Red One

Directed by:Jake Kasdan

Written by: Hiram Garcia & Chris Morgan

It’s two days before Christmas and Santa (J.K Simmons) and his trusted head of security Cal Drift (Dwayne Johnson) are preparing for the big day.  But plans are turned on their heads when security at the Pole is breached and Santa, codename Red One, is kidnapped. Cal has only a few hours to rescue him and with the help of Zoe (Lucy Liu), head of an agency that protects mythological beings, and Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), a waster with gambling debt, poor at fatherhood, but with a skill for finding people and doing it for the highest bidder. Reluctantly they team up to save Christmas.

This is an odd film and I’m not sure who it is aimed at. Its premise is fine, Santa needs help in the shape of his loyal, but disillusioned right hand, and the wrong guy, a level 4 naughty lister. Which leads to an adventure through Christmas mythology to rescue the big man. But the film really struggles to hold it together.

Johnson does what he does, Evans is fun as the flawed companion. Simmons as a super fit Santa, all offer plenty of promise. But as it goes on the more confusing it becomes. It shifts into a more teen/adult action adventure. It gets quite dark, it has language that borders on “bad”, there’s lots of fighty action. All okay in themselves, but drifts from a film about saving Santa to an action adventure that could be about saving anything. It also lacks heart, with its central emotional relationship between Jack and his son(Wesley Kimmel), never getting time to engage the audience.

It’s not a disaster, Johnson and Evans are watchable and there’s some fun with Christmas myth, especially Kristofer Hivju’s, Krampus. But it’s all a bit long and messy.

Red One is an odd film. I’ve no idea who it’s aimed at, a mix of Christmas film and action adventure. It’s probably a bit dark for the youngest and not adult enough for the grown ups. It’s all a bit long and lacks any real Christmas heart. It’s not terrible, but if you’re spending $250m you expect a bit more.