I have to say that while watching this movie I could see how it really tried to be a good movie. You could taste how bad it wanted to be with the big boys. It failed. Miserably. Instead of being a dark comedy about America's most abused holiday it became an experiment in actor reliance. John Ritter pulled off a Class A straight man to Mac's well played obscene humor. Thorton played drunk, disgusting, and self-loathing better than I've seen in a long time. Even the poor fat, booger-dripping kid was well portrayed. The problem lye in the fact that none of these elements fit together in any cohesive fashion. Then to end everything was all happy. Sure Thorton got it in the end, but he learned his lesson and made nicey nice with everyone. Come on people, if you are going to make it dark, Keep it dark.