Red One
Score: B+
Directed by
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, J.K. Simmons, Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka
Running time: 123 minutes
Rated PG-13
Following in a recent trend of Christmas action-comedy movies, Red One brings some serious star power and does so in a surprisingly effective and entertaining way. The movie's world is clever, putting Santa and the North Pole in the midst of a human world-myth world security and intelligence network. A silly concept, of course, but the movie takes just the right balance of tone between tongue in cheek with enough seriousness to be compelling and even tense at times. The cast is also very well chosen: Dwayne Johnson is perfect as the head of Santa's security; it's basically his usual schtick, but it fits naturally here. Chris Evans is also great as more of a cunning, sly ne'er-do-well, which also makes for a great holiday-style redemption arc. The dialogue is snappy and funny throughout, with neat nods and tie-ins to its various components (Christmas, The Rock's movies, etc.); not surprising, as Red One was directed by Kasdan who made the impressive Jumanji reboot and several TV comedies. The action is fun, too, but it's the inventive world, committed and well-suited star performances, and even some holiday cheer that make this a great trip to the theater.
Venom: The Last Dance
Score: C
Directed by Kelly Marcel
Starring Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple
Running time: 109 minutes
Rated PG-13
Venom: The Last Dance is, apparently, the last in the superhero trilogy of anti-superhero Venom, a combination of human Eddie Brock (Hardy) and a symbiotic shape-shifting alien. While the series has had entertaining moments and its main character is a nice change of pace in the genre, I'm not sad to see it end, particularly on this "blah" note. The Eddie-Venom dynamic is the most interesting part of the series, but this movie strangely only has a few moments that focus on them. Instead, much of the screen time is devoted to a whole new (dull) villain that is chasing after the main duo. Worse than this unimaginative setup is the final, incomprehensible sequence when the internal "rules" of the world go out the window (Symbiotes can be eaten but... survive? Each character seems to get "killed" multiple times), ruining any suspense. Venom still provides some chuckles from his untamed, predatory yet not-quite villainous persona, and some of the action is fine. But mostly, it's a mess with little pay off.
***
It's been a pretty slow fall for movies so far, and I wasn't even going to write a review for Venom 3 at first. But I thought it served as a nice contrast with Red One: while Venom seems a cash grab using its star and genre but serving audiences poor to mediocre results, Red One rises well above its seeming cash grab origins to provide a very solid, entertaining, and distinctive experience. Fortunately, Red One just came out so you should still have a chance to catch it in theaters. There are a few other movies coming out in the last month or so of the year - notably Gladiator 2, which I will see and review soon. Hopefully the year will end on a high note at the theater!
* By SocialNewsXYZ, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77071925
* By Dwayne Johnson's Instagram post, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77219523
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