What if Holiday classics like Die Hard and Home Alone were reincarnated as a new type of holiday tale? Now replace John McClane and Kevin McCalister with Santa Claus saving the day in a brutally over-the-top and action-filled experience, which is exactly what Universal Studio's Violent Night delivers. Boasting Stranger Things David Harbour in the main role, the action-comedy delivers a hard-edged holiday fare that's surprisingly entertaining while managing to be admirably heartwarming.
Violent Night's plot focuses on an elite team of mercenaries, who break into a family compound on Christmas Eve and take everyone hostage inside. Despite their efforts, they soon realize that they aren't prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus whose about to save the day Bruce Willis style while proving that he's not so jolly. For any action fans, Violent Night is the ultimate Christmas fantasy brought to the screen. Borrowing heavily from the holiday classics that came before it while heavily relying on the charismatic presence of its main lead, Violent Night produces solid fun while positioning itself as becoming a future holiday classic. It's funny, action-packed, and embodies the spirit of Christmas within its familiar Die Hard scenario.
Much of Violent Night's charm comes from its main cast with David Harbour proving to be a clever choice as gift-bringer Santa Claus, whose also revealed in the story to be a former Viking warrior. Harbour plays a not-so-jolly version of St. Nick with his character shown to be cynical in feeling that people have become alarmingly doubtful in Santa Claus's existence. Elevating Harbour's presence in the film is John Lequizamo in a equally terrific performance as Jimmy "Mr. Scrooge" Martinez, whose the leader of the mercenaries. Lequizamo brilliantly reverts back and forth between being the head thief to someone whose become disenchanted by Christmas. He spurts out many solid one liners here, including a catchy one in which he declares "Christmas Dies Tonight." Alex Hassall does well as Gertrude's favorite son, Jason Lightstone. Hassell convincingly conveys his characters frustration with his overbearing mother, as well as his desperation to reunite with his wife Linda. Alexis Louder is equally good as Jason's estranged wife and engineer Alexis Louder, whose forced to spend the holidays at the house so that their daughter can have a nice Christmas. A key impressive performance to the story is Leah Bradley as Jason and Linda's daughter Trudy, who believes in Santa Claus and wishes for him to not just save her family but bring her parents back together again. Both her and Harbour sharing great on screen moments together. The rest of the cast deliver noteworthy performances including Beverly D' Angelo as foul-mouthed matriarch Gertrude Light who deliberately make her kids fight for her money, Edi Patterson as Gertrude's hard-drinking daughter Alva, and Cam Gigandet as Alva's second husband and wannabe action star/filmmaker, Morgan. Overall, Night's cast do a terrific job of showing genuine enthusiasm for the story.
As for the films directing, Tommy Wirkola keeps the violence heavily R-rated while incorporating the look and feel of the Christmas season. As far as action movies go, this one contains a wide variety of different forms of violence to enhance the films brutality while keeping audiences engaged. Both the cinematography and art-set decoration are effective in giving off a true Christmas Eve vibe, that surrounds the characters while glorifying the films excessively brutal action. The soundtrack does a fine job of matching the stories level of mayhem while complimenting the holiday aspect of it with catchy songs including "A Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives and "You And Me and Santa Claus" by Bob Saker and Bill Connor. In terms of directing, Wirkola knows how to approach the story and crafts a carefree and super-violent action fare that ultimately demands to be taken seriously on its own merits.
Within all of the films mayhem, the core of Violent Night's story revolves around Harbour's Santa struggling with people no longer believing in him, and wondering if he still has purpose. The stories twist is that Harbour's Santa is real with cleverly fun bits incorporated into the film to poke fun at that fact such as him pulling out a digital list of those who have been good or naughty, including the terrorists. Other fun bits in the story include his character shotgunning a beer while riding his sled along with peeing off a rooftop that'll give audiences flashbacks to Billy Bob Thornton's character in Bad Santa. The rest of the film supplies the arc of Santa defeating the robbers, while finding a newfound purpose with Trudy's character believing in him. Outside of Santa's main character arc, other subplots in the film include Trudy wanting her parents to put aside their differences so they can be a family again, along with her father wanting to get away from his mother while using her wealth to start a new life with his family. Even John Lequizamo's character gets an interesting backstory that makes him appear as being less one- dimensional. Despite Gertrude's family being dysfunctional, they share many of the traditional family issues that come to a head during the holiday season with the audience still wanting them to be rescued by Santa.
While it can be said that Violent Night's story heavily utilizes subplots from Die Hard 1,2, and Home Alone, the film deserve points for generating its own Christmas tale involving Santa that feels fresh and fits the holiday spirit. If there's any issue that can be directed at the film, it's that its execution sometimes feels as if it doesn't go as far as it could've gone in carrying out its tremendously fun concept. Still, David Harbour's Santa proves to be a blast with him going full Die Hard mode with the overall experience making for a shockingly good time.
Final Verdict: A must watch for action fans.
Images Courtesy Of Universal Pictures
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