Violent Night is a Christmas action/comedy flick with action that isn’t very good and comedy that isn’t very funny.

Santa Claus has had enough of your bullshit. One drunken Christmas Eve, he’s delivering presents to a mansion when it comes under attack by heavily armed home invaders. Can Santa sober up and bring the pain?

I’m 100% for the idea of a violent Santa Claus home invasion film. I think it’s rife for good action-packed fun. But I just didn’t think these particular action set pieces were done nearly well enough. I found myself bored as they went through the (very violent) routine.

David Harbour plays cranky old Saint Nick while John Leguizamo plays the Christmas-hating leader of the crooks. They do their jobs fine, I suppose. Since it’s no doubt their stunt doubles doing the action and the director/editor cutting it all together, they can’t be blamed for the hum drum of the punching and the kicking and the shooting.

To be fair, the movie nails the violence part of the title… the blood runs profusely, the blood runs red. And it’s a good looking film… well shot and produced, for sure. And there’s a Home Alone trap sequence that I appreciated as a Grinch who doesn’t like Home Alone…. it, shall we say, leads to the logical conclusion of the traps that Kevin might have set.

Based on reviews from others, I’m in the minority for feeling this just doesn’t work. Fair enough… you might like it (if you like the idea of an ass-kicking Santa). I like the idea, I just didn’t like the execution. As per usual, your results may vary.

Score: 68