Red One review

Red One always seemed like a smart streaming exclusive film. A “thank you” of sorts for folks who’ve added yet another streaming platform in their efforts to cut the cord only to get entangled by a far more complex way to watch various movies and shows.

Somewhere along the production, execs decided Red One could ride the star power of Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans to a strong enough theatrical hit to justify its $250 million budget. With a weak $168 million global haul since its Nov. 6 release, distributor Amazon decided to stop hoping for a financial windfall and brought the film to Amazon Prime.

Not surprisingly, Red One makes for a solidly entertaining home viewing option. It’s a fun action buddy comedy adventure best viewed while wrapping gifts, filling out Christmas cards or baking cookies. And that’s perfectly fine. Not every movie needs to be this deep, overly dramatic snoozer. There’s room to enjoy a Santa with muscles, a shrinking Rock and Captain America as a deadbeat dad.

Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons, Invincible) is prepping for his busiest night of the year. He’s hyped with his body finely tuned and amped up for another hectic Christmas Eve. Keeping Santa focused and ready for Christmas Eve isn’t an easy task. It requires a well-oiled machine with a borderline obsessive personality running the ship especially when Santa wants to play “Undercover Boss” by posing as a regular mall Santa hours before Christmas Eve.

Callum (Johnson), the commander of the Enforcement Logistics and Fortification, or well, you get it, has put in his time with Santa over the centuries but has become dismayed at the amount of people who’ve stopped caring about being good. They’re content to just stay permanent residents on the Naughty List.

That would describe Jack O’Malley (Evans, Deadpool & Wolverine) perfectly. Ever since he was a little kid whose father wasn’t around; Jack was a bit of a rogue who started off finding his Christmas presents to a master thief/tracker as an adult. While an impressively skilled slacker, Jack hasn’t cared about being a more involved father to his son, Dylan (Wesley Kimmel, the nephew of the late-night talk show host).

MORE:

• Image Comics reviews 12/11/24 – Transformers #15
• Marvel Legends Black Winter Thor review – BAF Zabu wave
• Homestead (2024) review
• Wicked movie review (2024)

Jack’s latest gig inadvertently leads to Santa getting kidnapped by Gryla the witch (Kiernan Shipka, Totally Killer). Gryla has her own plans for the Naughty List that won’t bode well for anyone. Callum and his supervisor Zoe (Lucy Liu), the head of Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority, get desperate in their quest to find Santa, with Zoe offering to pay Jack’s fee to lead them to Santa.

Red One is at its best with Evans and Johnson doing their riff on the chemistry of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in the Men In Black series. There’s a decent case to be made that Red One doesn’t have enough Johnson/Evans playing off each other.

Evans plays a solid skeptic as Johnson acts sufficiently put upon by having to team with a Level 4 on the Naughty List. Simmons always brings a steadying presence to his roles while Liu and Shirpa deliver quality work with roles that play against the norm for them.

Screenwriters Hiram Garcia and Chris Morgan (Shazam! Fury of the Gods) seem somewhat torn on the tone for the film. The language is a bit too blue to work as an all-ages family Christmas movie while the sentiment and action sequences aren’t fully geared to adults either.

At a little over two hours, there’s not enough story or fun diverting subplots to warrant the longer run time. One subplot featuring another Christmas season character (played by Kristofer Hivju, Game of Thrones) had a fun start but drags on a bit too long. Ideally, Red One would wind down around the 98-minute mark, which would help force Director Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: The Next Level) to end some scenes before they linger on too long.

Some of the CGI is a little dodgy, which seems to be more of a product of Kasdan trying to make the Red One version of the North Pole too complicated a metropolis. At least the inspired snowmen battle on the beach featured smooth and believable CGI.

Red One is a rare entry in the Christmas movie genre as it’s far more focused on action than heartwarming moments. Sure, it’s got some of that albeit in shorter supply, but there’s enough here to suggest this could become a yearly favorite for viewers needing a break from the standard romance and cartoon Christmas films.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: Amazon Studios

Check out Red One now on Amazon Prime.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.