Directed by: Jake Kasdan
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, JK Simmons, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju
Red One feels like Blue Christmas. It has a gray pall hanging over it even in the scenes where the sun shines. Dwayne Johnson plays Callum, Santa Claus' head of security who plans to leave his post after several hundred years of service to Saint Nick (JK Simmons). Callum has lost faith in humanity as he realizes the naughty list seems to grow longer each year. Santa asks for Callum to believe in people, but glum Callum insists on tapping out. However, the night before Christmas Eve, Santa is kidnapped by a witch named Gryla (Shipka), who also believes humanity is irredeemable and wants to imprison every person on the naughty list. She holds him hostage and slowly saps his strength, which is considerable if you take into account how he's able to deliver billions of presents in one night.
Simmons gives us a buff Santa Claus who needs to stay in shape to complete his duty on Christmas Eve. No plump Santa in this movie. Johnson, however, plays Callum as taciturn and gloomy when he should be having more fun. The movie itself sets the same tone. The heavily CGI-laden action scenes take up several minutes at a time, but the stakes just aren't there. When Callum recruits expert hacker Jack O'Malley (Evans), who unwittingly gave the coordinates of the North Pole compound to Gryla, they go through the cop-buddy movie routine of dislike turning into like. Neither actor seems to be enjoying himself. They're going through the motions.
Red One is not going to establish itself as a holiday classic anytime soon. It's an action comedy with emphasis on action and not comedy, but soon we grow tired of both. I enjoyed Simmons playing Santa not as a world-weary man, but as an ambassador of hope who just keeps plugging away until people's better nature takes over. The rest of the movie feels very much defeated.
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