Red One review

RED ONE: 

DWAYNE JOHNSON AND CHRIS EVANS HOLIDAY ACTION-COMEDY IS A HO-HO-HUMBUG! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

MGM

Lucy Liu, Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and J.K. Simmons in Red One

 

            Dwayne Johnson (The Scorpion King, Fast & Furious franchise, Jumanji 2 and 3) and Chris Evans (Marvel Cinematic Universe, Snowpiercer, Knives Out) set off on a mission to rescue Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons-Spider-Mantrilogy, Whiplash, Juror #2) in Red One, the new Christmas action-comedy from director Jake Kasdan (Orange County, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Jumanji 2 and 3). I remembered seeing the trailer and thinking “Sure, this could be fun and I’m usually down for a good holiday-themed action movie”, Die Hard is unironically one of my Christmas movies and while this movie didn’t look anything spectacular, it could be entertaining in its own right given the names attached to it. 

            A Christmas buddy action-comedy with The Scorpion King and Captain America saving Santa Claus who’s played by J. Jonah Jameson from the Spider-Man movies from the director of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, how could go wrong? Unfortunately, quite a bit. 

            I’m not calling it an awful Christmas movie, but for a film with this many talented and funny people in front of and behind the camera, I was expecting something far better. Honestly, a dumpster fire filled with coal would have been more interesting, instead this movie is simply mediocre. 

            The film follows Callum Drift (Johnson) who is the head commander of Santa’s ELF (Enforcement of Logistics and Fortification) security that protects Santa Claus during the Christmas season. But when Santa is kidnapped on Christmas Eve, Callum is forced to team up with infamous mercenary white-hat hacker (and Level 4 Naughty Lister), Jack O’Malley (Evans) in order to find him and save Christmas. 

            The film also stars Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels 1 and 2, Chicago, Kill Bill: Vol. 1) as Zoe Harlow, Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Twisters) as Grýla, Bonnie Hunt (Rain Man, Jumanji, The Green Mile) as Mrs. Claus, Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones, The Fate of the Furious, Cocaine Bear) as Krampus, Nick Kroll (Get Him to the Greek, Kroll Show, Sausage Party) as Ted, Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Grinder, Licorice Pizza) as Olivia, and Marc Evan Jackson (Parks and Recreation, 22 Jump Street,DuckTales (2017)) as Uncle Rick. 

            Overall, Red One has some fun moments and occasionally there’s a funny line or inventive scene, unfortunately it’s a manufactured, overbudgeted, and surprisingly soulless holiday action-comedy that desperately needed more Christmas magic. Apparently, this was originally set to be a streaming movie on Amazon Prime Video, but they switched it to a theatrical release and it REALLY feels like a streaming movie that somehow made its way onto theater screens at times. 

            This movie has a budget of approximately $250 million ($13 million more than the first Avatar’s budget) and the majority of its effects look remarkably fake and cheap. Most of the action is so CGI heavy, it feels like you’re watching a video game with no real weight to anything onscreen and on top of that, there are times where you can clearly see the actors’ stunt doubles during certain action scenes, what happened to this movie? 

It had to be because of Dwayne Johnson’s involvement but look at films like The Creator or District 9 which had incredible special effects created on shoestring budgets compared to mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. The only time where the movie actually has some decent effects are when Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans are in Krampus’ lair and they’re surrounded by tons of freaky monsters and demons, many of which were created practically and with makeup. 

They certainly aren’t on the same level as Stan Winston or Rick Baker’s work, but compared to the digital CGI shlock the rest of the movie is covered in, I have to give this scene a lot of credit for at least having things in front of the camera during it. That’s twice now Krampus saved movies with practical effects, you sure he’s not the hero of the story? 

Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans are a fine buddy duo for a movie like this and a lot of their banter can be entertaining. Dwayne Johnson plays his typical muscle man-type character who’s tough but also has a heart while Chris Evans is this smartass bounty hunter with a history of unlawful deeds who gets shoehorned into helping Johnson save Santa. 

Johnson and Evans are really what brings this movie some energy when they’re onscreen together and J.K. Simmons is a great Santa (Though if you’ve seen the animated Netflix movie, Klaus you already knew that). He’s not doing the badass action movie Santa shtick that David Harbour already did a couple years ago in Violent Night, but he is a more in-shape version of him who is seen lifting weights while also being wise and teaching Johnson lessons about how being put on the Nice or Naughty list can be an opportunity and that it’s their job to look after the kids even when they aren’t kids anymore. 

Sadly, despite a great cast and a few funny and imaginative moments, Red One is an overblown lump of coal of a holiday action-comedy that puts cheap-looking special effects over story and characters and is neither funny nor exciting enough to put under your tree. I would recommend skipping this and rewatch Die Hard instead or if you really need to have your Santa action movie, watch Violent Night as it has much better action, David Harbour gives a great performance as Santa, and most importantly, it’s actually funny.