Movie ‘Red One’ Disappoints a Humor Hungry Audience
Every move seemed wrong while planning for the movie `Red One`. At least, this is what appears on the screen, literally, when something seems to be amiss each time the narrative shifts, or just for the heck of it, even during the floating stream of the story in the movie. The cine-goers are reminded of the movie “Die Hard” when they happen to visit the theatres in relaxation mode during their holidays.
A-listed actors like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Chris “Captain America” Evans are seen to offer their best, yet the movie is unable to ‘move’ the audience. The mainline story revolves around J.K. Simmons (playing Santa Claus), an Oscar awardee, who is kidnapped by terrorists. Tired Americans do need a little reprieve from their humdrum existences, but the movie doesn’t seem to offer anything fresh.
RED ONE is a GO 🎬
— Seven Bucks Prod (@SevenBucksProd) November 15, 2024
Grab your families and join us in theaters TODAY as we kick off the holiday season with @redonemov 🎅🏽
Get your tickets now: https://t.co/abUuQubEaw
#SevenBucks@AmazonMGMStudio pic.twitter.com/PyBOA2gMr6
Forget brains, remember to laugh on Red One
‘Endlessly illogical’ is one of the thoughts that might crop up in the minds of the cine-goers, who try to analyze the ‘out of the blue’ moves, both in the storyline and the actions of the actors themselves. The planetary poles are nowadays the favorites for the movie Directors, as Callum Drift played by Johnson is in and out of the Arctic Circle. Out to the beaches of Aruba, one can notice frolic and action with the fun part missing, almost always.
Take for instance, when Drift in the movie ‘Red One’ helps Mr. and Ms. Claus (played by Bonnie Hunt) along a longish age line of about 542 years and then his sudden wish to retire. Tsk tsk tch tsk……so early! Produced at a staggering $250 million, the effects of spending such a huge sum fail to show up anywhere, even when over-the-top and costly locations on the planet have been involved.
Justice has been done to the ‘off the cuff’ storyline, by the Movie Director while trying to bring alive a jaded plot on the screen. And who plays the toy store manager hired for controlling the tin pot animators from a nowhere international agency, when ‘Red One’ is kidnapped by the angels on the earth! Who else, but Zoe Harlow (played by Lucy Liu) could have done justice even with the humbug role of a kind, the store manager had to offer. The story, of course, kickstarts with the kidnapping of the ‘Red One’.
Failing to execute her task with events getting out of hand, she contacts Jack (played by Chris Evans) who is in the midst of his own homely perils. Popularly known as “The Wolf” Jack O’Malley, a criminal himself does actually, have little faith in the existence of Santa Claus. So, with the absence of the pivot around whom the storyline revolves, Jack is in a dilemma to safely bring back home, the `Ho Ho Ho` funnyman. The teenage son of Jack is played by Dylan (Wesley Kimmel).
The audience should know in this case at least! Cine goers under the age of five years are smiling though, as they sound uncritical. Natural for the kiddies, this one! This happens when Jack and Callum are able to turn the `Red One` plot into a bit of comedy far away from the dark humor, surrounding the character roles played by the esteemed actors.
Director Kasdan impresses, though
Director Jake Kasdan who catapulted the movie ‘Jumanji’ to its apex following a second sequel to the first one, has done justice to the plot. Chris Morgan`s mish-mash script, yet slow-paced narratives in the plot hasn’t dampened the spirit of Kasdan in the movie, though, the latter has let the now ‘unfamed’ narrative go unscathed. The audience is surely going to find something amiss while watching it!
The antics of a late-comer villain, the Christmas Witch Gryla, played by Kiernan Shipka, fail to move anyone either in ‘Red One’. In the movie “Mad Men” she played Don Draper`s kid. Well, in the movie Santa Claus’s “good for nothing” brother is played by Krampus (Kristofer Hivju).
The disappointment turns into depression for Callum while sighing “I love the kids, but the grownups are killing me.” It`s not strange considering when one sees the digitalized version of the special effects apart from the giant Reindeers including the out of the world elements in the movie. Undoubtedly, one is sick while leaving the theatre in the end after seeing ‘Red One!
What can be said about the eighth wonder of the world with tall claims of comedy that rejuvenates, falling flat on the face. Sorry folks, we are not against the Director, but the scriptwriter got it all wrong! Actually, the movie indeed is an imposed Christmas miracle that just makes even the last straw of joy vanish in a moment.
Indeed, ‘Red One’ can be categorized as anything, but fun unlimited! Appearing to be in tune with the comical humor, it nevertheless appears to be a ‘humbug’ as a famous character from another movie talks about some nonsense, explaining its essence.
