Review: Jake Kasdan's big-budget 'Red One,' starring Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson, is a disastrous bid at a Christmas franchise for Amazon/MGM.

That said, I'm not that sure a Hollywood movie has ever kicked off the season with less true Christmas spirit than "Red One." Sure, J.K. Simmons plays Santa Claus (who gets abducted), and Simmons is winning in his crinkly old wise innocence. Dwayne Johnson ...

The latest in an ongoing trend of action-packed Christmas movies, J.K. Simmons takes on the white beard from Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson and David Harbour in Red One, a $200 million Amazon MGM Studios streaming-turned-theatrical production that blends genres for some family-friendly holiday fun with a generous dose of self-aware absurdity.

The movie's shining light is JK Simmons as a muscly Santa who can easily do 500 press-ups in five minutes. He manages to sell the schmaltzy lines and is a great fit as Saint Nick in his second Santa movie outing following Netflix's exceptional Klaus. Unfortunately, the plot means he's off-screen after the first act and the movie suffers for it.

Lucy Liu and J.K. Simmons also star in Jake Kasdan's action fantasy about an elaborate plot to kidnap Santa Claus and hijack his reindeer for nefarious purposes.

It sounds like a bad joke, but Jake Kasdan (and $250 million) turned a story about action heroes rescuing Santa Claus into a real film The post ‘Red One’ Review: Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evan’s Expensive Christmas Action Comedy Could Have Been Worse appeared first on TheWrap.

The Rock gets knocked silly by monsters and murderous snowmen in his bid to save Santa Claus in a festive film devoid of Christmas cheer 2/5 stars Christmas with The Rock is not nearly as much fun as one would hope.