Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans have to save Santa Claus in this fantasy adventure from the Jumanji team, that Film Brain unwraps in his review.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans have to team up to rescue Santa in Red One.
00:08🎵
00:24Callum Drift, played by Dwayne Johnson, heads up Elf, the North Pole security team for Santa Claus, played by J.K. Simmons, and plans to retire soon.
00:33When Santa is kidnapped by the Winter Witch, Gryla, played by Kiernan Shipka, Callum and the director of M.O.R.E. are Zoe Harlow, played by Lucy Liu,
00:41a force that turns to expert tracker Jack O'Malley, played by Chris Evans, who they believe aided the kidnappers.
00:47And to make things worse, he's on the naughty list.
00:51Can Callum and Jack put their differences aside to find Santa and save Christmas?
00:56Red One is the latest collaboration between Dwayne Johnson and Jake Caston, who previously worked together on the Jumanji sequels.
01:03Caston also directed the criminally underrated music biopic spoof Walk Hard, the Dewey Cox story, which has only gotten better with age,
01:11and I must be one of five people who actually saw it on its UK cinema run.
01:15The script for Red One is by Chris Morgan, who was, at one point, the regular writer for the Fast and Furious franchise,
01:22going from Tokyo Drift all the way through to Hobbs and Shaw.
01:26He also did Cellular with Chris Evans, and the recent Shazam! Fury of the Gods with Lucy Liu, so there are a few more cast connections to Red One there.
01:35But Red One has not arrived with a lot of good publicity.
01:39Even before the trailer came out, there were reports in the press, specifically The Wrap, that the film was a troubled production,
01:45with Johnson's lateness to set, in particular, causing the budget to balloon to $250 million, which is a massive amount.
01:54That cost is disputed by the filmmakers, but what isn't being disputed is that there was also a rumour that Johnson had a habit of peeing in bottles on the set,
02:04and then handing them to his assistants to dispose of them, and in the press run for the film,
02:10Johnson has apparently copped to both being tardy and the whole weeing into bottles thing,
02:16although Kazan and Evans have also defended his professionalism, so things are really going well.
02:23But even good films can come out of troubled shoots, and maybe Dwanza Claus, as he likes to call himself on his Instagram feed,
02:30can maybe pull a new Christmas favourite out of his sack, and hopefully not a bottle of his own urine.
02:37Now, if you saw those reviews, you might recall that I really enjoyed the Jumanji films that Kazan and Johnson made together,
02:42that were honestly better than they had any right to be as belated sequels.
02:46They took the Jumanji concept and gave it a fresh and updated spin, but most importantly of all, it got the tone right.
02:54The Jumanji films work as family films, they play to kids with the video game angle,
03:00but it also works for their parents who saw the original Robin Williams film when they were kids,
03:05and the balance of action and humour are well managed.
03:08But Red One is what happens when those same elements go wrong.
03:12The film has an absolutely enormous tonal problem from the concept up, because let's face it,
03:18the idea of Santa Claus being kidnapped is a kid's movie premise.
03:22You hear that, and it sounds like something that's mostly intended for younger viewers to watch.
03:27But the execution of Red One tackles it with the big action movie gloss that you'd expect out of a Dwayne Johnson movie,
03:35which when you combine that with the premise, feels weirdly out of place with the material.
03:41It takes what should be a PG movie and puts in all these inappropriate PG-13 elements,
03:47like a lot of casual swearing between Johnson and Evans, including an implied F word,
03:53and the violence is just a little bit too intense at points, like Johnson head-butting people.
03:59And the Jumanji films were also PG-13, but they didn't feel so jarringly, distractingly, obviously so, like this one does.
04:08I mean, say what you will about Jingle All The Way, but at least it wasn't trying to be one of Arnie's action films.
04:14It just leaves you wondering, who exactly is this meant to be for?
04:17Because adults are not going to take this seriously, regardless of the execution,
04:21and parents are not going to be happy at Johnson and Evans calling each other an asshole for much of the film or exclaiming bullshit.
04:28It's one of those weird examples of going for that four-quadrant audience strategy that Hollywood always tries to do with its blockbusters,
04:35even when that isn't actually the best fit for the material.
04:39It just adds this level of cynicism to the film, which is the last thing you want in a Christmas movie.
04:46That should be all about sincerity.
04:48Yeah, some people might find that cheesy, but that kind of optimism should be all over this.
04:55And the weird thing is, it isn't.
04:57And Dwayne Johnson is part of the problem here, because it feels like he's on autopilot in this movie.
05:03It feels like he's just going through the motions.
05:06And Johnson gets a lot of flack these days, some of it deservedly so because he's too brand-focused on his image,
05:12but I also see some people saying he can't act, which I think, personally, is too harsh.
05:17He has proven before he does have presence, he does have charisma, and he does have good comic instincts.
05:24The Jumanji films got him to stretch and show that.
05:27Him playing a nerd in an oversized muscular body, that was funny.
05:32He sold that really convincingly.
05:35He knows how to play off of people like Kevin Hart.
05:38He does have star power.
05:40He does have something that can carry a movie.
05:43But recently, he's been going through a run where that hasn't been obvious.
05:47And Callum Drift is written like Hobbs in Fast and Furious.
05:51Johnson spends so much of Red One being very straight-faced and serious, and that is not his strength.
05:58They've given him this weird conflict that he's going to retire because he's struggling to see the good in people,
06:03because the naughty list is longer than ever.
06:07But aside from a handful of scenes where he talks about it, it never affects anything in the film.
06:13And this is part of the problem.
06:15It's not enough to set up an arc for a character.
06:18It actually has to create a conflict in the story.
06:21But given that Callum uses magic powers throughout the entire film,
06:25you just wonder, why exactly has he lost his faith?
06:28Or maybe that could tie into him being unable to use his powers.
06:32I mean, that sounds obvious to me, but the movie never actually does that.
06:37Because, you know, that might be a good opportunity to actually give the character a moment to confront that.
06:44And I don't know why Johnson has been picking all these roles where he plays the biggest badass in the film,
06:49because that was never part of his appeal.
06:51I've been a fan of Johnson ever since his wrestling days,
06:54but honestly, I'm at the point now where I'm getting quite tired of defending him.
07:00Instead, what that means is that much of the film was actually stolen right underneath Johnson by Chris Evans
07:05in a role that, to me, felt like it was written for Johnson's Red Notas co-star Ryan Reynolds.
07:11In fact, if you told me that that was originally the idea and he wasn't able to do it because of Deadpool,
07:16I'd totally believe you, because it feels like Chris Evans playing a Ryan Reynolds character.
07:22But Evans's cynical tracker, complete with a New York accent that seems to come and go depending on the scene,
07:28is the one that gets the most laughs in the film, mostly because Evans knows how to play a charming weasel.
07:33In fact, that's pretty much been his M.O. for the last few years, especially if you think of things like Knives Out.
07:40He knows how to exploit people because he can predict their worst, most selfish instincts,
07:45and is unabashed about being a bad guy.
07:48In fact, he actually steals candy from a baby in his introductory scene as an adult
07:53after an opening sequence with a child actor who looks absolutely nothing like Chris Evans.
07:59Speaking of kids, Jack's also a bit of a deadbeat dad, given he's got a son named Dylan, played by Wesley Kimmel.
08:05That's Jimmy's nephew, who he consistently disappoints by not showing up, and Dylan is starting to act out because of that.
08:12Now, there's absolutely no point to guessing if they might bond by the time the end credits roll,
08:16having been brought together by fantastical circumstances.
08:20But because of the way the characters have been set up in the script, you end up with this dynamic between Jack and Callum
08:26that is jaded against jaded, which doesn't work for a comedy, in my opinion.
08:31I think making Johnson the role of a true believer in magic would have given him the chance to play the role with a much lighter touch,
08:38that would have balanced things out better, but also would have given Johnson the chance to actually show off that charm
08:44that we know that he had, but seems weirdly unable to actually deploy recently.
08:50I got the feeling as I was watching Red One that the sheer scale of the production meant that
08:55Kazdin kind of lost control over the sleigh during filming.
08:59It's a big, expensive film, and you often see that on screen, but not always in the best way.
09:08The film is often overly busy with big, elaborate visual effect sequences, which can be very inconsistent in terms of their quality,
09:17and that creates the kind of ugliness that you can only get by spending far too much money with not enough intent behind it.
09:25One of the film's most fun ideas, in my opinion, is a reality distortion bracelet that Callum has on his wrist
09:31that can manipulate and alter objects.
09:34So, for example, he can go into a toy store, grab a Hot Wheels car off the rack, place it outside, and turn it into a real car.
09:42But he can also use it, you see, to manipulate his own size, like he's Ant-Man or something,
09:48which means there are several fight sequences where Callum actually shrinks himself to outwit larger opponents,
09:55and those effects look awful and really uncanny.
10:00Also, I do have to remind you that the gag of a massively buff Johnson shrinking himself down to miniature size
10:07was already done in his previous fantasy, Misfire Tooth Fairy, over a decade ago,
10:13and believe me, you do not want to remind people of that film on purpose.
10:18But then there'll be other moments where the filmmakers very wisely decide to use practical effects,
10:23such as when Callum competes against Santa's brother Krampus, played by Game of Thrones star Christopher Hivju,
10:28and that character, and all the other creatures around him in that sequence,
10:32are all brilliant makeup and prosthetics work that are far more convincing than their digital counterparts.
10:38In fact, that whole Krampus schlap sequence, where Hivju and Johnson take turns slapping each other,
10:45that seems like an attempt on Red One's part to do a cantina-like sequence from Star Wars.
10:51It's a bit of a weird thing for them to do, but they spend about ten minutes on that.
10:56And it's so frustrating, because there's enough good ideas in Red One that I kind of enjoy
11:01that it almost works at times, in spite of itself.
11:05I like the film's take on Santa Claus, who in this case is a buff Saint Nick.
11:09He has to keep himself in tip-top shape, because delivering all those presents is a very physical job.
11:15And that's why, kids, you gotta leave out them cookies. He needs those carbs.
11:20You wouldn't believe how much energy Santa needs going down all those chimneys.
11:24And, as I said recently, J.K. Simmons makes everything better just by being in them.
11:30It's not even his first time playing Santa, as he voiced Claus in the Netflix animated film previously,
11:36but he's seriously underutilised in this film.
11:39In fact, he actually sits out most of the film until the end.
11:43He has about maybe 10-15 minutes of screen time, tops.
11:47There's also a polar bear enforcer named Garcia, after Johnson's producer, and ex-wife Dani Garcia,
11:54which I honestly wish got a bit more screen time and prominence in the movie,
11:58even though I'm aware that that's probably a very expensive effect.
12:01And I also like the Toy Store backrooms work as teleportation portals for the North Pole,
12:06and they use them to jump around between locations.
12:09That's pretty fun as well.
12:11But often the best elements in Red One are usually overwhelmed by just the sheer amount of stuff
12:17that's going on around them.
12:19And while I'm here, why is the film so dark?
12:22Not just because it feels like it has a darker tone than the Jumanji movies, which is super weird.
12:27There's literally a point where a man gets demonically possessed.
12:31But, I mean, literally dark.
12:33I know it's winter and they're trying to evoke the Northern Lights and all with all the greens and blues,
12:38but shouldn't it be bright and, I don't know, festive looking?
12:42It's telling that the best part of the film is when they fight snowmen on a tropical beach
12:46because it's actually bright and colourful.
12:49Oddly, for a film this expensive, they put so much of it and just shroud it in shadows.
12:56Wouldn't you want to actually see all that stuff on screen?
13:00Why does it have to look so murky and drab all the time?
13:03Isn't this movie supposed to get people in the Christmas spirit?
13:07But the biggest problem with Red One is that Chris Morgan's script literally makes no sense.
13:13I mean, from the premise up.
13:15So, why does Gryler hire Jack via an intermediary to find out where Santa is?
13:20I mean, she's a shapeshifting being that's literally been around for centuries
13:25and should know exactly where Santa is because she dated his brother.
13:29And also, her team of mercenaries are likewise a bunch of shapeshifters.
13:34None of this makes any sense.
13:36And it makes me wonder if, perhaps, this was meant to be a bunch of human characters
13:41and then they had to do a very hasty rewrite after Violent Night came out two years ago
13:46and they didn't want to make the same movie.
13:48Although, quite frankly, that's much better than this one.
13:51And Kin and Shipka tries to do her best with a fairly generic villain role.
13:55I guess after Sabrina, she's now typecast playing witches.
13:59And they do give her one cool power in that she can hear whenever a name is spoken.
14:05So, she can literally zoom in on whoever has spoken her name
14:09and sometimes can take control of them.
14:12That's genuinely kind of creepy and sinister.
14:15A take on the kind of, he knows when you've been sleeping, he knows when you're awake.
14:19Yeah, she knows when you've said her name.
14:22That's genuinely a horror movie power.
14:25But the script is filled with gaping holes in logic.
14:28Even for something like this.
14:30And a late reveal about where Gryler is actually holding Santa
14:33not only makes much of the film feel like largely pointless busy work in retrospect,
14:37but it makes nearly all the characters, including Lucy Liu's Mora agent,
14:42who is meant to be a fantasy intelligence service
14:45and a thankless exposition role in execution,
14:48look like complete bumbling idiots for not working out Gryler's scheme much sooner than they do.
14:54Red One is like that disappointing present on Christmas morning.
14:57Not as much fun as it looks on the packaging.
15:00It generally doesn't seem to know who its audience is meant to be,
15:03so it ends up being too mature for little kids and too immature for adults.
15:08And as an action film, the big set pieces and fights are often photographed
15:12way too close and tight to be visually coherent.
15:15It feels like the camera is about two feet away from the stunt performers,
15:18so even though it has really elaborate choreography, you struggle to follow it.
15:23As a comedy, it really isn't all that funny.
15:26And treating this premise with big macho seriousness doesn't generate that many laughs,
15:32especially when you don't poke your tongue in cheek like you're supposed to.
15:37It has all the elements for what should be a fun Christmas film with some cool ideas,
15:42but Kazan and Johnson don't replicate the magic of their Jumanji movies.
15:47It does have a lot of Christmas elements, so if you're simply looking for something seasonal,
15:50it does pass that test with flying colours.
15:53But even so, in my opinion, there are better Christmas films, even new ones.
15:58I've seen Netflix's That Christmas Already, the Richard Curtis one,
16:02and that is a better holiday film for families than this one is.
16:06And I will admit, there have been far worse Christmas films over the years,
16:11even ones featuring wrestlers.
16:13I'm looking at you, Hulk Hogan's Santa with muscles.
16:16But Red One very nearly turns The Rock into a lump of coal.
16:21Or a turkey, if you like that analogy better.
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16:46Until next time, I'm Matthew Buck, fading out.