Red One (2024)
December 12, 2024 9:32 AM - Subscribe
[TRAILER] 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 mission to save Christmas.
Also starring J.K. Simmons, Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll.
Directed by Jake Kasdan. Screenplay by Chris Morgan. Story by Hiram Garcia. Produced by Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Chris Morgan, Jake Kasdan, Melvin Mar for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Seven Bucks Productions/Big Indie Pictures. Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios/Warner Bros. Pictures. Cinematography by Dan Mindel. Edited by Mark Helfrich, Steve Edwards, Tara Timpone. Music by Henry Jackman.
30% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Currently streaming in the US on Prime. JustWatch listing.
Also starring J.K. Simmons, Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Nick Kroll.
Directed by Jake Kasdan. Screenplay by Chris Morgan. Story by Hiram Garcia. Produced by Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Chris Morgan, Jake Kasdan, Melvin Mar for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Seven Bucks Productions/Big Indie Pictures. Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios/Warner Bros. Pictures. Cinematography by Dan Mindel. Edited by Mark Helfrich, Steve Edwards, Tara Timpone. Music by Henry Jackman.
30% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Currently streaming in the US on Prime. JustWatch listing.
One would like to think just the sheer charisma of the actors involved would make it at least palatable.
posted by Atreides at 9:44 AM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Atreides at 9:44 AM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
Production issues — ranging from Johnson’s chronic lateness and lack of professionalism on set to producers’ inexperience — caused costs on the movie costarring Chris Evans and J.K. Simmons to spiral upwards to a final budget over $250 million, a sum more fitting for a superhero tentpole.
...
Insiders told TheWrap that Johnson showed up as much as eight hours late to set on the movie — forcing the crew to shoot around him on some days. On previous films, Johnson has made a habit of peeing in a water bottle to save time, upsetting crew members.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:10 AM on December 12, 2024 [4 favorites]
...
Insiders told TheWrap that Johnson showed up as much as eight hours late to set on the movie — forcing the crew to shoot around him on some days. On previous films, Johnson has made a habit of peeing in a water bottle to save time, upsetting crew members.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:10 AM on December 12, 2024 [4 favorites]
This is one that seems like it could be so funny in certain previews and then in others, really stupid. Almost seems like too many storylines or too much stunt casting. Everyone needs a funny moment in the trailer, including the non-human characters.
posted by soelo at 12:32 PM on December 12, 2024
posted by soelo at 12:32 PM on December 12, 2024
FWIW I have seen multiple mediocre to terrible reviews of this -- pretty hard pass for me.
posted by Pedantzilla at 1:23 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Pedantzilla at 1:23 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
$250m????????
posted by praemunire at 3:14 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 3:14 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]
That report in the link that Saxon posted was fucking brutal. Chronic tardiness is something that I associate with rock stars who are sliding, usually irreparably, into suckitude.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:58 PM on December 12, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:58 PM on December 12, 2024 [2 favorites]
Reading that article, I suddenly thought, "Dear God, he's gonna be president, isn't he?" He sounds batshit insane in a way that could get a dude elected nowadays.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:45 PM on December 12, 2024 [9 favorites]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:45 PM on December 12, 2024 [9 favorites]
The premise of the sitcom the Rock produced was retelling the story of his youth via a frame story set in 2032 where he is running for president.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:41 AM on December 13, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:41 AM on December 13, 2024 [4 favorites]
schadenfrau posted this comment in Jan 2019 about his political ambitions: The Rock now has a reality competition show where he pops up to give little speeches that feel...very much like a certain kind of rebrand. They gave that fucker his version of the Apprentice.
There is more to the comment, and I believe that show fizzled out thankfully. He is very much trying to stay relevant to the average voter in both major parties.
posted by soelo at 10:07 AM on December 13, 2024
There is more to the comment, and I believe that show fizzled out thankfully. He is very much trying to stay relevant to the average voter in both major parties.
posted by soelo at 10:07 AM on December 13, 2024
I would rather handle a Voss bottle full of his piss than listen to his opinions about politics.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:52 AM on December 13, 2024
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:52 AM on December 13, 2024
Yeah, I knew about his political ambitions, and in a better world (or at least in America before it totally lost its brains) his spectacular lateness and his piss bottles and all that stuff would have been enough to doom his prospects. But as I read that article I got this sinking feeling. A big smirky pro wrestler who is very, very obviously both nutty as hell, and an asshole? It's way too easy to picture this guy being a real-life President Camacho.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:32 PM on December 13, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:32 PM on December 13, 2024 [2 favorites]
After word of his piss-poor behavior (see what I did there?) got out, Dwayne's PR team have been working overtime. Witness: this ridiculously bad fluff piece from GQ, where we get to see The Rock's simpler side: he's just a regular guy who likes to fish and drive his truck:
"It’s hard for Dwayne Johnson to hide. Wherever he goes, there he is—as conspicuous out in the world as he is on the silver screen. But after two decades of playing a version of himself in huge movies, suddenly he is ready to do something entirely new: vanish."
It’s not that Dwayne Johnson is tall, though he is—about six feet four inches and broad, with an adamantine bald head and sculptural shoulders. It’s not that he is part Samoan, part Black, though he is that too. It’s not even that Johnson is what Hollywood likes to euphemistically call the most successful movie star alive, meaning, most years, the highest paid. It’s that these things—the shape of the man, his parents, his professional ascendance—have combined in a singular way to make him recognizable at more or less any distance. Because of this, Johnson struggles, in the most prosaic sense, to be alone."
See, he isn't a self-centered narcissist, he just wants to be alone!
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:34 PM on December 13, 2024 [3 favorites]
"It’s hard for Dwayne Johnson to hide. Wherever he goes, there he is—as conspicuous out in the world as he is on the silver screen. But after two decades of playing a version of himself in huge movies, suddenly he is ready to do something entirely new: vanish."
It’s not that Dwayne Johnson is tall, though he is—about six feet four inches and broad, with an adamantine bald head and sculptural shoulders. It’s not that he is part Samoan, part Black, though he is that too. It’s not even that Johnson is what Hollywood likes to euphemistically call the most successful movie star alive, meaning, most years, the highest paid. It’s that these things—the shape of the man, his parents, his professional ascendance—have combined in a singular way to make him recognizable at more or less any distance. Because of this, Johnson struggles, in the most prosaic sense, to be alone."
See, he isn't a self-centered narcissist, he just wants to be alone!
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:34 PM on December 13, 2024 [3 favorites]
Reading that article, I suddenly thought, "Dear God, he's gonna be president, isn't he?" He sounds batshit insane in a way that could get a dude elected nowadays.
LOL. He really is batshit insane if he thinks there will even be another presidential election. Missed your chance , Dwayne.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:57 AM on December 14, 2024 [5 favorites]
LOL. He really is batshit insane if he thinks there will even be another presidential election. Missed your chance , Dwayne.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:57 AM on December 14, 2024 [5 favorites]
I recommend this movie (it's terrible) because there are no words for how tonally weird it is. I would say the only pleasure is watching Chris Evans as a scumbag, but also most of his non-Captain roles are scummy, so it's not special. But there's this whole operator vibe? JK Simmons Santa is very swole and does parkour paratrooper present deliveries? I don't know what to tell you, it's very strange!!
posted by grandiloquiet at 6:18 PM on December 14, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by grandiloquiet at 6:18 PM on December 14, 2024 [2 favorites]
Don't know what to say about this one. Would be a low-mid-level entry in the Christmas action genre if not for the expensive-yet-cheap-looking-and-almost-fully-lacking-in-imagination CGI glopped on top. (Sometimes worse effects...are better?) A few of the jokes are funny. Evans is doing discount Robert Downey Jr. and popping in and out of his "smaht cah" accent, everyone's working on paying for that third house. Then there's a weird darkish Krampus sequence that's almost entirely out of keeping with the rest of it. I'm not at all clear what they were actually going for, or who the imagined audience was.
posted by praemunire at 11:11 PM on December 14, 2024
posted by praemunire at 11:11 PM on December 14, 2024
I dove about 30 minutes in. I don't know if I'll resume, but gotta hand it to the writers who felt that to clearly illustrate how awful Evans' character is before his clearly inevitable turn to good, is to have him literally steal candy from a baby. Oi.
posted by Atreides at 11:11 AM on December 15, 2024
posted by Atreides at 11:11 AM on December 15, 2024
Also I was secretly hoping for a subplot in which Callum pined gently for Mrs. Claus, but was denied.
posted by praemunire at 8:06 PM on December 15, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 8:06 PM on December 15, 2024 [2 favorites]
I found it the finest Chrysler commercial ever committed to film.
posted by Omon Ra at 12:20 PM on December 16, 2024
posted by Omon Ra at 12:20 PM on December 16, 2024
So…my friend and I saw this in the theater on the preview opening night, when things are usually crowded, and I think there were maybe 20 other people there. We knew it would be terrible but we’re Chris Evans fans, what can I say. But I think we just didn’t know what all the people staying away might have known—just how really awful it is.
The whole beginning of setting up Evans’s character and the weird little caper he does was so dumb and boring that I literally had no idea what was going on and had zoned out so far that by the time he goes to take the lollipop from the kid, I couldn’t have told you what had happened. I was watching it but I missed the entire thing somehow. And as soon as they showed the baby with the candy, I actually said out loud “oh no they’re not, are they?” and yet they did.
Johnson’s insistence on them changing it to show in theaters really emphasizes how bad the CGI is, on an imax screen it’s abysmal. I love JK Simmons and at times he seems to be having fun, but finding out about the stress on set made a lot of the performances make more sense. Evans usually has chemistry with the actors he works with, but there’s almost none with Johnson and he spends most of the movie doing these ridiculous, broad reactions to everything, gaping and cringing or sneering like some old time villain.
It’s a complete waste of Lucy Liu, and Bonnie Hunt has like one minute of screen time. Kiernan Shipka’s actual villain is just bizarre and another waste of talent.
My friend and I were discussing why this was so bad on the way home, and I commented that he was so good on stage when I saw him in 2018 in a Broadway play, and we were trying to figure out if it’s just that he has terrible taste in film projects, that he’s getting somewhat decent scripts that are getting destroyed in the process of production, or that he just wants to work with certain people and that’s a mistake? We just don’t know but I wish he would stop making these awful movies.
I don’t usually watch videos from randos on the Internet talking about movies because I don’t care what they have to say, but I watched quite a few about this one because I was curious what other people were saying, and there are actually some pretty decent takes on how this is representative of the movie business right now. I guess I’m not alone in wanting to dissect what makes this so cynically awful. Every once in a while, I miss my old dream job of film critic for a newspaper back when that was an actual thing you could do, because writing a review of this would have been fantastic. It was always so much easier to write negative reviews than positive ones.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:22 PM on December 16, 2024 [1 favorite]
The whole beginning of setting up Evans’s character and the weird little caper he does was so dumb and boring that I literally had no idea what was going on and had zoned out so far that by the time he goes to take the lollipop from the kid, I couldn’t have told you what had happened. I was watching it but I missed the entire thing somehow. And as soon as they showed the baby with the candy, I actually said out loud “oh no they’re not, are they?” and yet they did.
Johnson’s insistence on them changing it to show in theaters really emphasizes how bad the CGI is, on an imax screen it’s abysmal. I love JK Simmons and at times he seems to be having fun, but finding out about the stress on set made a lot of the performances make more sense. Evans usually has chemistry with the actors he works with, but there’s almost none with Johnson and he spends most of the movie doing these ridiculous, broad reactions to everything, gaping and cringing or sneering like some old time villain.
It’s a complete waste of Lucy Liu, and Bonnie Hunt has like one minute of screen time. Kiernan Shipka’s actual villain is just bizarre and another waste of talent.
My friend and I were discussing why this was so bad on the way home, and I commented that he was so good on stage when I saw him in 2018 in a Broadway play, and we were trying to figure out if it’s just that he has terrible taste in film projects, that he’s getting somewhat decent scripts that are getting destroyed in the process of production, or that he just wants to work with certain people and that’s a mistake? We just don’t know but I wish he would stop making these awful movies.
I don’t usually watch videos from randos on the Internet talking about movies because I don’t care what they have to say, but I watched quite a few about this one because I was curious what other people were saying, and there are actually some pretty decent takes on how this is representative of the movie business right now. I guess I’m not alone in wanting to dissect what makes this so cynically awful. Every once in a while, I miss my old dream job of film critic for a newspaper back when that was an actual thing you could do, because writing a review of this would have been fantastic. It was always so much easier to write negative reviews than positive ones.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:22 PM on December 16, 2024 [1 favorite]
I ended up home sick this week and just went ahead and finished the film. It's one of those movies where you just need to check out to find it redeemable in any sense. kitten kaboodle outlined pretty much all the issues with the film.
Evans' charisma, if not his acting, helped to carry the film as far as it could. His accent, which seemed to disappear at times, did not. The Rock's performance was pretty much every Rock performance. I had to look up Bonnie Hunt's photo because she was on screen so little I had to confirm that I was seeing Bonnie Hunt. Hi Bonnie. I also agree it was an additional waste of Shipka, especially in the vein that a lot more could have been done with the character but what we get is a pretty one dimensional cackling villain.
I could see where all the money went, for good or bad. You have multiple digital characters, different sets, locations, and also prosthetics costumes, etc...a lot of money was put into details and effects. On the small screen (50") they didn't look terrible, but I was viewing them from the perspective of something made for tv.
The worse part about Red One is there probably was a more fun movie in there somewhere. It's completely fine as a movie you put on while you do things, but that's pretty much it.
posted by Atreides at 11:34 AM on December 17, 2024
Evans' charisma, if not his acting, helped to carry the film as far as it could. His accent, which seemed to disappear at times, did not. The Rock's performance was pretty much every Rock performance. I had to look up Bonnie Hunt's photo because she was on screen so little I had to confirm that I was seeing Bonnie Hunt. Hi Bonnie. I also agree it was an additional waste of Shipka, especially in the vein that a lot more could have been done with the character but what we get is a pretty one dimensional cackling villain.
I could see where all the money went, for good or bad. You have multiple digital characters, different sets, locations, and also prosthetics costumes, etc...a lot of money was put into details and effects. On the small screen (50") they didn't look terrible, but I was viewing them from the perspective of something made for tv.
The worse part about Red One is there probably was a more fun movie in there somewhere. It's completely fine as a movie you put on while you do things, but that's pretty much it.
posted by Atreides at 11:34 AM on December 17, 2024
This felt like a Christmas-themed 2020s superhero movie: Well-made even if it wasn't particularly good. I probably wouldn't watch it again but my family didn't regret watching it like we did Dear Santa. We watched it on TV so the only cost was our time, if we'd actually gone to the theatre to see this then I may have had more regrets about it.
I'm pretty sure my 10 year-old kid actually enjoyed it and he's gotta be the prime audience for this kind of movie anyway.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:53 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]
I'm pretty sure my 10 year-old kid actually enjoyed it and he's gotta be the prime audience for this kind of movie anyway.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:53 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]
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posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:34 AM on December 12, 2024 [2 favorites]