Red One – Movie Review
Director: Jake Kasdan
Writer: Chris Morgan, Hiram Garcia (Screenplay)
Cast
- Dwayne Johnson (Jumanji)
- Chris Evans (Captain America)
- Lucy Liu (Kill Bill)
- J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
- Bonnie Hunt (Jerry Maguire)
- Kiernan Shipka (Totally Killer)
Plot: After Santa Claus (code name: Red One) is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.
Runtime: 2 Hours 3 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Red One starts when Commander Callum Drift (Johnson) is planning on retiring from Santa’s (Simmons) security force. However, the day before Christmas Gryla (Shipka) kidnaps Santa and Callum must lead the search to rescue him.
Callum must work with master tracker Jack O’Malley (Evans) a known naughty lister. They must put aside their differences to find clues which takes them to places Jack never imaged.
Verdict on Red One
Red One is an action-adventure following Santa’s head of security teaming up with a tracker and criminal to rescue Santa. It takes them through a host of different Christmas-related mythical figures to save Santa and Christmas.
This brings the meaning of Christmas to a go-fetch adventure story. It tells how people are less supportive of the meaning of Santa and Christmas, in a similar style to ‘Elf’. Without as much heart as that movie. This does bring something more original to the table and a couple could easily explore more of the world created.
This doesn’t bring much new from Dwayne Johnson, the characters feel overly basic even for him. Chris Evans tries to have fun and feels like an adult version of his Perfect Score character. Kiernan Shipka does ok as the villain, but it gets confusing as to what accent she is aiming for. It is disappointing we don’t get more of Lucy Liu because she is the most interesting of all the characters in the movie. For an action adventure movie, this entertains, it never feels like it is dragging along and offers plenty of fun references. It is one you can sit back, relax and enjoy.
Final Thoughts – Red One is a big, fun and enjoyable action-adventure.