‘Red One’ And Its Ilk Are The Reason People Don’t Take Christmas Movies Seriously Anymore
The “seasonal movie” doesn’t necessarily have a high bar, but it does come with a lot of expectations. Hit a few marks and check a few boxes and you’ve got a passable seasonal experience. Summer blockbusters better have chicks, hunks, and action. Halloween frightfests need dead teenagers, hordes of flesh-eating zombies, or absolutely terrifying little girls (See Ouija: Origins). And lastly, Christmas movies are expected to leave the audience with a revitalized appreciation for faith, family, and the spirit of giving.
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Unfortunately with a film like Red One, audiences only left theaters with a newfound appreciation for the cash they wasted to see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson once again prove that medical science can make a 52-year-old man look like he’s a spry 50-year-old again. The film is more superhero action with a Christmas skin rather than a movie audiences can return to every December.
In all fairness Red One isn’t the most egregious example of a Christmas movie that harbors indifference toward the holiday. Let’s not forget the Paramount+ exclusive Christmas comedy starring Jack Black, Dear Santa, in which Black plays Satan after a young boy accidentally misspelled Santa on his Christmas card. The fact that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ shouldn’t keep folks from enjoying a feel-good comedy about the literal devil. Right?
Heck, in a post-Santa Inc. world I expected Hollywood to get the message. Yes, people actually love the holiday season. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying every Christmas movie should be Journey To Bethlehem, but a return to competent holiday movies is sorely needed (especially in theaters).
After all, this Christmas we’re in for a 19th century horror picture with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. Not to disparage the vampiric remake – it really does look promising – but it probably has too much sex and blood to be remembered as a Christmas classic.
Adult-themed movies like 2015’s Krampus and 2022’s Violent Night certainly have a place among the holiday binge watch lineups, but it becomes ever more clear that as these cynical looks at the holiday continue to be made, families are often left with decades-old movies to fill the void.
RELATED: ‘Violent Night’ Review – Santa Delivers An Ooey Gooey Squelchy Head Squashing
After all, people love returning to classics like A Christmas Story, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and Elf year after year. So much so that it’s tradition in many households to sit around the TV and watch Home Alone (for the hundredth time). Simply looking at a broadcast television movie line up will confirm that all of the “good” Christmas movies were made 15+ years ago.
Even the less well received films like The Santa Clause, Jingle All The Way, and Fred Claus hold a special place in people’s hearts for the simple fact that they check the right boxes and give you that warm feeling inside by the end of the movie.
What’s worse is that Hollywood is still making these traditional, by-the-numbers films, but severely limiting their audiences by not releasing them in theaters. Red One is a regrettable exception to the rule. Reportedly Dwayne Johnson insisted on the theatrical release after seeing Oppenhimer in IMAX. Whether that is the motivation behind the theatrical release or not, most of us would have preferred that they didn’t.
The same cannot be said for Netflix and their ridiculous streaming releases. Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles from 2018 stars Kurt Russell as Santa Claus on an adventure to save Christmas. Or 2021’s A Boy Called Christmas, depicting a Narnia-like origin story for the holiday traditions. And last but not least, I can’t forget to mention the critically acclaimed animated Klaus, which acted as an origin story for Santa himself (and made me cry).
Netflix did all three of these movies dirty by keeping them on their strict, straight-to-stream release, and only helped prove that, as Disney+ has consistently made evident, streaming is where movies go to die. The fact that there are people out there that have never seen Klaus is criminal. If you haven’t yet, go watch Klaus. You won’t regret it.
To continue beating a dead horse, The Disney+ release Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever was surprisingly heartfelt and evoked childhood memories of being snowed-in during a massive storm. Or Amazon Prime’s own Merry Little Batman being testament to the fact that the animated DC movies have been better than the live-action slop for about a decade now. Neither films ever made it to the theaters despite being perfectly good movies with reasonable budgets.
One speck of hope this year is Dallas Jenkins’ film adaptation of Barbara Robinson’s book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Very much unlike the previous examples I gave, the movie did have a theatrical release and closed with about $37 million at the box office with a budget of less than $10 million.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was not only a successful Christian themed return to tradition, but the fact that the film stood against others in theaters showed us that they have the courage to compete in the market. Especially in a time where many productions would kill to sell out to the highest bidder in the streaming space.
So as we approach the end of the year it would be a great time to give an unknown Christmas flick like Klaus a chance. Trust me, it’s better than Red One.
NEXT: ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ Review – A 90s Holiday Throwback For The Whole Family
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