Mix “Leaving Las Vegas” with “Miracle on 34th Street,” add a touch of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and you have the recipe for “Bad Santa,” a film so gleefully perverse and politically incorrect that it will have you bellying up for more.

Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie T. Stokes, a rude and crude alcoholic department store Santa who along with Marcus, the foul-mouthed store elf, seasonally steals from their employers in an effort to find better lives. Those better lives seem to elude them as it’s not their financial situation that is holding them back; rather it is their self-destructive personas which keep them from improving. This is not a film for the entire family; some scenes could easily scar children for life.

Thurman Merman (Brett Kelly) is a young boy who lives with his senile grandmother (Cloris Leachman) and supposedly believes Willie is Santa Claus. Thurman saves Willie from a deranged mall shopper and Willie returns the favor by moving into the boy’s home and stealing from the wall safe. In his final film role, John Ritter gives a humorous performance as the department store manager and Bernie Mac plays the head of security who wants in on the action.

“Bad Santa” is laugh-out-loud funny and realistic in its handling of the subject matter. With director Terry Zwigoff of “Crumb” fame and the legendary Cohen brothers as executive producers, it’s no wonder this film accomplishes as much as it does in just over an hour and a half. This is the kind of film that all store Santas will watch repetitiously and rejoice as Willie does things they only wish they could do.

In the end, it is hard to say whether Willie will ever redeem himself fully, But one thing is certain: Thanks to him, no one will ever give Thurman a wedgie again.