Around our house, we love Christmas movies and usually have time during the holidays to indulge but that comes with a caveat, we detest overly sentimental fare. This drastically reduces the number of candidates but doesn’t rule them out completely. Bad Santa, Die Hard and Rare Export are just a few that pass the tearless test.
With John Woo’s name attached to Silent Night as director, things were looking good and other than the occasional overabundance of doves his sentimentality usually runs red. Not Santa Red either. With Joel Kinnaman (Suicide Squad and For All Mankind) named as lead actor, things also looked good in the action stakes.
Kinnaman plays Godlock a man so tormented by horrendous events in his past that when he seeks revenge on the perpetrators, you know he is going to be all in. With Woo helping to paint the canvas behind him things will certainly be over the top and should be far from route holiday histrionics. In the action stakes things live up to expectations, surprise-wise not so much.
The storyline is extremely predictable and features few surprises but this does little to stifle the fun. It’s like the relative that always brings sub-par dishes to family affairs but never lets you down in regards to fluids that are inebriant. The connection to that major of major holiday is tenuous at best and that is just the way we like them around here.
Rob Hudson
www.rialtodistribution.com
