by Aaron Schweitzer, Editor
When I first heard of Violent Night, I thought to myself, here we go again. Another movie that should be straight to DVD, but because David Harbour is trending, it will go out in theaters and take up space for a better film. But then I saw the trailer. I went from completely uninterested to incredibly excited. What I saw in this film looked like a fun romp film with an interesting concept, anchored by two performances and great action. Unfortunately, only about half of that came true.
I want to start with the positives, and there are really only three nice things I feel are worth saying. The most obvious should be the action. It’s hard to think of a movie this might compare to. The crowning achievement for action of the last decade seems to be John Wick, but Violent Night‘s action isn’t as complex as those films’, so it really shouldn’t be compared. It is, however, shot incredibly well. Maybe the better comparison is something like The Northman. I did have some trouble with how dark the film is. Sometimes I could barely tell what was going on, particularly in the first action scene, but I don’t see too many complaints, so I’ll just chalk that up to my theater needing to replace a bulb.
Every time the film was in action mode, I was all in. There are a lot of melee kills, and the choreographers make sure we don’t see the same thing twice. Whether it’s a different weapon or a different method, I was having a great time as Santa Claus killed the guys on the naughty list. The death that stands out to me the most is the one in the film’s climax. It is creative, clever, and brutal. It almost saves the movie for me. It might even be worth watching the whole film just to see that one again, but we also do live in an age of YouTube, so there is really no need.
Another scene that stands out to me is when the film embraces a Home Alone mood. Before the climax, this was easily the best scene, but it also creates a problem because it feels like it belongs in a much better movie, or at the very least, a more entertaining one. More on that in the negatives.
Harbour is another positive. He plays this role a little more seriously than I expected from this movie, but he was a great choice for the role. This version of Santa is supposed to be a tired and disheartened version, and Harbour plays into that well. There are also several moments involving Santa’s backstory and the mysticism of his character that feel natural. This role isn’t going to be his crowning achievement, but he is easily my favorite performer in the film.
The final positive is the backstory. There was a moment where the film gives some background to Santa Claus, and it left me laughing (in a good way) ,and my wife breaking down and sighing, “What?” It is a new twist on the iconic character, and it plays nicely into the tone and story of the film. Similar to Nobody, the film doesn’t just put its star into a scene and be like, “Here’s an average male in a dire circumstance. Watch him kick butt.” Instead, it gives me reason to believe that a relatively average person could overcome these trained killers.
With that, let’s move onto the negatives, and I hate to say it, but let’s start with John Leguizamo. I was so excited to see him in this role, but the problem is he thinks he is in a totally different movie. He is going for a more brutal and active Hans Gruber, but he just winds up being Generic Bad Guy Number One. There is no subtlety, nuance, or even humor in his character, so he winds up being the most forgettable part of the film.
Leguizamo isn’t alone, and this is my biggest gripe. Every one of these actors thinks they’re in a different movie. Some think they’re in Die Hard with Santa, and some think they’re in Die Hard With Santa: A SYFY Original Movie. The most out of place is the comic relief character who thinks he is in the film that I wanted, but is such an unlikable character, we’re almost glad that he might die at any time.
The film tries to have a story here, and honestly, the only story that I care about is that Santa Claus has to kick the crap out of some bad guys. I knew what movie I was signing up for, but the movie tries to do something different. There’s this whole backstory with the family that shows relationship tension and how much greed has drawn them apart. There’s a separation subplot, a twist on the heist, and even a double cross. Honestly, I never cared about any of these people.
With scenes such as the Home Alone scene, it really makes me wish the film spent more time doing that because I was having a blast. The family plot is just filler for the runtime and has no humor to add. You could argue that it makes the characters less of cardboard cutouts and more like real people, but I would argue the film doesn’t do that well. I just don’t see why we needed motivation for the bad guys to try to steal from this rich family, other than simply they’re rich and he’s not.
The last thing I’ll say is this movie is so inconsistent with its humor. Some moments had me choking on my popcorn because I was laughing so hard, but just as many had me rolling my eyes. The first scene starts with Santa getting drunk at a bar, and I thought it was great. But then the scene ends with a vomit joke that then made me realize I was only ever going to love 50% of this movie, while hating the other 50%.
Violent Night certainly isn’t the worst film you could watch this year, but it is far from the best. It’s definitely not going to be a Christmas staple in my household. All I wanted was to have fun watching a stupid movie about Santa killing bad guys, and Violent Night couldn’t even do that right. Ultimately, I do think it is worth watching because the action is just so great and it’s genuinely hilarious at times, but you should wait until it is on Netflix or in the $5 movie bin.
Score 5/10
Violent Night is currently playing in theaters
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