IF you're looking for a film to get you into a happy, festive mood, then avoid Bad Santa - Miracle on 34th Street it ain't.

However, if you like your films with copious uses of the "f" word, plenty of crude sex jokes and characters you wouldn't spit on should they be engulfed in flames, then this may be just your cup of tea.

Billy Bob Thornton plays conman Willie who, along with his tiny sidekick Marcus (Tony Cox), stake out shopping malls they can plunder by getting employed in Christmas grottos dressed up as Santa and his elf helper.

The one problem with their festive front is that Willie is a cantankerous, alcoholic and occasionally suicidal brute who, understandably, doesn't prove popular with the kiddies who come to sit on his knee and confide their Christmas wishes.

But then one lonely, sweet, insecure child pays a visit to the grotto and Willie begins to find his outlook on life going through an enormous transformation.

There are some funny moments but the writers seemed to rely too heavily on constant expletives getting laughs.

Full credit to Messrs Thornton and Cox, however, for making the best of such a weak script.

HC