Red One (2024) Review: A High-Concept Genre Hybrid of a Christmas Movie That Belongs on the Naughty List
Is it me or does this whopping US$250 million action-comedy Red One looks curiously like it should belong to straight-to-streaming rather than a major theatrical release? Oh, wait… it turns out the movie was initially intended for a Prime Video original, only to be shifted otherwise. Originally set for last December before a certain SAG-AFTRA strike causing the nearly year-long delay, Red One has been equally plagued by production woes from massive budget overrun to Dwayne Johnson’s unprofessional behaviour including showing up late on the set.
Based on Seven Bucks Productions’ producing partner Hiram Garcia’s idea before Fast & Furious franchise scribe Chris Morgan turned it into a screenplay, Red One boasts a fascinating high-concept premise: A Christmas movie that combines action, comedy, sci-fi fantasy and yuletide-themed mythology with appearances like Krampus and Gryla. And with an added twist such as the introduction of Santa Claus (a perfectly ripped J.K. Simmons) isn’t your typical jolly fat Santa that goes ho-ho-ho that we have grown accustomed to.
The Santa we have here looks physically fit and yes, we see him doing push-ups and lifting weights back home in his North Pole headquarters. He even has a bodyguard to protect him in the form of Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), the lead commander of E.L.F. (Enforcement, Logistics, and Fortification). Drift, who’s been serving Santa long enough, is finally calling it quits but not long after Santa accepts his resignation, the latter is abducted. This leaves Drift and Zoe Harlow (Lucy Liu, keeping a straight face the whole time), the director of M.O.R.A. (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority) to locate the missing Santa and find out who’s behind this.
With Drift in charge of the field duty, he soon reluctantly teams up with Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), the world’s best tracker and happens to be the one who got paid to hack into a system that gives up Santa’s secret location. They have only 24 hours before Christmas Eve to rescue Santa and save Christmas. On paper, it sure sounds like a cool idea with Kiernan Shipka’s Gryla serving as the main antagonist behind Santa’s kidnapping, a shape-shifting old witch disguised as a blonde young woman. She even has someone to do her dirty work including a trio of formidable snowmen. There’s Drift who wears a bracelet capable of beaming a miniature toy such as Hot Wheels into a life-sized vehicle.
But the overall execution is an unbelievably tawdry mess. Like a stale piece of cookie and a glass of expired milk left for Santa to consume. Save for the opening moment that introduces Jack the cynical young boy (Wyatt Hunt) before we see the adult Jack in an elaborate sequence from stealing a customer’s order — a cup of coffee, that is — to creating enough distractions that have to do with getting his hand on an employee’s access card. Then, there’s the scene where I enjoyed watching Dwayne Johnson’s Callum Drift getting a big slap in his face by Krampus (a game Kristofer Hivju) playing a slapping game.
The rest of the movie, however, feels like a chore watching this visually horrid genre mishmash that doesn’t justify the exorbitant cost. The CGI is some of the worst I’ve seen for a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster this year and what’s with the fast-moving, agitated camerawork? Action scenes that involve heavy CGI in dark or dimly-lit settings are incomprehensible to the point they look like a pixelated mess. I’m not sure what’s going on in Jake Kasdan’s mind because it seems to me he’s approaching his movie like a straightforward, no-nonsense action thriller.
I enjoyed Kasdan’s previous feature in Jumanji: The Next Level but Red One looks as if the evil Gryla has possessed his body and taking over his directing job to intentionally ruin the movie. The action is weightless while lacking the propulsive thrills, tension and excitement. Even the daylight CG-heavy fight scene on the beach between Drift and one of the snowmen resulted in a jaw-dropping, what-the-F-am-I-watching moment that I don’t blame why the surprise-looking Chris Evans’ Jack O’Malley saying “That was so disturbing”. It was laughably bad because it looked awkwardly out of place.
The comedy falls flat and what could have been a potential buddy-comedy chemistry between the no-nonsense Dwayne Johnson and the devil-may-care Chris Evans is sadly botched with a surprising lack of chemistry. The contrast between these two mismatched partners is supposed to give them the chance to play off each other but it’s not helping with Johnson spending most of the time looking monotonous. Evans tries his best to enliven his character with his constant, deer-in-the-headlights expressions. The movie also wanted to cram in some attempted poignant father-and-son drama moments between Jack and his estranged teenage son, Dylan (Wesley Kimmel) but it all feels heavy-handed.
The biggest problem in Red One lies in Kasdan’s misguided tone and style of treating the whole thing too seriously. The way he tries to mix-and-match with different elements may have been ambitious but the execution tells the story otherwise. Given some of the talents involved, a high-concept premise and a sizable budget, Red One should have been worth looking forward to but the movie even mostly falters as a mindless, leave-your-brain-at-the-door type of entertainment. Perhaps it’s best buried in the streaming service as intended in the first place.
