Overview
After Santa Claus (codename: Red One) is kidnapped, the North Pole's Head of Security must team up with the world's most infamous bounty hunter in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.
Minor Spoilers Ahead!
Introduction
Jack O’Malley is a very talented guy. However, rather than using his talents to be a better father and a good person, Jack uses his talents for himself. When an anonymous person approaches him asking him to look into suspicious activity at the North Pole, Jack accepts, only caring about the money. However, a few hours later when he is taken by M.O.R.A (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), he realizes that he accidentally helped the mysterious person kidnap Santa Claus. Now, Christmas is in jeopardy and it’s up to Jack and Callum Drift, Santa’s main bodyguard, to find Santa and save Christmas.
Ripe Apples
Callum is about to retire from being Santa’s main bodyguard. The main reason he wants to retire is because he’s not seeing the Christmas spirit anymore. Adults are just becoming more and more naughty and there are less people that are good in the world. Santa explains to Callum that they can’t give up on people and just need to keep trying to spread the good in the world. By the end of the film, Callum realizes that Santa is right and wants to continue to help spread the joyful spirit of Christmas.
Jack has been an absent father from his kid for a long time. He has missed important things that he should’ve been at. However, by the end of the film, Jack realizes that he needs to be a better father and begins to work on doing just that. This was a great lesson to see where is shows that people can change and mature in a good way, regardless of their past.
The entire film focuses on people being good and trying to fix the wrong things that they did. That lesson is a great lesson to be taught and a great thing to take away from this film.
Rotten Apples
There are a few fight scenes where we see hand to hand combat. Most fights do not involve blood, but there is some. When Jack and Callum visit Krampus, the people there play a game where they slap each other in the face, causing bruises. This game is intense and leads to some people being knocked out. Some mythical creatures, such as snowmen, are cut in half and killed in different ways, not very violently though.
There are a few scenes where we see women in bikini’s and revealing clothing. No nudity is seen. There are a few guys that are seen shirtless. Multiple men are kicked in the groin. A couple of people say that they have dated some witches. There is one suspicious reference where Jack mentions that a guy is going to get lucky with another guy that night.
The film has a magical and mythical premise, so suffice to say there is some magic in this film. This magic goes beyond Christmas magic. The Christmas witch is the primary villain in this film, and we see her use a lot of magic. There is one scene when she is first introduced that is somewhat disturbing, especially for young viewers. Krampus is also in this film, and he has a demon like appearance.
There are a few scenes where a character is seen drinking, and in one scene we see Jack hung over from drinking too much. He asks someone for an aspirin to help with his headache. There are a few parties where alcohol is being served.
There were about 9 to ten variations of the s word. One f bomb was cut off in the middle of it. The Lord’s name was misused about 5 times and the h word was said about ten times. There were also a few a words used in its variations.
Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed this film. The plot was entertaining and the character development was great! I loved the action and the story overall. Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson are a duo that we need to see more of as they both did a great job. I also liked the lesson of always trying to spread good to help fight against the naughty. The only thing I wish there wasn’t as much of is the language. Some of the magical scenes can also be a little much for some viewers. However, if you like action and comedy and are looking for a new Christmas movie to watch, Red One is a great pick! Let me know your thoughts in the comments!