Red One review – A Level 2 Nice Lister

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a good live-action Christmas movie. Lately, the most entertaining, worth-a-rewatch festive films have all been animated, along the lines of Klaus and Arthur Christmas. Based on the forced trailers, you might think that Red One isn’t going to be the next big holiday blockbuster, but you’d be surprised how much of a gift it turns out to be.

If you’ve seen Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, you’ll be familiar with director Jake Kasdan’s style of blending action and comedy. In Red One, Kasdan’s frequent collaborator Dwayne Johnson stars as Callum Drift, head of security for the North Pole. To cut to the chase, Santa Claus (played by an incredibly ripped J.K. Simmons) is real, he has a code name (RED ONE), and he’s gearing up for his annual circling of the globe to distribute presents… when he gets kidnapped. To get him back, Callum enlists notorious hacker and bounty hunter Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), and buddy cop shenanigans ensue.

Red One has a lot of ground to cover in a relatively short amount of time, and yet a lot of thought has clearly been given to covering the mechanics of how Santa operates. Instead of the usual hand-waving excuse of “it’s Christmas magic”, Red One goes into a fair amount of detail to explain Santa’s military-style MO, along with the mythological world that exists hand in hand with ours and includes other creatures of legend, like Krampus (played by Game of Thrones’ Kristofer Hivju under loads of makeup).

For the fantastical beings, Red One clearly has spared no expense in bringing them to life, although it’s a two-pronged approach. Krampus and his monstrous court are realised with nothing more than prosthetics and makeup to incredibly realistic effect. Unfortunately, most of the bigger creatures and scenes are all CGI. This had the lamentable effect of diminishing some of the climactic action beats, which turned into a blurry, hard to follow CGI tangle. It’s a pity, because there’s some satisfyingly crunchy stunt work at play.

Most of the fight and chase choreography falls obviously on the shoulders of Dwayne Johnson, who is in his element as the big, burly straight man of proceedings. If you’re not a fan of his acting style, Red One probably won’t win you over, as Callum Drift is as quintessentially “The Rock” as all his characters tend to be: a principled good guy you want on your team despite his gruffness. Meanwhile, Chris Evans continues his post-Marvel career by diversifying into more interesting and morally ambiguous characters. And, of course, a special shout out must be given to J.K. Simmons for bulking up to Mr Universe proportions for a film that he’s missing from most of the time. When he is on screen, though, Simmons is pure delight, delivering one of the most likeable on-screen depictions of Saint Nick ever.

Given the scope of Red One, and the wider context of human and mythological interactions that it’s set in, audiences may get a sense that it’s setting up a bigger franchise. These days, that’s a creative red flag, but Red One manages to avoid coming across as a calculated cash-grab. The world building is well thought out enough that, if Red One were to open the door to a whole series of seasonal fantasy action movies, most audiences, especially adolescent viewers, wouldn’t be opposed to that. There’s a lot of wish fulfilment fun to be had in Red One, along with a ton of easter eggs and nods to other beloved Christmas franchises, including Die Hard.

It’s trite to say, but Red One has a lot of heart. The story is as straightforward as it gets, and the lessons to be learned are exactly as cheesy as you’re expecting, but it feels sincere on the whole, and that attitude goes a long way to generating goodwill. There’s even a timely message about humanity’s increased leaning to actions that have landed us on the Naughty List. Combined with its inherent humour, style and creativity, Red One does enough to make the trip worthwhile.

Red One is in cinemas, including IMAX, from Friday, 8 November.