Violent Night (2022, Blu-ray, Netflix rental) Review

[SRW1000]

This is a heart-warming story about Santa, blended with John Wick, with a dash of Home Alone thrown in.  Seriously, that pretty well sums up this film.  Absurd.  Violent, but not as over-the-top as you might think.  Santa, portrayed by David Harbour, is at various times crude, drunk, potty-mouthed, sincere, determined, and doubtful.  Oh, and violent (it’s even in the title, in case anyone was unsure).

Director Tommy Wirkola, perhaps best known for his zombie movies Dead Snow and Dead Snow 2, does his best to mix comedy, action, and heart into a cohesive story.  While the cast does an admirable job staying true to their characters, none of them is particularly interesting.  John Leguizamo is appropriately menacing but doesn’t give us anything we haven’t seen before.  Beverly D'Angelo shows she still has her acting chops in portraying the family matriarch.  And Leah Brady provides the heart of the movie as the cute and spunky little daughter.  Most of the other cast members are just “there” occupying their stereotypes as best they can.

One thing that stood out to me was the contrast in music.  There are some standard Christmas classics that sound fantastic, even on this rental’s DTS-X 7.1 soundtrack.  On the other hand, both my wife and I didn’t care for the score at all.  We both liked composer Dominic Lewis’ work on Bullet Train, but the style here was just cloyingly cutesy, and ended up undermining some of the more serious tones of the movie.  That’s not surprising given the mix of feelings that the movie is trying to incorporate, but even just toning down the score’s sound levels would have helped the feel of the movie, instead of overpowering it.

There are a few laughs to be had, and I did find myself chuckling out loud a couple of times, but it would be hard to classify as a comedy.  Given the amount of violence, it’s not really appropriate for children, even if there are parts of the story that play to that perspective.  And there’s really not that much action to satisfy action movie fans.  Also missing is any sense of world building around Santa, which is odd considering how much that could have added to the script.

That raises the question as to who this movie is for, and I can’t hazard a guess.  One can’t help to compare it to the somewhat similarly themed Fatman.  Of the two, I slightly prefer Mel Gibson’s effort.  It had more surprises, and the story was slightly deeper, but neither were exactly remarkable.

If you’re looking for a somewhat amusing distraction over the holiday season and not opposed to seeing an irreverent Christmas movie featuring Santa beat up bad guys and get beaten up in return, you might just find this mildly entertaining.  If you’re looking for anything beyond that, you’ll probably just end up bewildered and worn out by the end.

While it was nice to see a movie shot in real snow, instead of the typical Hollywood version, this was a rental at best.

Scott

[David Vaughn]

I got a press release for this but it definitely isn't my cup of tea and I didn't put in a review request. My son-in-law like it, but he enjoys horror films (which I don't). 

Thanks for the review!

[SRW1000]

I got a press release for this but it definitely isn't my cup of tea and I didn't put in a review request. My son-in-law like it, but he enjoys horror films (which I don't).

Thanks for the review!

I didn't think you'd like this one, but I wouldn't classify it as a horror movie, more of a home invasion thriller.  But in any case, it wasn't very good, although I can see some people liking it.  Just talked to a friend this afternoon, and he liked it a lot, and wasn't surprised that I didn't. We're both life-long nerds, but often disagree on specific titles.

On an unrelated note, any idea how this simple little review has gotten almost 5000 views in less than 24 hours?

Violent Night (2022, Blu-ray, Netflix rental) Review

I'm guessing it's just bots.  I've seen it on a few other reviews here, but it's uncommon.

Scott

[David Vaughn]

I didn't think you'd like this one, but I wouldn't classify it as a horror movie, more of a home invasion thriller.  But in any case, it wasn't very good, although I can see some people liking it.  Just talked to a friend this afternoon, and he liked it a lot, and wasn't surprised that I didn't. We're both life-long nerds, but often disagree on specific titles.

On an unrelated note, any idea how this simple little review has gotten almost 5000 views in less than 24 hours?

Violent Night (2022, Blu-ray, Netflix rental) Review

I'm guessing it's just bots.  I've seen it on a few other reviews here, but it's uncommon.

Scott

Definitely bots or you have one hell of a following for your reviews  You're an instant star!

[Paul Heroy]

That's very odd and interesting about the # of views. It's at nearly 8k now so climbing at a pretty high rate.

The other movie review threads aren't close to that, except for The Banshees of Insherin being at over 6k views. That was started by bmoney, so unfortunately you can't take credit for the following on that one Scott!

[SRW1000]

That's very odd and interesting about the # of views. It's at nearly 8k now so climbing at a pretty high rate.

The other movie review threads aren't close to that, except for The Banshees of Insherin being at over 6k views. That was started by bmoney, so unfortunately you can't take credit for the following on that one Scott!

I guess I'll have to keep my day job.  

David is the champ, though.  His review of The Woman King, which is almost up to 20K!  

It's a rather odd assortment of movies for bots to target.

[bmoney]

Surprised by this one. Loves it. New take on Santa. That didn’t take itself seriously.