Recently released in theaters, Red One has Dwayne Johnson teaming up with Chris Evans to rescue Santa Claus. The trailers seem pretty cute. Will the movie live up to them?
After a mall trip to Philadelphia to meet some children, Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons), code name Red One, gets kidnapped by a mysterious group of people. It’s up to Santa’s head of security, Callum Drift (Johnson), and Jack O’Malley (Evans), a thief with the ability to track anyone anywhere, to rescue him before Christmas can be ruined.
My husband was (loudly) listening to some podcasters talking about the movie this morning. I tried not to listen but I did hear one of the women say she wasn’t impressed by the movie and she wasn’t sure who the target audience was. I think this woman has never met people before because my family found Red One quite enjoyable. There was comedy, there was action, there was some sad moments, and there were some heartwarming moments. Everything you love to see in a family-friendly movie.
While I try not to compare theatrically released movies to Hallmark/Great American Family/Lifetime movies, Red One was originally supposed to be an Amazon Prime release. Taking that into consideration, this very well may be my favorite movie of the year. The cable networks will have a difficult time beating this one.
Rating: J.K. Simmons should be Santa Claus in every movie