Red One - Santa's Been Kidnapped OH NO!

What once was an Amazon movie has been released in theaters. Which makes sense when you have the powerhouse Chris Evans and the popcorn movie fueled Dwayne Johnson.

Was it worth putting in the cinemas? I'd say yes. While a movie like this can be passed as a streaming exclusive, I'm one of those people that love to see a movie as it's intended...on the big screen.

The movie is far from perfect. It's the definition of a popcorn holiday movie, but it does hit the right notes that it needs to.

Evans plays Jack O'Malley, he's the guy that can find anyone or anything. He's a thief and a bit of a rouge. Also, he's the reason Santa get's...nick'd. He's hired by an unknown person to track something in the North Pole. With the location revealed, the mysterious person kidnaps Santa a day before Christmas.

Dwayne Johnson plays his usual role. Nearly invincible tough guy in charge of Santa's protection, a member E.L.F. So, what do you do with this situation and two big actors? Team up!!

The duo begins their trek to find the person responsible. From the beach to going toe to toe with Krampus in a slap fight...yeah. A slap fight, and because of Johnson's clause to not lose, fights while he didn't lose against the mythical entity, they found a workaround where they got away.

So, who's pulling the strings and trying to kill Christmas? Sabrina the teenage witch of course. Well, Gryla. A mythic ogre from Iceland who punished naughty children and she wants to pick up where she left off, by punishing every naughty person in the world...which is basically everyone if you think about it.

The movie builds its world of Santa's rules and other mythical beings. The reindeer are HUGE and travel from place to place in a blink. Santa's ripped because he hardcore parkour's his way from house to house. Johnson has a gizmo that makes toys reality...which Evans joked (but not really) if it would work on a Wonder Woman toy.

This movie is just a fun holiday action movie for the whole family. The writing is far from perfect, the plot makes little sense, and Johnson's acting is as stoic as always. It's the Evans part of it that helps. He's a terrible father and while he's not perfect, he does have a good heart deep down. It's the journey from rapscallion to someone who helps save Christmas and Santa that pushes the movie. Johnson's character has a little to learn about people too.

You can probably wait for it to appear on streaming to check it out, but it'll have less of a kick to it watching it after Christmas. If you want goofy action and little heart, go see it. Otherwise, you can wait.

3/5