As it’s early November it must be Christmas, or at least it certainly is as far as the shops are concerned with Christmas stock appearing on shelves usually the day after Easter. This year’s Christmas themed big budget blockbuster is the Dwayne Johnson / Chris Evans led, ‘Red One’.
Johnson is Callum Drift the bullet headed Chief of Santa’s personal security for Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons). And with only a day or so to the 25th December it’s to be his last year in the role as he retires due to a crisis of conscience namely that the numbers on the ‘naughty list’ are up 20% and increasing every year. That’s his intention anyway until Santa is kidnapped and indirectly it’s the fault of Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) a tech savvy thief who’s had filched some device for a bunch of baddies led by Gryla (Kiernan Shipka) that’s enabled her to locate Santa. Unaware of what he has done Jack is dragged into partnering up with Cal to locate and rescue Santa and save Christmas in a series of high action CGI drenched set pieces.
It’s a bombastic high tech mismatched buddy movie with Johnson playing straight man to Evans smirking joker who you know will end up liking each other and the pair flit around the world encountering various obstacles. Perhaps best is a fight on a beach between a height altering Cal who wears a amulet that can enlarge items as well as himself which surely makes it this years must have gift for every man. With psychotic snowmen, and burly polar bears most of the CGI is pretty good especially the reindeer who are now referred to as ladies – possibly a Rudolph and his mates now identify as such. Red One bids to cover all angles – the absent father reconciliation, high octane action, Christmas kitsch it’s all here but ultimately it is all rather forgettable and its bid to become a Christmas favourite is unlikely.
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Here’s the Red One trailer……
