The Christmas comedy with The Rock and Chris Evans arrives in theaters today.
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| Image Credit: Amazon MGM Studios |
Today, December 7, 2024, an explosive Christmas action comedy arrives in theaters that promises to warm up the holidays: Red One, a film directed and co-produced by Jake Kasdan, takes us on an electrifying adventure to the edge of the North Pole. A new chapter in the personal adventure universe of the director, known for directing Jumanji - Welcome to the Jungle and its sequel Jumanji: The Next Level.
The screenplay, written by Chris Morgan, presents us with a stellar cast led by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Chris Evans. For the first time on the same screen, the two actors give life to an unlikely duo charged with saving Christmas. Alongside them, a rich ensemble of actors including Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, and Wesley Kimmel. The legendary Santa Claus is instead played by J. K. Simmons, who after having lent his voice to Santa Claus in the animated film Klaus, returns to play the same role today.
Produced by Amazon MGM Studios, Red One is distributed by Prime Video.
The plot of Red One
North Pole. Christmas Eve. The festive atmosphere is suddenly disturbed by a shocking event: Santa Claus has been kidnapped. Known by the codename "Red", the old man disappeared into thin air a few hours after the night of the delivery of the gifts. To deal with the emergency, the ELF Task Force is activated, an elite unit charged with protecting the North Pole. Leading the rescue mission is Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), a special agent with a steely temper and great experience in clandestine operations.
At his side, to provide external help to the complicated secret operation, Jack O'Malley (Chris Evans) is selected, a notorious thief, equipped with extraordinary bloodhound skills that allow him to track down anyone, wherever they are hiding. Together, Drift and O'Malley will embark on a long journey around the world and in contact with the unknown. In a race against time that, between clues to find, obstacles to overcome, and enemies to defeat, will lead them to reveal the dark plot that threatens to ruin the most beloved holiday by children forever. Will the two "heroes" be able to save Santa Claus and restore joy to the world?
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| Image Credit: Amazon MGM Studios |
Jake Kasdan and the poetics of pilfering
It was clear since the days of Jumanji - Welcome to the Jungle: Jake Kasdan has always been a skilled pickpocket. Almost like the Jack O'Malley of his new Red One, urgently hired to safeguard Christmas. Or perhaps even more cunning, almost surgical in his choices. And if in the case of the 2017 reboot/sequel the main references were to be found within the video game/adventure genre shaped by Tron and its heirs since the 80s (passing through eXistenZ and similar, but without forgetting the influence of the then newborn Jurassic World), for this latest project the director instead turns his gaze elsewhere.
Unquestionably aware of the material available and well aware of the target of a work of this kind - inevitably intended for an audience mostly made up of families and young or very young people - Kasdan in fact decides to draw from a good part of the mainstream imagination of the last thirty years. Starting from the famous Santa Clause series between the 90s and 2000s (from which Red One steals above all the atmospheres of Michael Lembeck's Santa Clause is in trouble) and arriving at mixing with discreet naturalness different components of the spy and buddy movie. Although the epicenter of the film's narrative earthquake remains first and foremost the usual and irreplaceable The Rock - now almost a fetish of Kasdan.
Red One is The Rock
Compared to Chris Evans who, having abandoned the purity of the MCU's Captain America, returns here to play the role of the "bad" and charming prick (already explored on the occasion of the first Knives Out by Rian Johnson, in 2019), the muscular hypertrophy of The Rock, extended in this case also to the Santa Claus of the excellent J. K. Simmons, represents the remaining 50% of the couple. The half that, however, perhaps inevitably, ends up catalyzing all attention.
“Do I look human to you?” asks Dwayne Johnson’s character in one of the rare moments of respite during the mission. And the essence of one of the most significant icons of muscular cinema of the last twenty years probably lies in the question. Almost as if, more than organs, blood, and tissue, the actor’s indestructible armor is more than anything the result of the fusion of the superhuman tensions of the many characters to whom he has lent his body (from the Scorpion King to Luke Hobbs and Black Adam). And therefore, mindful of the monologue of Tarantino’s Bill – in the film that takes its name from his villain, Dwayne Johnson is the true alter ego of The Rock and not the other way around.
For Kasdan, Christmas is certainly a serious matter, indeed a very serious one. And it deserves to be defended by the best. Although the film, mostly an enjoyable comedy with good ideas, gets lost here and there in a speech that is far too long-winded and aesthetically shaky.
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