Review: Violent Night

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Santa Claus (David Harbour) is losing a bit of his Christmas Spirit. He's getting hammered on the job, and shows up at a huge mansion to give little Trudy (Leah Bradley) her gifts. Only on this night, a group of thieves led by Mr. Scrooge (John Legiuzamo) are here to rob Trudy's grandma of her millions. Santa is now forced to sober up and kick some ass.

The trailer to this film is hysterical and promised me campy B movie glory, so of course I wanted to see it opening night with a packed crowd. If only it lived up to the craziness the trailer promised.

No one goes to a movie like this for anything other than seeing Santa kill bad guys. The first half of spent on building up the story and watching Santa get his ass kicked. Which wouldn't be terrible if we didn't have to sit through some truly horrendous acting awhile doing it. Ligiuzamo is phoning it in, but the real culprit is Alex Hassell who plays Trudy's dad. The best way I can describe it is that he thinks he's playing a mime in a silent film. He's all over-exaggerated facial expressions that is so cringe inducing even with a movie whose tone is essentially "bat shit crazy"

Thankfully, the second half of the movie kicks it into high gear and becomes the fun I expected of it. David Harbour is awesome and clearly having a ball. I just wish the entire movie had his energy.

Grade: C

Comments

  1. Candice FrederickDecember 5, 2022 at 10:27 AM

    awww man... i enjoyed every second of this one! lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. BirgitDecember 5, 2022 at 11:56 AM

    Oh my, it sounds like this Santa met Bilky Bob Thornton and they both got shit-faced. I think I will pass on this one but glad it met your experience

    ReplyDelete
  3. thevoid99December 5, 2022 at 2:57 PM

    I think I'll wait for this on streaming though I do like David Harbour a lot. Can't wait for his next adventure as the Red Guardian.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamDecember 6, 2022 at 2:01 PM

      If he had the Russian accent, this Santa could've been Red Guardian.

      Delete

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