Review by C.J. Bunce
Is the giant new Dwayne Johnson Christmas movie Red One the fantasy movie 2024 has been waiting for? All movie fans could tell from previews was that Santa Claus gets kidnapped, sending The Rock into action as bodyguard. But I think you’ll find it as a surprise–this action flick has layers. This is a world of magic rooted in history that many (outside of the well-read or fans of the TV series Grimm) will not be familiar with. Tapping into yule tales of centuries past, director Jake Kasdan unveils a cool new Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority (“MORA”), full of all kinds of mythical creations. Get ready for a new take on the Germanic Krampus, who was said to follow St. Nicholas, beating up naughty children and taking them away in a sack, and the Icelandic Gryla (don’t say her name aloud), the yule witch who also punishes the naughty. And it co-stars Chris Evans, who continues to try to distance himself in movie roles from his pristine Captain America persona.
Most Christmas movies are about some sad sack (who must still have some goodness left in him) with an excuse for it from his past, like the death of a family member. But the theme is almost always about re-capturing the Christmas spirit, this intangible thing that encourages the individual to not just give up on his fellow man when his fellow man seems to be doing it wrong in every conceivable way. Chris Evans plays Jack O’Malley, who in many ways is more like the show’s villains than Santa Claus. In effect he is #1 on the Naughty Lister most wanted. He’s bad. He’s a grifter. And he has no excuse for being bad. So when a dark witch from Earth’s past decides it’s time to round up all the naughty people once and for all, Jack finds himself not only the first suspect behind the kidnapping, but also the first victim Gryla is after, and the first person that Santa’s team, under “the Director,” played by Lucy Liu, enlists to help rescue the jolly old elf–for his almost superhuman ability to track people down.
Teaming the bad with the good can be fan, and it is here, too, although you might wish they leaned into the moments and humor more. Evans’ O’Malley’s bad coupled with the good–Dwayne Johnson’s Callum Drift, part bodyguard, part Secret Service agent, who also is getting tired of adults’ attitudes at Christmas–works like you’d hope it would.
What’s missing is Santa, played well and in an all-new interpretation by Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons, who works out now (no doubt Johnson’s influence) in order to visit every house in the world on Christmas Eve. But since he is kidnapped for most of the movie, we really don’t get enough of him. This may be the first major production to lay out technically how the big man gets the job done. The visual effects really do it all justice, including Santa’s retro-oversized sled and the ladies–his powerful flying reindeer. This isn’t the silly slapstick stuff of The Santa Clause–St. Nick is irreplaceable in this tale, so Johnson, Evans, and Liu really have the task of saving Christmas–which just won’t happen if there’s no Santa.
The result is all good fun. Profanity includes uses of “hell” as in “what the hell?” but not much more than that, so all but the youngest kids should enjoy this. It lands somewhere north of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Jingle All the Way, but it’s ambitious enough to compare at times with The Golden Compass because of the excellent designs and implementation of digitally-created talking Snowmen (bad guys), Trolls (good guys doing tech support), and Polar Bears (good guys). They even work in The Headless Horseman at one point. MORA could be the kind of concept that catches on–like a movie for every holiday tapping the same kinds of historical source material.
Chris Evans is always a bit hard to watch when he goes outside of the good guy roles–but this isn’t as over-the-top as his parallel universe Johnny Storm in this summer’s Deadpool and Wolverine, and not as vile as his character in Knives Out. Bonnie Hunt has brief scenes as Mrs. Claus, Mary Elizabeth Ellis (Lodge 49) has a nice turn as O’Malley’s ex-wife, and Chris Morgan–veteran of five Fast & Furious movies–wrote the script. But the casting choice of the year may be Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, White House Plumbers) as villainess Gryla. Somehow her youth and beauty works for this complicated old character, who shape-shifts from her traditional witch-crone appearance.
Kristofer Hivju has the size and voice for a fantastic Krampus, and the makeup could not be better, thanks to Star Trek makeup artist Joel Harlow.
A solid addition to the holiday genre with great special effects and lots of action, look for Red One now streaming on Prime Video.
