emulate. Not everyone could keep up, mainly because Thornton was so convincing as a scumbag who accidentally discovers the true meaning of Christmas but also because Bad Santa added just the right amount of sweetness - only a tiny bit! - to its sour brew.

13 years later, much of the original cast (but, tellingly, not much of the original crew) has returned for a sequel that's the cinematic equivalent of a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking. Bad Santa 2 isn't without laughs, but they're mostly the result of cheap shots and the heavy-handed 'outrageousness' you'd find in tripe like Dirty Grandpa. And yes, there's a distinction between gross, nasty black comedy with a little substance and style to it and gross, nasty black comedy that's just gross and nasty.

Bad Santa 2 is pretty much the latter, although there's enough enjoyably cranky vulgarity from Thornton and a few of his co-stars to salvage it somewhat. Thornton's Willie Soke is not full of Christmas cheer - in fact, he's full of cheap liquor and considering ending it all. But he's given a reason to carry on when he reunites with former partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox), who cuts him in on a scam to rip off a well-to-do Christmas charity.

There's one hitch: the mastermind of the heist is Willie's estranged mother Sunny (Kathy Bates), who may be even more dodgy and degenerate than her son. Oscar-winning Misery star Bates has long been a fearless kind of actor, and it's a hoot seeing her match world champion misanthrope Thornton obscenity for obscenity. And the rest of the cast, including Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, throw themselves wholeheartedly into the muck, but the original Bad Santa had heart and soul - dark and shrivelled, sure - to balance out its badness. It was naughty and nice. This sequel is just… well, bad.