Red One builds a concept and variations on Christmas lore that’s so much better than the movie they stuffed into it. It’s not the first or most unique take on a modernized North Pole, but I like the angle it took. But a whole lot of the movie – too much movie – just didn’t have the magic.
The flick stars Chris Evans as a nogoodnik hacker who unwittingly reveals Santa’s workshop to some much-worse-niks. Dwayne Johnson is the head of Santa’s Secret Service but the baddies dupe him and kidnap Santa (code name: Red One). He has to team up with Evans to rescue St. Nick and save Christmas.
The biggest and most charming gag in the film is that this is a spy action thriller set in the magical world of Santy Clause. Everyone plays the fantasy like they were making a Jason Bourne film and that’s fun. Santa’s secret service detail is made up of a Rock, a polar bear, and various other fantasy creatures, all with two-way radios. They run security detail on a surprisingly jacked Santa played by JK Simmons (who turns out to be perfect casting for a jovial but slightly intimidating Santa).
The villain is Kiernan Shipka who plays a Christmas witch and that’s fun casting. We also have Nick Kroll, Bonnie Hunt, Lucy Liu, and a pretty good cast of voice actors. They spent way too much money on an action Christmas movie but they didn’t scrimp on the cast.
Too bad all the actors and Christmas ideas were in service of such a mediocre film. The action, swirl of CGI, and humor just didn’t land. The comedic chemistry between Johnson and Evans was vanishingly slim… both have done better banter in better movies with better sidekicks. Johnson was giving it his all but sadly Evans felt a little checked out.
There was about a full hour right in the middle where the film was just going through the motions of a mediocre action flick, spiced up with some magical fantasy. It needed a rewrite or, god forbid, a half hour chopped out of an overlong two hour film. Call me a Grinch, but that’s too much runtime for basically a one joke movie.
Red One is hardly the worst Christmas movie and probably won’t even be the worst this year. It’s got some fun world-building and the idea of turning Christmas into a spy thriller action flick that everyone takes seriously is fun. Too bad the script was on the naughty list.
Score: 72