RED ONE, US, 2024. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, JK Simmons, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Kiernan Shipka. Directed by Jake Kasdan. 125 minutes. Rated PG (Mild fantasy themes, violence and coarse language)
Most films about Santa Claus require quite a suspension of disbelief – except for the littlies. But this movie requires even more disbelief than usual for those who say they don’t believe in Santa Claus.
Santa, the Red One, initially seen enjoying himself meeting all the children at a Philadelphia shopping mall, is suddenly whisked away in a super-powered sleigh, with the sturdiest reindeers you have seen, to an extraordinary mythological North Pole – a victim of a vast conspiracy, and his abductor determined to take his place on Christmas Eve rounds and imprisoning forever those on the ‘Naughty List’! Not exactly the scenario we might have been expecting for Johnson and Evans.
This is a piece of Christmas entertainment for older children (of whatever age!). There is plenty of action – but always with its heart in the right place but not necessarily all those fighting fists.
Johnson is obviously enjoying himself as Cal, Santa’s long-time bodyguard. And Simmons as Santa is enjoying himself even more. He even has bodybuilding sessions at the gym with Johnson. As for Evans, we don’t like him at the start – he’s arrogant and mean (even snatching a lollipop from a baby in a pram). However, he has all kinds of tech skills, and is hired out to break into high-class systems, enabling the witch to abduct Santa. He has a young son who rather idolises him but is disappointed in him.
There are a lot of pauses in the film for Johnson to give moralising lessons for the young audience, basically to be good. So, lots of fantasy, lots of action sequences, particularly enjoyable are those where Cal’s powers enable him to go into miniature form at a moment’s notice and then reverse – very handy for battling and tricking hefty opponents.
Liu appears as the director for mythological operations. There is also the Krampus and his ogre-like warriors, Mrs Claus (Hunt) a range of elves and a huge benign polar bear key staff-member at the North Pole. Director Kasdan made the Jumanji films so he is at home with fantasy blends of realism and imagination. Audiences seem to be enjoying the Red One, so best to avoid reading reviews by critics who think that this kind of thing is beneath them.
Warner Bros
Released 7 November 2024