Red One

[Skyhawke]

Go. See. This. Movie. I went in ready for the average schlock and by the end had a huge smile on my face and a tear in my eye (shut up, I did). It has it's moments where you kinda know what's gonna happen, but that's any movie these days. What got me was how fun it was all the way through, the quest to save Christmas (loves me a good quest) and the heartfelt (and yes, sappy) way it hits at the end. God, I miss when we had fun movies that just made you feel good inside. Highly recommend this one. Don't dissect it. Don't go in expecting Oscar bait. Go in and enjoy. Be a kid again and just enjoy.

[Excraft]

My brother took the nieces and nephew to see this.  He said it stunk and wished he could get that 2 hours of his life back.   No. Thank. You.  

[Without_Pause]

I look at it this way. How high of a standard do you have for a Christmas movie with The Rock involved? My wife wanted to go see it. I even offered up better reviewed films. It was fine. She enjoyed it and that was the point. It's a Christmas story with actions scenes. Were you expecting anything else? I've enjoyed other movies Dwayne Johnson has been in more, but really, he just acts the same in every movie. The movie simply checks all of the boxes you expect it to check off for a Christmas movie while never really lifting itself above that bare minimum.

[Ghost]

For some reason people are expecting a masterpiece, from a Christmas comedy starring The Rock.

I imagine these same people happily sit down and smile every year as they watch whatever new Hallmark Christmas movie is released.

[Techwright]

13 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

 I've enjoyed other movies Dwayne Johnson has been in more, but really, he just acts the same in every movie.

 

Hey, if I was going to make $50 million for doing the movie, and apparently get $20 million per movie on average, I'd be happy to act in a stale, cookie-cutter fashion that movie studios like for each and every movie as well. 

[Luminara]

30 minutes ago, Techwright said:

Hey, if I was going to make $50 million for doing the movie, and apparently get $20 million per movie on average, I'd be happy to act in a stale, cookie-cutter fashion that movie studios like for each and every movie as well. 

 

If he's making that much, I suppose I could permit him to be my pet Rock.  For a fee, of course.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

On 11/27/2024 at 11:06 AM, Ghost said:

I imagine these same people happily sit down and smile every year as they watch whatever new Hallmark Christmas movie is released.

My partner turned down the idea of Red One for the niecelets, but is currently enjoying "A Very Corgi Christmas" without a hint of irony.

And if it's between that and a Rock movie, the corgi's got more range.

 

But let's be fair: you want the Rock to be the Rock, (including being a miserable, self-entitled PITA on and off set), hire The Rock and frame the movie (or his part of it) around The Rock doing Rock stuff.

 

You want a beefy guy who can do the action actor lunk schtick and unleash a whole bunch of skillsets when needed, not to mention show up and work like a trouper, you get Dave Bautista.

 

Red One didn't have the best first couple of weeks - and having Wicked ($112m opening weekend, $144m so far) and Gladiator II ($55m open, $67m to date) hoovering up the wide bookings across Thanksgiving is NOT going to help a Christmas flick get its legs back. 

 

One last fun box office fact: Red One is currently on about the same numbers as this year's other big Christmas-themed release... Terrifier 3.

 

PS / EDIT: what's wrong with a good Hallmark movie?

Edited November 28 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Ghost]

7 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

 

PS / EDIT: what's wrong with a good Hallmark movie?

Nothing wrong with a good Hallmark Christmas movie - I own a few on DVD 🙂

 

Thats the point though.

Christmas movies are the only genre that you expect to be cheesy, and you love them for it.

Sure, there’s a few exceptions - but the majority are dripping with cheese.

Maybe the mistake was giving Red One a theatrical release.  
But there have been plenty of other cheesy Christmas movies released in theaters.

 

I think people see “The Rock” and are expecting something he rarely delivers - a great movie.

[Techwright]

1 hour ago, Ghost said:

Nothing wrong with a good Hallmark Christmas movie - I own a few on DVD 🙂

 

Thats the point though.

Christmas movies are the only genre that you expect to be cheesy, and you love them for it.

 

I suppose it depends on your definition of "cheese".   We Americans call that yellow stuff that can be sprayed from a can "cheese" even though...wait...sorry. wrong notes card.

There are a lot of Halloween films I'd consider terribly cheesy, and quite a few Valentines Day ones as well. 

 

I'm now picturing The Rock in a cheesy Halloween movie:  "What did you get trick-or-treating, Charlie Brown?"  "I got a Rock." 

Yep, it works!

[Ghost]

51 minutes ago, Techwright said:

 

I suppose it depends on your definition of "cheese".   We Americans call that yellow stuff that can be sprayed from a can "cheese" even though...wait...sorry. wrong notes card.

There are a lot of Halloween films I'd consider terribly cheesy, and quite a few Valentines Day ones as well. 

 

I'm now picturing The Rock in a cheesy Halloween movie:  "What did you get trick-or-treating, Charlie Brown?"  "I got a Rock." 

Yep, it works!

I don’t know.

Yes there are cheesy Halloween, but I don’t think that’s what people expect when it comes to horror.  Unless they are watching some low budget B-Grade horror movie.

 

With Christmas, I really think it’s expected.  Just the basic premise behind Christmas movies have no choice - someone lost someone/something, and the magic of Christmas helps them rediscover it. 
 

I think you’re right about valentines, but is there really that many releases every year?

Maybe there is and I just haven’t noticed.

Christmas time basically runs from Thanksgiving to Christmas, so there’s plenty of time to release movies.  Valentines is really looked at as that one day.

 

[BrandX]

I think we all know, it's not gonna surpass Violent Night as the go to Christmas movie.  However, from what I've read it's basically turning Santa into a superhero movie.

[TTRPGWhiz]

There's probably some middle ground between "Oscar bait" and "worst reviewed film currently in theaters", lol.

You don't necessarily need to have high hopes for a movie for it to still be disappointing. Sometimes even middling hopes are dashed.

Glad OP enjoyed it, though!

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

FYI, Red One dropped on Amazon early (which is going to hack off a number of distributors, as it's still in cinemas in the UK).

 

And it's... alright.

The Rock does Rock stuff. Chris Evans does sleazy-Evans stuff, with a moha pronaunced Bahstonian than usual. Lucy Liu does Lucy Liu stuff.

None of the leads seem to have any particular heart or relish in doing their stuff, but it gets done.

The plot has two neat twists, a couple of genuinely creepy moments, half a dozen decent jokes, and an array of detail about the workings of the North Pole. But runs pretty much as you'd expect other than that.

If there are standouts, it's the bad guys tucking into their parts and quite a chunk of the scenery: Kiernan Shipka as Gryla the Snow witch, and her (ex-)partner in punishment, Kristofer Hivju (GoT's Tormund) under half a ton of latex. Plus it may not be JK Simmons' first ride around the world as the Big Guy, but he delivers his bits with genuine warmth and affection. And, incidentally, non-CGI muscles.

 

So, it's not... bad. It's a perfectly watchable distraction for the kids or while you're wrapping presents, and it was free with Prime.

But audiences need and expect more to get to the 'plex these days, and average does not cut the Christmas cake. 

Edited December 14 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[Without_Pause]

Apparently the audience just wanted to watch it at home. 

https://www.avclub.com/red-one-amazon-prime-video-biggest-streaming-premiere

 

[BrandX]

Watched it on Prime.  It was an okay watch 🙂  Not one I would plan to buy on 4k Steelbook (yes, I still buy physical media), but a fun watch, would watch it again.