Movie Review: RED ONE

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: November 15th, 2024 / 01:27 AM

RED ONE movie poster | ©2024 MGM / Amazon Studios

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J.K. Simmons, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Kiernan Shipka, Wesley Kimmel, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Nick Kroll
Writer: Chris Morgan, story by Hiram Garcia
Director: Jake Kasdan
Distributor: MGM/Amazon Studios
Release Date: November 15, 2024

The premise of RED ONE contains all sorts of intriguing Northern and Eastern European folklore: not only Santa Claus, but some darker figures as well. This could have made a great Rankin-Bass special, either with conventional animation or RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER-style puppetry, or even a live-action fantasy, a la the NARNIA films.

However, RED ONE, directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay by Chris Morgan from a story by Hiram Garcia, positions itself as an action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans. It certainly has action, and Johnson and Evans are front and center. As for comedy, though …

Johnson plays Callum Drift, head of security for Red One, Santa’s (J.K. Simmons) code name at the North Pole. After a few hundred years on the job, Cal is having an existential crisis. He feels so out of touch with the Christmas spirit that he thinks he needs to resign.

Meanwhile, Jack O’Malley (Evans) is a computer super-hacker who can find anyone for a price. Otherwise, Jack is a normal (if pretty cruddy) human who didn’t believe in Santa even when he was a kid (Wyatt Hunt).

When Santa is kidnapped the night before Christmas, it’s a global supernatural emergency. Zoe (Lucy Liu), director of the organization that supervises all things magical, finds out that Jack is involved, albeit unwittingly, in the abduction. She brings him in and has Cal interrogate him. To Cal’s dismay, Jack seems to be necessary if they’re going to locate and rescue Red One.

Even without the trailers, we can made educated guesses as to where this is all going. It seems something of a plot hole that Cal and Zoe don’t guess the likely culprits right away, but that’s not a fatal flaw.

Jack’s expected personal journey is, well, expected. It might have helped if he weren’t introduced as being such an egregious jerk, who literally steals candy from a baby. As it is, despite a sincere performance from Evans, we have a hard time caring about him.

As director, Kasdan has a good handle on the effects-palooza aspect of RED ONE, with all sorts of creatures of every size and shape popping up everywhere. Some of these look better than others, but it’s generally a cohesive vision.

The North Pole is likewise a pleasing mixture of old-fashioned cozy and high-tech factory town, with room for both leisure and labor. There is also a consistent quasi-explanation of how Santa manages to visit all those homes, and how the Christmas team views and interacts with outside mortal civilization.

So, RED ONE’s problem isn’t in its world-building, it’s in its tonal approach. The trailers make the film look like the movie is going for big laughs, but it almost never finds them, conceptually or specifically.

Simmons has long since demonstrated that he can make an audience believe him as anything, so buying him as a very fit Santa is not an issue. He is kindly and wise and capable of real emotion, and if Santa is real, it would be great if he was as portrayed here.

But nothing in that above paragraph suggests funny. That’s okay, Santa doesn’t have to be funny. Theoretically, there’s potential humor in the notion of Santa having a protector with the same sort of no-nonsense demeanor as a U.S. Secret Service agent, i.e., Cal.

Cal is never confronted with situations that would confound a security professional. He takes everything in stride, which makes sense, but it’s not a source of hilarity. He gets plenty of opportunities to fight, but fewer to react in a way that suggests incongruity.

So, Cal is basically a superhero, doing mythical superhero stuff while saddled with a non-superhero sidekick. Johnson and Evans clearly know what they’re doing, but the buddy bonding doesn’t feel distinctive. It’s not painfully unfunny, simply routine.

Since he crops up at the end of the trailer, it seems non-spoilery to mention that Krampus is played with excellent attitude by Kristofer Hivju.

RED ONE is serviceable for those seeking a Christmas-based adventure. It just lacks the kind of personality that would make it memorable.

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