Red One, Directed by Jake Kasdan, is 2024’s attempt at a new Christmas Classic. It seems that every year another studio attempts to make an action movie out of Christmas, and yet it never seems to pan out well. Starring Dwayne the Rock Jhonson, Chris Evans, and J.K. Simmons, the star power was not enough to save this movie. From inconsistent CGI to going way over budget, there are so many things that make this movie one of the biggest messes of the year.
Starting with the humor portion of this action comedy, this movie actually was very funny but not in the right ways. Have you ever seen a movie and been so confused and bewildered by what you’re witnessing on screen that you can’t help but laugh? That’s how pretty much every scene in this movie felt. There were multiple instances where I genuinely couldn’t tell if the movie was intended to be funny or trying to be serious. For example, there were multiple fight scenes in which the Rock shrunk down to about half his size to kick some butt, which at face value is hilarious, but it was played super seriously. Additionally, this movie had a really interesting habit of a character saying a string of letters as a Christmas-themed acronym, and Chris Evan’s character following it up by saying “What?”. This happened about 8 times throughout the whole movie, and by the last time, it was admittedly very funny to me. But again, I’m not sure this was intentional. It was not played like a joke whatsoever, and in the end, it just added to the overall feeling that this movie was a parody of spy/action movies with an empty plot.
The action in this movie was very CGI heavy, and in some places, it actually looked really good and for a 250 million dollar budget, it should. However, pretty much anytime the Rock does anything in this movie using Christmas magic, the CGI goes out the window. The amount of fight or chase scenes that use an abundantly obvious green screen is honestly really disappointing for a blockbuster of this caliber. That being said, the effects and designs of all the Christmas-themed creatures were actually cool. I loved the design of the Krampus, and his scenes were by far my favorite; the way they pulled off this character was impressive and a definite highlight of the film.
The performances themselves in this movie weren’t anything special. I liked seeing Chris Evans back in a comedic role, and it was a lot less serious than his Captain America stuff. His comedic timing was mostly there and was entertaining enough on screen, but The Rock is where I have a real issue. He is the same in every movie, and that would be fine if he was supposedly a good guy, but he ran up the budget on this movie so much that nearly half of the 250 million dollars was due to him being late or negligent. In fact, there are reports of the Rock being almost 8 hours late every day to the set. Regardless of his charm on screen, his performance was nowhere near worth it for this behavior and the millions it cost the movie.
Finally, the Christmas aspect of this film is the last thing I want to touch on. This movie was supposed to be a Christmas action movie, it was pitched as Taken meets Elf. However, there is just too much going on for this movie to really feel like a Christmas film. Sure it has Santa, Elves, the Krampus, and Snowmen but it gets lost in the action elements and loses some crucial Christmas-time emotion. It feels like this movie definitely had an identity crisis in the editing room and it cost the movie in the end.
Overall I would rate this movie a 2 out of 5. It had a hefty run time, odd pacing, and a very messy plot but there were some entertaining portions and I found myself laughing frequently. If you’re looking for something to watch on a rainy day, you can give it a try, but I wouldn’t put it at the top of your watch list.
