{"id":2372731,"date":"2024-11-24T07:33:01","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T12:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/red-one-is-a-fast-furious-and-forgettable-holiday-misfire-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-11-24T07:39:13","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T12:39:13","slug":"red-one-is-a-fast-furious-and-forgettable-holiday-misfire-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/red-one-is-a-fast-furious-and-forgettable-holiday-misfire-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Red One is a fast, furious, and forgettable holiday misfire &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fred-one-is-a-fast-furious-and-forgettable-holiday-misfire-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2372731&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The review of &#8220;Red One,&#8221; a holiday \u2064film designed to blend action with Christmas themes, concludes that it fails to\u2062 deliver. \u200cDirected by\u200d Chris Morgan, the movie had a significant budget of $250 million and stars Dwayne Johnson and \u2062J.K. Simmons, who portrays a muscular version of Santa Claus. However, Simmons has\u200c minimal screen \u2064time, with the narrative primarily following Johnson&#8217;s character,\u200b Callum \u200bDrift, who is Santa&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/irs-whistleblower-docs-show-doj-obstructed-hunter-biden-probe-to-protect-president\/\" title=\"IRS Whistleblower Docs Reveal DOJ Obstructed Hunter Biden Probe for President&#039;s Protection\">secret service head<\/a>. \u200bThe plot includes\u2063 a convoluted mix of characters, \u2062featuring Chris\u200d Evans as\u200c a divorced hacker pulled into a rescue mission \u2063for Santa, which adds unnecessary complexity without strong chemistry between the leads.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2062 film&#8217;s attempts at\u200d humor and absurdity, such\u2062 as scenes involving Santa being escorted by\u200c fighter jets, are overshadowed by a lack of coherent direction and underwhelming storytelling. Critics mention that aside from a few holiday\u200d nods, the film doesn&#8217;t embrace the Christmas spirit,\u2062 offering instead a generic action movie devoid of festive charm. This\u2063 misalignment with\u200d the holiday theme, combined with an overstuffed plot, leads to \u2063a\u2063 disappointing viewing experience ultimately\u200c making &#8220;Red \u200dOne&#8221; a forgettable holiday misfire.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Red One is a fast, furious, and forgettable holiday misfire<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1889659\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>In recent years, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/movies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">movie<\/a> studios have moved to capitalize on the trendy debate over&nbsp;<em>Die Hard&rsquo;s<\/em> status as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/Christmas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Christmas<\/a> movie: bona fide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/holidays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">holiday<\/a> classic or an action flick that just happens to take place amid the Yuletide season? After endless cloying stories of saccharine and serendipitous love, audiences have been pining for a version of&nbsp;<em>Love Actually<\/em>&nbsp;where Colin Firth plays a muscle-clad Rambo on a mission to rescue Santa.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Attempting to tap into this niche, Chris Morgan, the screenwriter behind a slew of the&nbsp;<em>Fast and Furious<\/em>&nbsp;sequels, has created&nbsp;<em>Red One<\/em>, a bloated, $250 million production set in a world where mythical creatures ranging from the Headless Horseman to Santa Claus roam free. But despite its promising premise,&nbsp;<em>Red One<\/em>&nbsp;is a misfire from the start.<\/p>\n<p>J.K. Simmons is cast as a buff, bench-pressing St. Nick, a departure from the traditional fat and jolly Santa, but he&rsquo;s barely in the movie at all. The film sidelines Santa early on (more on this in a moment, but an interesting choice of direction for a <em>Christmas movie<\/em>), relegating Simmons to mere minutes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-best-interests-of-children-have-often-come-dead-last-watch-mcconnell-tear-into-teachers-unions\/\" title=\"\u2018The Best Interests Of Children Have Often Come Dead Last\u2019: Watch McConnell Tear Into Teachers\u2019 Unions\">screen time<\/a>. Instead, the focus shifts to Dwayne Johnson as Callum Drift, Santa&rsquo;s secret service security head &mdash; the same brawny archetype that Johnson portrays in every movie, given that he has the acting range of a barstool. In a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/film\/news\/dwayne-johnson-red-one-imax-inspired-oppenheimer-christopher-nolan-1236209576\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent interview<\/a>, Johnson compared&nbsp;<em>Red One<\/em>&nbsp;to<em>&nbsp;Oppenheimer, <\/em>citing Nolan&rsquo;s World War II epic as an inspiration for his film and motivation for releasing it in IMAX. Ironically, this may be the best joke of Johnson&rsquo;s career.<\/p>\n<p>The film&rsquo;s highlights are all at points when it isn&rsquo;t taking itself too seriously. There is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-captain-america-says-to-expect-more-social-justice-from-marvel\/\" title=\"New Captain America Says to Expect More Social Justice from Marvel\">early scene<\/a> where Santa, after a visit to the local mall to take family photos, is escorted to an army base in a white Suburban &mdash; from there, a pair of F-22 Raptors accompany him and his reindeer-guided sleigh back to the North Pole. But outside a handful of such memorably ridiculous scenes,&nbsp;<em>Red One<\/em>&nbsp;is a case study of a filmmaker trying to do too much and overstuffing a film with ideas.<\/p>\n<p>The plot is unnecessarily complicated by having far too many characters. Chris Evans plays a downtrodden and divorced computer hacker who starts the plot by helping locate Santa&rsquo;s clandestine North Pole lair, resulting in his kidnapping. He continues to be a part of the film for no reason other than the director&rsquo;s desire to pair Evans with Johnson, who share little chemistry anyway. Although Drift&rsquo;s defense team (aptly named ELF) includes a 10-foot-tall bipedal polar bear with human intelligence, he opts to drag Evans along on the rescue mission despite him having no reason to continue being there.<\/p>\n<p>It is unknown how producers allocated the film&rsquo;s budget, but judging by screen time, they could only afford two A-list leads. With Santa safely kidnapped and stowed away for much of the film, we largely follow Evans and Johnson in a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">mediocre buddy-cop-style action movie<\/a>. There&rsquo;s a scene midway through where they fly to Bora Bora in search of clues and end up fighting their way through Eastern European gangsters and then animated, armed snowmen. It feels like an effort to prolong the plot, as they ultimately learn that Santa&rsquo;s captor is the most infamous and sinister witch in their world named the Winter Witch, a former lover of Santa&rsquo;s estranged brother. I am no Lt. Columbo, but this would have been my first suspect.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from a scant few nods to the season and Johnson exclaiming, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go save Christmas,&rdquo; little about this movie has anything to do with the holiday at all. At least&nbsp;<em>Die Hard<\/em>&rsquo;s soundtrack featured &ldquo;Let It Snow.&rdquo;&nbsp;<em>Red One<\/em>&nbsp;runs on a bland score recycled from&nbsp;<em>Marvel&rsquo;s Avengers<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>What made Christmas action crossovers such as&nbsp;<em>Fatman<\/em>&nbsp;(2020) work was that they engaged your imagination instead of wasting time and resources building the superfluous details of their own outlandish worlds. In&nbsp;<em>Fatman,<\/em> there is a scene where Santa exclaims at his would-be assassin, &ldquo;You think you&rsquo;re the first?&rdquo; &mdash; immediately suggesting reams of backstory without having to invent any of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We don&rsquo;t need to know the vagaries of bureaucratic organizations such as MORA (the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), headed by an overacting Lucy Liu, which add nothing of value to the plot. Note to screenwriters: More lore does not equate to better storytelling. It is these excesses and overcomplications that bloat the story into a two-hour film and ruin any chance of fun.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, it&rsquo;s unclear who the target audience is for&nbsp;<em>Red One<\/em>. It lacks the Christmas sentimentality to appeal to families, and its unserious, awkward tone and PG-13 rating prevent it from being a proper action film. It feels like a cookie-cutter throwaway contrived to pay its actors exorbitant salaries &mdash;&nbsp;isn&rsquo;t that what Christmas is all about? In the end, we&rsquo;d all be better off rewatching&nbsp;<em>Die Hard<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Harry&nbsp;Khachatrian (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Harry1T6%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">@Harry1T6<\/a>) is a film critic for the&nbsp;<\/em>Washington Examiner&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>Beltway Confidential blog and a computer engineer in Toronto pursuing his MBA.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1889659\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1889659\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red One is a hasty and forgettable holiday flop<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3549,"featured_media":2372732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AP24317217020284-scaled-1024x731.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[36241,45596,45595,45594,32076],"class_list":["post-2372731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-film-review","tag-forgettable-cinema","tag-holiday-movie","tag-red-one","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AP24317217020284-scaled-1024x731.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2372731"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372735,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372731\/revisions\/2372735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2372732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2372731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2372731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2372731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}