'Bad Santa 2' is bad — and not in a good way

If the 2003 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 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 lush — the film has the air of a once vital but now senescent reprobate.

Set in Chicago, “Bad Santa 2” re-teams Willie with partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox) for a $2 million heist from a Salvation Army-esque charity. They add a third conspirator in Willie's foul-mouthed mother (Kathy Bates). Never mind that Bates is only seven years older than Thornton.

Thornton's Willie shuffles gingerly through the action, mostly consisting of what might euphemistically be called politically incorrect wisecracks. Jokes about race, women's anatomy and little people are sprinkled over a script that depends on the humor of cuss words. Not that coarse language can't be funny, but here it appears to be evidence of a toxic mix of laziness and sociopathy, not defiance of seasonal propriety.

The one concession to cockle-warming is the reappearance of Brett Kelly as Thurman Merman, the boy whose appearance in “Bad Santa” helped humanize Willie. Now 21, his character alternates between merely grating and cringe-inducing, as when Willie tries to help Thurman lose his virginity to a prostitute played by Octavia Spencer, who looks like she hopes no one will recognize her.

That impulse informs “Bad Santa 2.” You can dress it up in a fake beard and a ratty red suit, but it still ain't the original.