Brief Story Line
Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson - Red Notice, DC League of Super-Pets etc) was the head of security in North Pole responsible for protecting St. Nicholas/Santa Claus (J. K. Simmons - The Union, 21 Bridges etc) aka Red One for many years. However two nights before Christmas, he was kidnapped by some unknown people.
Zoe Harlow (Lucy Liu - Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Strange World etc) the director of organization handling mythological stuff (MORA) who was also sort of Callum's boss, decided to enlist the help from infamous hacker Jack O'Malley (Chris Evans - Ghosted, The Gray Man etc) to find Red One and save Christmas.
So who actually kidnapped Santa and what was the reason? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I said above that the lead cast were the ones that got my attention. Both Johnson and Evans have played in many successful movies in the past and most were usually entertaining, so I was pretty sure this would be exciting. Plus the premise sounded fun as well which convinced me that it would be a great joy to see it. And this one in general did not disappoint. There were plenty of humorous scenes that made us chuckled and some cool action scenes, though they were not the explosive and totally awesome kind.
However, despite the fun part, personally to me there seemed to be too many long dialogues which was likely to add depth to the characters and dramatic effect to the story, but not entirely successful. I felt they tried too hard and instead of providing the desired effect, it actually felt a bit distracting and did not really have added value (my wife even felt sleepy at one point). This probably contributed to the long duration of 123 minutes including the closing credits, but did not have any mid or post end credit scenes.
The movie seemed to rely heavily on the two big names. In addition to the ones I mentioned above, there were also the support of Bonnie Hunt (Cars 3, The Green Mile etc) as Mrs. Klaus, Nick Kroll (Don't Worry Darling, The Kroll Show etc) as Ted, Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV series, Godmothered etc) as Olivia, Kiernan Shipka (Totally Killer, Longlegs etc) and Kristopher Hivju (Game of Thrones TV series etc) as characters that I think were better for you to see for yourself. One thing that I thought was a bit of miscast was Kiernan Shipka who I thought was not exactly the best choice for such character (but that's just my personal opinion). No offence on her cause I thought she was great in the previous films/series that I saw.
The action sequence was the main attraction for me with a bit of humor here and there. The sound effect was very nice, satisfying and perfect to hear those Christmas songs. The special effects were pretty amazing which probably explained the hefty budget of USD250 million (though some rumors saying it was due to other reasons). From what I read, this movie was supposed to be released on Prime Video in 2023 Christmas but delayed due to the strike. Critics were not too impressed by the movie, though I think the loyal fans of Johnson and Evans would still enjoy this one. Btw, the film itself was directed by Jake Kasdan who directed both Jumanji sequels and written by Chris Morgan (writer of several Fast and Furious movies).
In the end, this was a fun and enjoyable Christmas themed action comedy adventure movie with interesting premise. The action and humor was nice, but the few overly long dialogues and slight miscast was not the greatest part to my opinion. Oh the ending was a nice touch and pretty satisfying for me as well. So if you are in the mood to see a movie with such attributes, then I think you would enjoy this. Without overthinking it, I am sure you would have a pleasing time like me and my wife too.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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