REVIEW: Red One (2024)

Movie Reviews

Red One is like a Christmas present you’re convinced will be a pair of socks or a novelty shirt or something else lame, but it ends up being something pretty cool. It wasn’t on your list, and it’ll probably go in the closet before long, but you’ll have fun with it and maybe even dig it out every so often. Based on the trailer, I figured we were in for a tedious, half-assed, cringe-worthy modern movie like we usually get nowadays. To my delight, Red One is better than I thought it would be, a well-written story about a pair of faithless guys rediscovering the joy of Christmas when they’re tasked with saving it.

On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped, and it’s up to Callum Drift (Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson), the leader of his protective details, and Jack “the Wolf” O’Malley (Chris Evans), a small-time thief, expert computer hacker, and degenerate gambler, to team up and rescue him before Christmas is ruined. But Callum is losing his belief in the Spirit of Christmas, while Jack is a mess who contributed to Santa’s abduction; can these two pull it together and trust each other, or is Christmas gone for good? I assume you’ve seen a Christmas movie before and know the answer to that question.

The most surprising thing about Red One is how well it’s plotted. This isn’t just some makeshift script that was thrown together as an excuse for the Rock to fight monsters. The characters have arcs that start at the very beginning and flow naturally throughout the film, with relationships growing in believable ways that tie into the plot and complement the arcs. It also has excellent Christmas-related themes of individual responsibility and the potential for redemption in all of us, and they play out beautifully. I was also glad to see that the movie isn’t an out-and-out comedy, and certainly not a broad one, as it looked in the trailer. With the Rock in the lead, I figured this would be another in his string of awful action-comedies, like Central Intelligence. But Red One mostly plays it straight, and it’s much better for it, despite one or two comedy moments that go a little too far. Part of this may may have been my low expectations, but I was legitimately impressed with the writing.

The actors put that writing to good use, and each of the main characters is cast well. Chris Evans is great as Jack, and he plays him as a self-satisfied jerk who thinks of nobody but himself. The source of his selfishness is subtly suggested early on, but it’s never used as an excuse for his actions; Jack is not a good man, and while Red One never drags, it spends a decent amount of time establishing who Jack is, so you’re invested in his journey. In a way, it works as a commentary on Evans’ career; Jack is the type of character Evans used to play before Captain America (although morally worse), and while everyone around him wants him to be Cap, he never makes the right choices, always falling short of what he could be. Evans makes Jack grow while feeling like a consistent character, and you can’t help but root for him.

His co-lead, the Rock, is fine, but well cast. Unlike Jack, Callum Drift spent his life as a good man who believed in helping others, but he’s losing his faith as he sees the world slide into selfishness and mockery of everything Christmas stands for. He’s ready to pack it in and leave his post at Santa’s side because he doesn’t have it in him to represent Christmas anymore, but he’s self-aware enough to know someone has to – just not him. The Rock is good, and his physicality does most of the work, allowing him to be stoic and solid without having to say much. Callum doesn’t require as much traditional acting as Jack does, but in his more emotive moments, the Rock is decent and doesn’t make the movie drop in quality, though he’s not as good as Evans. The minor characters are all fine, although they don’t have much to do; I’m glad Lucy Liu is in this because I used to like her a lot, and it feels like she’s never in anything anymore. She has a fairly rote role, but she makes it better than it had to be just by being her. (You might have to have grown up in the ‘90s to feel this way; if you knew her when she was Lucy Alexis Liu, you probably love Lucy Liu.)

But Red One’s secret weapon is J.K. Simmons as Santa Claus. When I saw him in the trailer, I figured this would be an annoying “I’m not your typical Santa” kind of Santa, lifting weights and showing off his muscles instead of shaking his belly like a bowl full of jelly. But to my delight, Simmons’ Santa is anything but a subversion (outside of his body type); he’s exactly what Santa Claus should be, the embodiment of the Christmas Spirit who believes in the goodness of humanity and the love inherent in every child, even the ones on the Naughty List. His conversations with the increasingly doubting Callum are stellar and present a Santa worth believing in, one you can buy being able to earn Callum’s respect and friendship. Even all the exercising has a good payoff later on. Simmons doesn’t have a huge part, but when he’s on the screen, he brings a ton of Christmas Magic with him.

And it’s good that Red One has all that Christmas Magic and engrossing character work because it utterly fails as an action movie. I haven’t seen either of director Jake Kasdan’s Jumanji sequels with the Rock, but based on Red One, he doesn’t know how to shoot and action scene. They’re filmed with tons of quick cuts and awkward angles that miss all good stuff, so you’re struggling to understand what’s going on. The sequence where Santa is kidnapped should be great, as Callum chases the bad guys through Santa’s Village in the North Pole, but it’s so dark, sloppily edited, and full of terrible CGI that, even having just seen it, I couldn’t tell you exactly what happens. And the finale is a huge letdown, with what looks like it’ll be a big, escalating battle cut short and turned into another choppy chase scene. I almost wish this were a more intimate, lighthearted Christmas drama, like one of those Lifetime movies only good.

Oddly enough, the special effects aren’t always bad. Some of the CGI characters, like Callum’s polar bear sidekick or the evil snowmen, look good – and a lot better than they did in the trailer. It’s really just the action scenes that look like the movie suddenly turned into a cartoon, which is true of about 90% of modern action films. Likewise, parts of the movie are incredibly imaginative; Callum works for a group called the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority (or MORA), which protects and polices various beings from different mythologies, like Santa. This allows for other legendary figures to show up, and there are some neat surprises on that score; they’re also used well in the story and help draw Jack into the fantasy world. On the other hand, Santa’s Village is so dour, dark,  and bland when it should be a colorful world of joy and wonder. (This was probably to set up that ugly action scene.) It’s a mixed bag at times, and it’s no classic, but it’s easily worth a watch if you love Christmas movies.

Let us know what you thought of Red One in the comments!

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