Willie (Thornton) and Marcus (Cox) have a sweet thing going. Every year at Christmas they clean out the vault of a different department store and make off with enough loot to see them through their excessive lives until next Christmas. How do they do this? By getting themselves hired as the store Santa and his elf to scope the place out. Alas, Willie isn't the good-natured Santa whose knee you would like to sit your child on. Willie is a bad Santa, and not just because he's trying to rob the place. He's a foul mouthed, insufferable alcoholic with more interest in getting loaded and picking up white trash bimbos in the food court than entertaining kids. With a crooked mall security guard onto them (Mac), a nervous store manager breathing down their necks (the late Ritter), a Santa obsessed girl lusting after Willy (a very un-Gilmore Girls Graham) and a creepy kid following Willy around, this year's job is going to be a tough one!

Bad Santa is a surprisingly intelligent attack on the gross commercialisation of Christmas - far from the one joke wonder I expected. Definitely not for kids, or anyone with a low tolerance for obscenities, Bad Santa is by far the funniest film I have seen in a very long time!

Throughout his life George Bailey has helped everyone in his home town of Bedford Falls. George has given up his dreams (travel, college etc) and struggles through life to ensure the town and its people don't fall into the evil clutches of Henry Potter, the rich miser who owns almost everything in town. On Christmas Eve, with bankruptcy looming, George feels the world would be better off if he didn't exist, and decides to make it so. Along comes Clarence, his guardian angel, who shows him how the world would be without him. Despite the tough times, his is a "wonderful life".

James (Jimmy) Stewart gives an intense, powerful performance as the despairing George. Donna Reed is the epitome of 1940s screen queens with her demure and restrained performance as his wife. There is a good deal of biting social commentary throughout, and Frank Capra's masterful direction has made this film a true classic. It's a great Christmas movie, and the moral of the story - that no man who has friends is poor - is as timeless as the movie itself. Ok so it's on in May - let it inspire you for Christmas in July parties!