REVIEW: ‘Red One’ Won’t Win Any Awards, But May Get You Into the Holiday Spirit
Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans are teaming up to save Christmas in Amazon MGM Studios’ new movie, Red One. Directed by Jake Kasdan, when Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped, the commander of E.L.F. (Enforcement Logistics and Fortification) security, Commander Callum Drift (Johnson) must team up with world renown hacker and bounty hunter, “The Wolf” Jack O’Malley (Evans), to find Santa. With the help of Zoe Harlow (Lucy Liu), director of M.O.R.A (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), the team must work together if they hope to save Christmas before it’s too late.
The first thing to remember about this movie is it is a Dwayne Johnson movie. And, like his previous movies, this one makes absolutely no sense, but it is ridiculously entertaining. Don’t overthink what you are about to see. Just know you are going to walk out of the movie with a smile on your face. The second thing to remember is that it’s a Holiday movie. Holiday movies are not supposed to be serious. They are supposed to be filled with cheesy moments, Holiday cheer, and a whole lot of Holiday music. Red One checks everything off the list. With that being said, the movie is no where near perfect. The characters are under developed, there are easily missed comedic moments, and the cast doesn’t entirely lean into their characters. But again, did I walk out feeling tidings of great cheer, yes!
Johnson is understandably good as the serious, uptight, Callum, who is beginning to lose the meaning of Christmas, but it is a character we have seen him play before. The only difference in this movie is he has a different scene partner in Evans. Evans’ character spends the movie battling his moral compass as a Level 4 naughty lister, but he doesn’t fully lean into his character. There were a couple of scenes where he and Johnson could have made the scene funnier, but chose not to. It may be because Evans hasn’t starred in a comedic role in sometime, or because the writing for both characters wasn’t very good, but the two definitely had what it takes to take it up a notch.
Kiernan Shipka starred as the movie’s villain, Grýla, and did well with what she had to work with. She was another one that I thought could have leaned into her character a little more. Her costumes, on the other hand, were wickedly delicious. Simmons starred as Jolly Old Saint Nick, and wasn’t in the movie enough. His buffer version could have been used a little bit more, and if they ever decide to make a sequel, he needs to take center stage. The same can be said for Bonnie Hunt, who played Mrs. Claus. She had an even smaller part than Simmons, which is such a disservice to Hunt, who could have made the movie even funnier had she been given more to work with. Liu and Kristofer Hivju (Krampus) round out the cast and fall under the same problem as Simmons and Hunt. They are just not in it enough.
Red One won’t be a movie appearing on anyone’s Top 10 lists for the year, but it may end up being a movie you watch on repeat every Holiday season. The movie is terribly entertaining, and is a good movie to check out if you are looking for something to get you into the Holiday spirit.
Grade: C-