Red One

Review by Mark Woodring

I’ll be honest: the name “Dwayne Johnson” isn’t a “must-see” factor for me when it comes to movies. J.K. Simmons, on the other hand, makes any project better, of course, but with a project like Red One, how much influence can he really have?

Suffice it to say, between the unavoidable presence of Johnson, as well as the equally unavoidable headlines expounding on how absolutely terrible Red One is, I wasn’t very excited going into this one…

…hopeful, but not excited.

**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**

Red One - Review
Red One (Amazon-MGM)

122 Minutes, PG-13
Written by Chris Morgan, Hiram Garcia
Directed by Jake Kasdan

Synopsis:

After Santa Claus (code name: Red One) is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security (Callum Drift) must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Jack O’Malley) in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.

I hadn’t realized that we were going to be screening Red One in IMAX, which sometimes works and sometimes is just a really big screen.

For Red One, the IMAX mostly works. The grand, sweeping shots of the (CG) North Pole complex are pretty impressive. Conversely, some of the other CG material isn’t quite up to snuff (I’m looking at you, “Snowmen”).

The story itself is a mish-mash of genres: action, buddy-cop, and fantasy are the biggest. It capitalizes on the current-ish trend of revamping classic/mythological properties, so we get a shot of the Headless Horseman, references to Sasquatch and Nessie, along with interpretations of how Krampus currently lives. All of this is monitored and moderated by a BPRD-esque, quasi-governmental agency headed by Lucy Liu, of course (because God forbid we don’t push the idea of the government running everything, but I digress).

Despite its silliness, though, Red One is – at times – heartfelt about Christmas and the idea of Santa Claus and why he does what he does. Most importantly, though, Red One turns out to be FUN.

Guess what? That’s what this movie is supposed to be: FUN. Dwayne Johnson clicking his heels together to activate his size-changing, Chris Evans playing the rogue, the Krampus slapping contest…

It’s fun.

Silly, heartfelt, FUN.

I honestly did not expect to enjoy Red One as much as I did, but what a pleasant surprise. Is it perfect?

Heck no!

Johnson does what he does best, which is play everything mostly straight, and so gets the laughs (I mean, he’s not a Leslie Neilsen-level straight-man, but he’s not bad). Evans is reveling in his post Captain America persona (though I hope he doesn’t stay in this arena too long… he’s too good for that). Simmons somehow manages to perfectly embody what we all would like our Santa Claus to be, philosophically speaking. Bonnie Hunt as Mrs. Claus seems like a long-overdue casting decision at this point. Lucy Liu is, well, Lucy Liu, and that’s okay, here.

The point is, no one is trying to do too much, to make the movie about them instead of the audience, and so Red One absolutely does its job.

I simply don’t understand how (or why) people continually act so superior, as if Red One were trying to be Citizen Kane or something, and so must be derided into oblivion.

[Most movie reviewers today haven’t even seen Citizen Kane, by the way, so they wouldn’t know a quality movie if it bit them in the @$$.]

Red One isn’t trying to be anything more than it is: a bit of holiday fluff designed to entertain for two hours. It’s just a fun Christmas romp, and THAT’S OKAY.

Try watching it that way and see how much you enjoy it.

Red One hits theaters in IMAX on Friday, November 15 and stars Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J.K. Simmons, Bonnie Hunt, Kiernan Shipka, Kristofer Hivju, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Wesley Kimmel, and Nick Kroll.

And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.

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