Full disclosure, going into Red One I was certain I was not going to enjoy the film. The trailers looked terrible and I am not usually a fan of Dwayne Johnson or his films as I find them to be boring and unfunny.
Red One directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris Morgan ended up being an okay, if not a forgettable time at the movies. I was expecting the worst, so when the film did not meet that expectation, I was pleasantly surprised. There were a handful of funny moments and one or two clever lines here or there for a Christmas film, but the viewing experience itself was unremarkable. For a long time there’s been direct-to-DVD movies and Red One felt like one of those movies, except in this case, a direct-to-streaming movie that was thrust on the big screen.
All of that is to say, I’d wait for this film to come home to streaming, and even then, there’s no rush.
Back of The DVD Summary:
Santa Claus, played by J.K. Simmons is kidnapped from the North Pole by operatives working for a nefarious Christmas witch who is dead set on eternally punishing all “Naughty-Listers.” To ultimately save Christmas, Callum Drift (yes, that is his real name) played by Dwayne Johnson and Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) the world’s greatest thief join forces to save Santa Claus, and hopefully Christmas.
Without Chris Evans carrying the entire movie, I think this would have gone from a forgettable experience to a painful one. He sold being a bum dad and a loveable rogue in his performance. He also managed to call out all of the silly moments in the movie and outlandish things that happened, but not in a tacky or cringy way. I give more credit to Evan’s talent rather than the script. He was the main reason I ended up enjoying the film. Another positive note was J.K. Simmons as Santa Claus, it was choice casting even if he didn’t have much to do.
Dwayne Johnson was expectedly bland and did not do a good job as the serious all-business type. He came across as stiff and boring like he usually does, without any instances where I was entertained by his presence. I am looking forward to the day Johnson acts instead of playing a off-brand version of himself. The special effects in the film looked cheap despite the $250 million budget, leading to the question of: Where did all the money go?
The plot was bare bones and was stretched out to the greatest extremity it could be. The movie didn’t need to be two hours long and would have benefited from a half hour being shaved off. The action was a nothing affair, with each attempt to make a grand spectacle it came across as CGI slush.
I did appreciate that the characters took the situation seriously and didn’t stop to make a joke about the situation every other scene. Instead, they let Evans be the one to call attention to it and allowed the rest of the cast to play it seriously. Overall, there isn’t much else positively or negatively to say about the movie because it wasn’t very substantive and once I finish writing this review I will likely not think about the film again.
