Red One

• Directed by Jake Kasdan
• November 6, 2024 (Ireland and UK) / November 15, 2024 (US)

The head of North Pole security teams up with a hacker to locate a kidnapped Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

Since its release, Red One has become a bit infamous for not being successful. Finding out that it got onto Amazon Prime pretty quickly I decided to check it out. It was more out of curiosity than anything with that curiosity being if it was bad as people have claimed it to be. After watching I found plenty wrong but I still enjoyed myself.

Chris Evans as hacker Jack O’Malley is probably the one actor that doesn’t connect well with the rest of the cast. Not terribly but he is the one rough spot amongst the cast. Something is a bit off when performing with the others. Perhaps it is the generic thug/criminal accent (?) he puts on. Maybe the others while playing it straighter are just having more fun.

To keep that Christmas spirit Jack O’Malley is a deadbeat dad that has never taken any real interest in his son’s life. Improbably he is willing to risk himself to save his son. I don’t know how that works. That defies logic even in a fantasy type film. You just don’t be totally uninvolved in your child’s life and be willing to sacrifice yourself for them because of paternal love in under 24 hours.

Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons) is kidnapped with the unwitting help of Jack who hasn’t ever believed in Santa Claus. Jack is a piece of crap human being that earns money by finding people who don’t want to be found. Because he can do that he’s able to find Santa Claus. It just seems like what he did in the movie to find Santa most anybody could do. Considering a magical creature that once dated Santa’s brother enlisted his help, why not just ask the brother rather than leave a trail of potential witnesses to unravel the plot?

That genius villain is Grýla (Kiernan Shipka) who is the Christmas Witch. She knows enough about the functioning and layout of the North Pole to throw out some red herrings to lead the cast away but needs Jack to find the north pole. She has a high level of knowledge of this top-secret location which implies she’s either been there or has obtained detailed knowledge elsewhere. She knows about secret tunnels and the once broken machine she fixes and uses for her nefarious plot yet she never got the location. 

Shipka is cold and sinister in human form but honestly her performance improves once they go all CGI with the character. Maybe it’s a lack of her presence on the screen or maybe she’s just going all in but there’s something extra special once we see the character in their true form.

Dwayne Johnson is pretty much Dwayne Johnson in every movie he ever plays in. As Callum Drift he is the bodyguard for Santa Claus. Callum is more than a bit worn down by terrible adults and what he sees along with the growing number of people that are on the Naughty List. Johnson does turn up the intensity a little bit which adds to the humor.

Simmons has a voice that can sell anything. There is a certain wisdom in every word. He once again plays Santa Claus having voiced the character to great effect in Klaus. He is a friend and a father figure and just an all-around happy and nice guy. He finds joy in everything. He can be nice even when he doesn’t want to be. Why can’t we have a fat Santa anymore? You’re not encouraging obesity or anything like that by having him weighty. I would love to have heard a line referencing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

There is a great deal of CGI in Red One. I’m not talking about just the effects to almost entirely create the world of the North Pole. In one scene Jack and Callum are driving in a car and it’s clear they used green screen. What happened with photographing in the real world?

Speaking of the North Pole, why not find some snow covered town and spice it up with little CGI for the big chase sequence? They have an exciting kidnapping scene but it’s all computer graphics. Takes you out of the action a little bit.

That CGI is rough. I watched this at home and those effects should’ve been radiant but instead they looked worse than much of what you see on streaming programs these days. Not terribly cheap but they lacked the realism that one would expect from a theatrical release. of the snowfall was even CGI which strikes me as just unnecessary.

There are some under used elements such as the polar bear García that shows up from time to time for a reminder on just how magical things are. Lucy Liu as M.O.R.A (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority) director Zoe Harlow straddles the fence of being overused and underused. She is barely in the movie then plays an active part in the finale.

Even with my issues Red One is much cuter than most give it credit for. Despite Chris Evans, being a rough spot and the occasionally poor CGI this is a fun movie. There are plenty of flaws in Red One but those flaws don’t make it less enjoyable. I got plenty of pleasure out of the silliness and goofiness. It’s a mismatched buddy action comedy set at Christmas. Callum and Jack don’t like each other in the beginning but by the end, of course they are pals. Callum realizes his place is right with Santa though I have no idea what he would do other than be security at the North Pole. It strikes me that job opportunities are limited there.

The climax plays a little silly and a little cool. I genuinely liked the last-minute arrival of Krampus in the climax. The jokes are often funny. I think this movie though was something that was never going to be successful in theaters. It’s a Christmas action comedy which feels like a hard sell. I can’t remember that type of movie being successful. I think though on streaming which caters to more specific tastes it would’ve been much more successful and perhaps even better received.

Red One is a fun Christmas movie. I think kids will like it more than adults. It’s fun and silly and just enjoyable.