Red One

This weekend, Red One, a new Christmas blockbuster starring Christ Evans and Dwayne Johnson, was released in theaters. Red One follows follows North Pole security head, Callum Drift as he recruits bounty hunter Jack O'Malley to assist in the rescue of the kidnapped Santa Claus. I didn't have high hopes for this movie. I expected it to be a fun yet mediocre Christmas blockbuster.

This movie was pretty much what I expected, fun yet mediocre. Dwayne Johnson is as charming as ever and manages to make any movie he is in fun. Chris Evans was a fun enough character too. The two had entertaining enough chemistry together. It wasn't anything to write home about but there was enough there to be believable. Like most other blockbusters, this movie had quite a bit of globetrotting to it with a fun action sequence in every location. The movie also had a decent amount of funny moments. They weren't anything super memorable but enough to make me chuckle while I was watching. The best way I can describe this movie is that it is perfectly ok. It doesn't do anything wrong It doesn't do anything memorable either. The movie's job was to be fun and keep me entertained and that is what it did.

The movie is a pretty generic blockbuster. Two movie stars are thrown together to go on a globetrotting adventure with a villain whose plan has global implications. It feels like many of the direct-to-streaming movies I have seen on Netflix except this was a theatrical release. The story itself is pretty forgettable. The villain has nothing notable about her. She is just a generic bad guy who is trying to make the world better by doing bad things. This review is a bit sparse because there is just nothing super memorable good or bad about the movie. It probably would have worked better for me as a streaming release instead of a theatrical film.

Overall, this is an entertaining enough Christmas blockbuster that is about as good as a movie about Dwayne Johnson rescuing a kidnapped Santa Claus could be. It will be a good watch for a family but probably not worth spending money to go see in the theater.

Score: 6.5/10 Grade: B- Recommendation: Wait to stream it