TL;DR – If it was not for a strong start, you probably could have dumped this on Netflix, and no one would have noticed.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Red One Review –

It is that time of year, and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The shops are dressed up, there is the looming pressure to finish things up before the end of the year, and walking outside feels like taking a shower with this humidity. It is here that a new flood of Christmas Films will be launched, trying to make the most of the holidays, and that is what we are looking at today.

So, to set the scene, it is a cold Philly night just before Christmas, and at the mall sits Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons), listening to all the kid’s wishes for presents and being protected by Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson). But this ain’t no average mall Santa because Santa Claus is real, and there is a global military/political/intelligence apparatus keeping him safe. Well, that is until Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) is paid to hunt down a disturbance in the polar region, and some kidnaps Santa right under the head of North Pole security’s nose on Christmas Eve.

I know this might be a bit of a broken record when it comes to some of the recent movies we have looked at, but while I was not too fond of this film. There were still some ideas here that landed. To begin with, I loved the worldbuilding that they were attempting, yes we are walking squarely in Rise of the Guardians territory, sprinkled with enough MCU references that they thought they could get away with, which was probably helped by that last Ant-Man film that no one watched. However, the creature makeup, design of elements like the Snowmen, portals across the globe, and the apparatus that makes all that work is solid.

In addition, the film has a strong opening. J. K. Simmons totally works as jacked Santa. You feel his compassion towards people, and that is such an essential facet of the film as we advance. Chris Evans gets one good scene to show off his character’s finding skills when he breaks into the government facility. Also, the first fight in his apartment is the best action scene in the film, as it takes cues from the Bourne films. However, while this is a strong start, it all starts falling apart when they team Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans as some sort of buddy-cop duo.      

The real problem here is that Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans have zero chemistry throughout the film. They might have well been acting on separate stages for all the connections they have. Indeed, this is one of the few films outside of, say, The Fate of the Furious, where you actively notice the lack of coverage, especially when only the two of them are in a scene. I am sorry to Mr Johnson, but I do think he is poorly cast here because, besides that first mild chuckle that he is playing an elf, which is a joke I think the film thought would be funny for the entire runtime, I am not sure what he brings here playing the usual stern character that he brings to most of his films. This creates a flimsy foundation for the rest of the story, and much like thin ice, it just can’t support it.

Then we have the narrative that flounders once it starts going because it does not know what it wants to be. Is this a Hallmark Christmas movie about Jack O’Malley discovering what it means to be a father? An indictment on modern consumer culture? An exploration of those Christmas traditions that we have jettisoned to make the mythology more palatable? Or a global conspiracy of mythological oversight with tendrils all the way into the heights of government? Is it an offbeat buddy cop comedy ala Rush Hour, as two very different people have to hunt down a kidnapping?

It is sort of all of these things, and no one of these things, because you can’t be all different narrative beats things and have any depth. This means that we get a lot of explanations of what characters are doing, but only ever a surface-level analysis, which is not helped by the villains being entirely uninteresting. I am sorry, Kiernan Shipka. You were clearly trying, but they were not giving you anything to work with. They have Lucy Liu, but they refuse to let her do anything exciting except for one moment in the end. It also does not know what tone it wants to hit, which makes you sit there and wonder who this film is for because it is trying to be a film for everyone, and I think it ends up being a confused mess. On top of the narrative issues, we get messy action scenes, uninspired needle drops, and foreshadowing so blatant they might as well have Bugs Bunny walk into the frame with a sign saying this will be important later, and you get a mess of a film.  

In the end, do we recommend Red One? Unfortunately, not. There are some strong moments here and there. However, the end of the production feels more like a collage of missed opportunities than any sort of combined whole. If you liked Red One, we would recommend to you A Sunburnt Christmas.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Red One?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Red One
Directed by – Jake Kasdan
Screenplay by – Chris Morgan
Story by – Hiram Garcia
Music by – Henry Jackman
Cinematography by – Dan Mindel
Edited by – Mark Helfrich, Steve Edwards & Tara Timpone
Production/Distribution Companies – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Seven Bucks Productions, Chris Morgan Productions, The Detective Agency, Amazon MGM Studios & Warner Bros. Pictures
Starring – Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J. K. Simmons, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Reinaldo Faberlle, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll, Wesley Kimmel, Mary Elizabeth Ellis & Marc Evan Jackson
Rating – Australia: PG; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 12a; United States: PG-13