{"id":30053,"date":"2024-11-15T01:45:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T09:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=30053"},"modified":"2024-11-15T01:45:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T09:45:12","slug":"red-one-has-a-chuckle-or-two-but-isnt-a-festive-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=30053","title":{"rendered":"RED ONE Has a Chuckle or Two, But Isn\u2019t a Festive Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 123 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature from Amazon MGM Studios opens exclusively at\ntheaters on November 15th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the late 1980s, the holiday-themed comedy Scrooged<\/em>\nopened with a fake trailer for a film that involved psychos seizing Santa\u2019s\nheadquarters, and a heavily-armed Lee Majors stepping in to take care of the\nthreat. It was a hilarious parody of the era\u2019s action films and one that made a\nlasting impression. Decades later, it\u2019s hard to not see that bit as being\ninspiration for Red One<\/em>, the action-adventure\/comedy opening this\nweekend. But what worked brilliantly in a two-minute sketch struggles to\nmaintain excitement and laughs over a two-hour running time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The world has become more and more jaded over the past few\ndecades. Up in the North Pole, Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) continues his work of\nbringing joy and happiness to families all over the world. But Commander Callum\nDrift (Dwayne Johnson), Santa\u2019s head of security, has begun to lose hope in\nhuman kindness. After announcing his retirement, Drift is brought back into\naction when a team of sinister hoodlums locate and kidnap Santa Claus. Head of\nthe Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority force Zoe Harlow (Lucy\nLiu) sends the protagonist on a mission to find hacker Jack O\u2019Malley (Chris\nEvans), who discovered Santa\u2019s secret location and sold the details to the\nhighest bidder. After confronting O\u2019Malley, the unlikely pair team up and\ntravel through Earthbound and fantastic worlds to rescue Santa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a lavish production and the world of the North Pole\n(which itself almost looks like a snow-globe) is admittedly impressive to\nbehold. When the supernatural villain is revealed, there are plenty of\nelaborate action scenes and elaborate digital effects featuring Drift and\nO\u2019Malley fighting off various threats. One bit, involving the pair taking on a\ntrio of threatening icy snow-creatures, features some fun quips and creative\naction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The charismatic cast also offer a few amusing moments of\nbickering that do result in a chuckle or two. This includes an antagonistic\nconversation between a confused O\u2019Malley, Harlow and Drift as they reveal their\nroles in the North Pole and state that plenty of seemingly fantastic beings\nfrom legend are quite real. There are a couple of funny interactions as\nO\u2019Malley takes in some surreal sights, and when Drift attempts to pay his\ncriminal partner a compliment for eventually doing something selfless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while there are a few laughs, more of the gags miss the\nmark than hit it and the overall tone isn\u2019t quite right. With the exception of\nthe beach battle, the exaggerated fights are played too seriously and rarely\ntake advantage of the strangeness occurring. The movie\u2019s heroic organization\nhas a very militaristic feel, which feels off-putting in a family holiday\nfeature. If the film had been poking more fun at the MORA and Drift\u2019s defense\ntactics, it may have played more effectively. In truth, the makers would have\nbeen better served to embrace the outrageousness of the concept and\/or go all\nthe way over-the-top (perhaps even earning an R-rating), rather than play it in\na more generic manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are some odd tangents as well, as the leads find\nthemselves in the underworld dealing with holiday-monster Krampus (Kristofer\nHivju) for an extended period of time. Another ineffective twist occurs when\nO\u2019Malley encounters his own son (Wesley Kimmel) in danger. The pair reunite and\nshare an overly sentimental exchange completely out-of-place with the rest of\nthe movie. Add in some underutilized supporting characters like Mrs. Claus\n(Bonnie Hunt) and a CGI polar bear who works with Drift, and the movie ends up\nhaving a chaotic feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are elements of Red One<\/em> that work reasonably\nwell. It looks impressive and one can see how the general concept on paper\nmight have seemed like a winner. Sadly, the movie doesn\u2019t balance action, humor\nand sentiment effectively. The film needed to be sillier and more tongue-in-cheek\n(like that Scrooged <\/em>parody), and thus this festive package doesn\u2019t go\nover as well as hoped for. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 123 minutes This feature from Amazon MGM Studios opens exclusively at theaters on November 15th. Back in the late 1980s, the holiday-themed comedy Scrooged opened with a fake trailer for a film that involved psychos seizing Santa\u2019s headquarters, and a heavily-armed Lee Majors stepping in to take care of the threat. It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":30054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[215,697,1179,1180,3644,4301,4660,6621,9239,12772,13737,16788,16789,16790,16791,17628,17630],"class_list":["post-30053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-215","tag-action","tag-amazon","tag-amazon-mgm-studios","tag-buddy-movie","tag-chris-evans","tag-comedy","tag-dwayne-jonhson","tag-holiday","tag-lucy-liu","tag-mgm","tag-red-one","tag-red-one-film-review","tag-red-one-movie-review","tag-red-one-review","tag-santa","tag-santa-claus"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}