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Red One: A surprisingly fun Christmas flick

Red One: A surprisingly fun Christmas flick
Dwayne Johnson in Red One. Image: Warner Bros. Pictures / Supplied
Tracy Benson
By Tracy Benson
29 Nov 2024
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Red One offers a refreshing twist on the holiday genre. With its inventive humour and heartfelt story, this unexpected film proves that sometimes the best gifts come in unexpected packages.

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.

Those who have seen Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle will 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. Santa Claus (played by an incredibly ripped JK 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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pIxnwkRvWs

Red One has a lot of ground to cover in a relatively short time, and yet a lot of thought has clearly gone into 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, such as Krampus (played by Game of Thrones’ Kristofer Hivju under loads of makeup).

For the fantastical beings, Red One 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.

JK Simmons and Dwayne Johnson in Red One. (Photo: Warner Bros Pictures / Supplied)



Red One Red One. (Photo: Warner Bros Pictures / Supplied



Most of the fight and chase choreography falls obviously on the shoulders of 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, 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 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 yet.

Stepping up to try to fill the ‘good live-action Christmas movie’ gap of recent years is the new action comedy Red One, with Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans. (Photo: Warner Bros Pictures / Supplied)



Holiday actioner Red One is surprisingly fun, sincere and well thought out. (Photo: Warner Bros Pictures / Supplied)



Dwayne Johnson in Red One. (Photo: Warner Bros Pictures / Supplied)



Given the scope of Red One, and the wider context of human and mythological interactions it is set in, audiences may get a sense that it’s setting up a bigger franchise. That could be 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 series of seasonal fantasy action movies, most audiences, especially adolescents, 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 learnt are exactly as cheesy as audiences expect, 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 toward 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. DM 

Red One is in cinemas, including IMAX.

This article was first published on PFangirl. 

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