Red One is a crowd-pleasing, family-friendly choice for anyone looking to add a little adrenaline to their seasonal watchlist. Check out my parents guide movie review.
Red One releases in theaters across the United States tomorrow, Friday, November 15, 2024. The film stars Chris Evans (Jack O’Malley), Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Callum Drift), J. K. Simmons (Santa Claus), Lucy Liu (Zoe), Kiernan Shipka (Grýla), and Wesley Kimmel (Dylan). The film is fun, festive, and action-packed. Check out the details in my parents guide movie review.
RED ONE Parents Guide Movie Review
In Red One: When a villain kidnaps Santa Claus from the North Pole, an E.L.F. (Extremely Large and Formidable) operative joins forces with the world’s most accomplished tracker to find him and save Christmas.
RED ONE Parents Guide
Let’s take a look at what concerned parents need to know about the age ratings of the movie before letting their younger audiences watch Red One.
Language: Red One contains some strong language. Lookout words include: sh*t, d*mn, hell, balls, and a character begins to say f*ck, but it gets cut off.
Mature Content: The biggest lookouts in Red One are the fight scenes and characters in peril. Characters are shown carrying weapons, using weapons on other characters, punching, slapping, and more. There is a scene that shows females revealing bikinis, exposing their rear end. Other scenes include theft, children stealing, and other “naughty list” events.
Overall Thoughts
Red One is one of those modern holiday movies that tries to tackle multiple genres in an attempt to appeal to everyone. This is an understandable strategy in today’s market, as overall movies tend to rake in less money than years past. There’s obviously plenty of action for the men and teen boys, there’s sweet and caring scenes for the ladies, there’s lots of christmas magic for the kiddies, and plenty of comedy to tie it all together. There’s even some creepy scenes for those that like the horror genre, although it is decidedly light and shouldn’t really scare too many.
With all that said, Red One doesn’t really push the envelope on anything, but I don’t think it’s trying to achieve anything other than delighting audiences. Tis’ the season, of course, and the holidays always bring a fresh crop of movies for people to view. Although ultimately it may not hold up to many classics that people enjoy, it does have a fresher tale to tell by mixing up the old standard “We have to save Christmas!” idea with a high-tech tactical spin about how Santa Claus and the real world operates.
This brings in a lot of fun concepts that seem modern and cool, such as turning toy cars into real ones on a whim and a worldwide connection of portals hidden in toy store closets, but also giving life to the mythical like Krampus and Santa’s reindeer, although I was sad to see there wasn’t a depiction of Rudolph. Despite its two hour runtime, it doesn’t suffer any pacing issues and should easily capture your attention for its entirety. Certainly, Red One is a fine movie to watch with the whole family and kicks off this Christmas season with a rollicking good time.
