Tis the season as streaming services are flooded with Holiday-themed movies old and new as viewers eagerly browse and stream the abundance of titles available. On the theatrical side; “Red One” has arrived with a star-laden and big budget adventure.
The film stars J.K. Simmons as Santa and Dwayne Johnson as his top assistant Callum Drift. Callum has grown tired of the lack of goodness in adults and has told Santa that he will retire after hundreds of years of service after this upcoming Christmas.
At the same time; Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) who is a career cynic, hustler, con, thief, and level-four Naughty List member takes a job to pay off his debts and in the process exposes the location of The North Pole to some sinister individuals who capture Santa.
With only a couple of days until Christmas, Callum is forced by an agency boss named Zoe (Lucy Liu) to work with Jack and find Santa so that Christmas can be saved.
Along the way, the two face all manner of enemies from the supernatural as they race against time and their own issues to try to find Santa and save the day.
The film is produced under Amazon owned MGM and reportedly had a budget over $250 million. The film has some lavish visuals and action sequences as there was plenty of FX to feast your eyes upon but at times it did not seem as sharp as other films and I wonder if that was due to seeing it in IMAX or via post-production.
The biggest issue I had with the film was that it did drag in the last half and they could have trimmed twenty minutes or so as it may be too long for some children as well as their parents.
The cast is good and it was great seeing Johnson and Evans work with one another and Simmons gives a great performance as Santa even with the abundance of digital creatures and effects to play against.
The film has some fun sequences and it was nice to see a new take on the Holidays as the cast goes all-in on what could have been a parody but instead walks a fine line between various genres.
In the end; “Red One: is an entertaining tale for the Holidays and I was happy to see a new and modern take for the season.
3.5 stars out of 5
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