Violent Night

[JohnC]

David Harbour stars as Santa. John Leguizamo leads a team or mercenaries who hold a rich family hostage for the $300 million in their personal vault. Santa unintentionally interrupts their plan when leaving presents at the house and things get violent. In cinema from 2 December. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like it maybe should be a streaming movie.

 

https://deadline.com/2022/10/violent-night-trailer-david-harbour-1235135882/

 

 

[Down by Law]

"time for some seasons beatings"

 

This looks like an absolute howler. The sort of made up film idea you'd plot with your friends down the pub. 

[MK-1601]

The opening montage in Scrooged basically does this joke already?

 

David Harbour really needs to get a better agent.

[Stoppy2000]

It's definitely got a direct to streaming vibe. I am mildly interested in seeing it though. 

[Jammy]

Ha ha, this looks ridiculous, but might actually be great fun if they’ve played it right.

[Stig]

Looks a lot of fun. I'm in.

[Vimster]

It looks like it's pretty tongue-in-cheek so could be good fun, but I agree this feels like An Amazon Prime Exclusive. Maybe the "in cinemas" thing is like where if a film wants to be legit it shows in two screens for a week. 

[Girth Certificate]

They should have made Crashmore instead

 

 

[jonathanhoey]

Saw this last night and I thought it was great fun. Harbour sells it all very well and the violence is extreme, while staying just the right side of cartoony without being cheesy. 

 

Bonus marks for the music. Just like Die Hard, the score quotes liberally from lots of Christmas standards. 

 

Objectively it's probably not A Good Film but I loved it. 

[Captain Kelsten]

59 minutes ago, jonathanhoey said:

 

 

Objectively it's probably not A Good Film but I loved it. 

What a daft thing to say. 

[Thor]

People need to stop misusing "objectively", it's getting almost as bad as the misuse of literally. 

 

I was hoping to see this tonight with my brother, but he backed out because he has to work. Maybe next week!

[jonathanhoey]

Oh come on, you all know exactly what I mean. The plot is wafer thin and full of holes

Spoiler

that are repeatedly lampshaded/handwaved with "It's Christmas magic! I don't understand it either."

Spoiler

 

 

Every character is a one-note trope, the dialogue is perfunctory at best and pretty naff at worst, most of the actors aren't powerhouses of the craft. It's a high-concept movie where "what if John Wick but Father Christmas" is about the extent of the concept.  

 

Now, with all that said, subjectively it's absolutely great fun and I loved it. For me it was more than the sum of its parts. 

 

 

[Capwn]

If anyone says ‘turn your brain off’, I’m out.

[jonathanhoey]

I watched it just yesterday and I do not remember anyone saying "turn your brain off" at any point. 

[instasis]

Watched it last night and it's great fun. It could do with a 10-15 minute back story sub plot being excised in the middle - it stops the movie dead in its tracks and drags - but other than that it's full of giggles and winces and laughs. It also features potentially the greatest cinematic kill in movie history.

[James Lyon]

What's the ratio of one liners to action? I hope they didn't use the best ones in the trailer.

[Uncle Mike]

1 hour ago, Pelekophoros said:

It could do with a 10-15 minute back story sub plot being excised in the middle - it stops the movie dead in its tracks and drags

 

Yes, the weird bit in the middle where David Harbour has to do some sad acting for a bit does break the flow, and makes you wonder if they'd forgotten what sort of film they were making for a while, but otherwise this is largely exactly what you'd expect. Silly, gruesome, not serious, everyone hamming everything, stupid. I give it a solid Christmas thumbs-up.

[Monkeyboy]

Enjoyed this a lot. I also didn't mind the sad acting bit. Added a bit more heart to the film.

[Stig]

I thought this was really great, just some much fun. Fully exceeded my expectations.

 

The only problem I did have was 

Spoiler

I couldn't give a fuck about the family he was trying to save outside of the little girl and her mum. They made the rest of them way too unlikeable to care about any of them surviving.

 

[Capwn]

Is this ok for a 15yr old to watch? And for someone who doesn’t like gory realistic stabbing?

[papalazarou]

@Capwn Nope this is John wick level violence with plenty  gory stabbings 

[Stig]

It's rated 15 so deemed perfectly fine for that age range but there are lots of gory deaths.

[Hitcher]

On 21/12/2022 at 16:19, Capwn said:

If anyone says ‘turn your brain off’, I’m out.

Turn off your TV instead; it's really not very good.

[Uncle Mike]

On 25/12/2022 at 23:24, Stigweard said:

I thought this was really great, just some much fun. Fully exceeded my expectations.

 

The only problem I did have was 

  Hide contents

I couldn't give a fuck about the family he was trying to save outside of the little girl and her mum. They made the rest of them way too unlikeable to care about any of them surviving.

 

 

I don't really think you were supposed to. Santa's only interested in saving the girl, right?

[Thor]

Saw this today and ... nah, not really for me. It had its moments, but the action scenes were utterly fucking dire unless you like the torture porn shite that ruined John Wick 3. Shame, because David Harbour was fucking great as a grumpy Santa, what a waste. 

[Stifler]

I saw this just before Christmas and absolutely loved it - an early comment mentioned that it seemed like it should be straight to streaming and in all honesty, whilst I'm glad I saw it on the big screen, i was disappointed I couldn't then go home and legally stream a copy - I'll be buying it digitally in advance of next Christmas though  

 

The whole 

Spoiler

Home Alone scene, with the kid setting up the booby traps, was absolutely excellent!

 

Loved John Leguizamo hamming it up as the bad guy too.