Red One (2024)

Movie Name/Year: Red One (2024)

Genre: Holiday, Action, Adventure, Comedy
Length: 2h 3min
Rating: PG-13
Director: Jake Kasdan
Writers: Chris Morgan, Hiram Garcia
Actors: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J.K. Simmons, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Kiernan Shipka, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Wesley Kimmel, Nick Kroll, Wyatt Hunt, Clayton Cooper, Lanz Duffy, Marc Evan Jackson, Samantha Benson, Ashleigh Domangue, Jon Rudnitsky, Regina Ting Chen, Reinaldo Faberlle, Philip Fornah, Kenny Waymack Jr., Gissette Valentin, Matthew Cornwell, Jeff Chase, Morla

IMDb Blurb: After Santa Claus (code name: Red One) is kidnapped, the North Pole's Head of Security (Dwayne Johnson) must team up with the world's most infamous bounty hunter (Chris Evans) in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.

Cat’s Point of View:
November is a special month for my family outside of the beginning of the “official” Holiday Season with Thanksgiving. My wedding anniversary is at the beginning of the month, and this year my husband and I hit a pretty significant milestone with #25. We pretty much celebrated the whole week-of, and that included a family outing to partake of the single-showing special preview of Red One at our local Cinemark theater. We were all looking forward to watching this movie, as the trailers had us in stitches. (Our annual festivities weren't even taken into consideration when I listed this as #3 on my Top 20 article this month.)

We had a blast – even in spite of my husband having to sit next to a very noisy youngling that did not belong to us. (Not everyone participates in the whole “Silence is Golden” mantra, but hey – maybe they thought it was cool because that's a catchphrase either copyrighted or trademarked by AMC theaters. I digress...)

I was actually fairly shocked as I was putting the information for this article together and noticed some of the review scores on the usual sources. I realize that the paid critics are not easy customers to please when it comes to scoring movies like these, and they do tend to lean in a more harsh direction. Seriously, though, to quote Chris Evans' (Knives Out, The Gray Man, Deadpool & Wolverine) cameo one-liner from Free Guy (2021), “What the shit?!” Did they really watch the same movie we did?

In any case, when it comes to those scores, take it or leave it. I don't, personally, agree to their opinions.
Red One was a zesty confection that blended action-comedy with modern day cynicism to take a jaded career protection service agent and a naughty anti-hero on a redemption journey with heart and laughs.

Sure, the trailer did give away some of the funny bits, but not all. On the whole, it was still a fun experience – especially if you are a fan of anyone involved in the production. I liked the story hook behind the actual antagonist, too. It's fun when films delve a little deeper into the lore of a holiday, as well. There are two lesser-known Christmas-adjacent “mythical beings” involved in this tale that serve to both drive the story and also offer redemption for more than just the usual suspects.

We got to see Evans' absolute joy in bringing the snarky banter of his character to the screen, and Dwayne Johnson's (Moana, Jumanji: the Next Level, Young Rock) delivered the smack-down to his role as well. (In some cases, quite literally.) J K Simmons (The Tomorrow War, You Can't Run Forever, Saturday Night) was a better Santa than I expected (and I was already optimistic), and Bonnie Hunt (Cars 3, Zootopia, Monsters at Work) gave me all “the feels” as Mrs. Claus.

We're not talking Oscar-contention here, but it wasn't supposed to be! Red One was a very solid popcorn-movie offering to kick off the Holiday Season. I'd also have to say that it has now become one of my family's favorite Christmas movies. This will likely become one of our holiday movie traditions to enjoy together.

If the trailer made you laugh or feel in any sort of way that you might enjoy Red One, my suggestion is to go and see for yourself. It will eventually hit a streaming service, but the release date for such has not yet been confirmed. For that reason, there's no guarantee it will be available for subscribers in time for Christmas. If you want to see it with your family before then, I'm afraid the theaters are the only guaranteed way to go.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 32%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – 34%
Metacritic User Score – 2.6/10
IMDB Score – 2.6/10

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 5/5

Movie Trailer: