Red One: A Typical Rock film, but reasonably entertaining nonetheless

When I see Dwayne Johnson's picture or name attached to something these days, more of then than not I plan on just skipping out on it because I already know what is going to happen. There is going to be some sort of situation where battle knowhow is essential and him being big and stoic is going to save the day. There might be a bit of comedy mixed in there as well.

And this is exactly what Red One is but this time there is a whimsical Christmas theme built in with some life lessons as well!

JOY!

The Rock plays Callum Drift, who is the head of Santa's North Pole security team. Other members of the team include a giant talking polar bear that walks on its hind legs. Awesome.

Apparently Santa is alive and well and lives in an immortal state and the reason why nobody can confirm that he exists is because of some sort of wonderful magic shield technology that exists at the north pole. I'm ok with that. It makes more sense than just being too far away and too cold.

It's always welcome to me to see JK Simmons in a movie, even if in this one he isn't in very much of it. He plays the role of Santa and he also gets his guns out to lift weights with The Rock at one point and I have to say, dude has an impressive physique considering his age.

I hope he's not on steroids. We need him alive because unlike Dwayne Johnson, he is actually a fantastic actor.

I don't think I need to even explain this but because of various reasons Santa gets kidnapped and now there is a very real danger that Christmas isn't going to happen! The horror. I wonder if the Rock and his team of friends are going to be able to pull it off? I'm on the edge of my seat.

This is a major problem I have with all Dwayne Johnson films in that you don't really need to go see it. Just give me a small plot description and which side Dwayne is on and well, that side is going to win. It's never not true.

But that being said, the CGI and what not in this movie is what makes it entertaining. The reindeers being huge and imposing figures was kind of fun

The early battle scenes that showcases how time slowing down technology is possible sort of sheds a light on how Santa can possible make it to all the houses in the world on a single night and they do a good job with that. The chase scenes and what nor are pretty well done as well. They even do a decent job of making a secret north pole city seem somewhat plausible but in a Wakanda sort of way. At least it is somewhere that nobody goes.

The evil side of things is pretty good too and probably my favorite part of the entire film. We need a bad guy right? Well this time is is a Christmas witch and she is pretty exciting and relatively unknown (to me) actress Kiernan Shipka does a good job seeming creepy as hell.

One of my favorite aspects of this film is how there are some in the world that want to encourage good behavior with negative reinforcement and this is part of Scandinavian culture that I was kind of ware of but not in a huge sense.

While I don't want to say that I am absolutely sure of this, I believe that Krampus is a real story in certain parts of the world where instead of a jolly bearded guy bringing you stuff for being good, there is a scary AF demon that will visit you on Christmas if you are bad. While the sequences with the fights between Krampus and Callum are dumb, the CGI does in fact hold up, so credit where credit is due I guess.

Overall this film is not bringing anything new to the table and I would imagine that the large-budget film was made for the same reason that a lot of Christmas movies are made and that is so that they can be sold again and again every single year until the end of time.

I don't think this one will be in such high demand, but it isn't terrible.

Should I watch it?

Honestly, there is nothing special here but for what it is, this movie is reasonably entertaining even though it is wildly stupid. At an estimated $200 million budget, the CGI is the real star of the show and honestly, they do it pretty well. As far as substance is concerned, there is, unsurprisingly, almost none.

But for mindless entertainment that you maybe pay a bit of attention to while you are doing something else, or maybe just something to watch with the kids (somewhat older kids I think) then you can do worse than this.

_{The only way to legally watch this at the moment is with an Amazon Prime membership}