Violent Night Review

 

Violent Night is a Christmas black comedy action film. It's produced by 87North Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. Violent Night is written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller and directed by Tommy Wirkola.

The story is an estranged couple is going to try and put up with each other, for the sake of their daughter, in an effort to have a nice Christmas. This night is soon flipped on its head when a group of mercenaries break in and hold the wealthy family hostage, and are demanding them to give them what they want. This group will soon be in for a big surprise when the one, the only, and the actual Santa Claus comes, and puts the hurt on them.

Initial Reaction

At first, I didn't know this film even existed. That all changed when I went to see either Halloween Ends or Black Adam, I really don't know which one it was, but anyhow, I saw the trailer for this film, then I was hooked. Even more so not only because of the dark comedy, but also the people behind the scenes. David Leitch's producing and not only has he brought us some entertaining films before, but he also killed it with Bullet Train. Then we have Pat Casey and Josh Miller, the guys that brought us not one, but two really good Sonic the Hedgehog movies. So I was expecting to have one hell of a time with this film.

Cons

I've got nothing negative here folks, so just keep scrolling.

Middle Ground

The only mix bag I can think of is near the end, the film can drag quite a bit. Hell, there's even a mid-credit scene (albeit an actual funny) that can kinda make the movie feel even more long. But I think you can probably let that go, because even with that slight flaw, the film gives you everything you could ask for.

Pros

One major positive for Violent Night is David Harbour as Santa Claus. He was not only badass in this, but when it came to the more humorous moments, he killed it. I laughed very loudly about how he said the bag of gifts were children's dreams. But even when there's not either of those scenes, he also gave some very great calm and dramatic bits which really helped humanize this version of Santa. Another great thing about the flick was the humor. The dark are absolutely hilarious, but even when there isn't dark humor on display, there's also some other great parts as well. From Santa's very understandable and funny response of waiting to get the hell out of the mansion when everything takes a turn for the worse, to hilarious dialogue. I especially laughed at Beverly D'Angelo's line regrading chocolate. If you'd seen the movie then you know what I'm referring too. Since this is an action film, how is the action?.... It's awesome. Not only is there great hand-to-hand, and brawling going on, but it can also be very creative. There's two really great kills with a Christmas star and a chimney, that both shocked me and the rest of the audience. Now even though I've been writing about how dark comedic and brutal this film is, there were still a lot of instances where there's quite a bit of heart. There's one great scene where Santa and Trudy (the daughter) have a talk regrading adult relationships about how complicated they are, and another scene where Santa is telling her where he's only wish is to see Mrs. Claus again if he ever gets out of this alive. Those were really well done scenes, and showed the movie's not completely heartless. The last thing I'll give credit, is yes, it's easy to say this is a Die Hard clone, but much like the last two clones I reviewed, this one is one of the better ones. Also, unlike the real Die Hard this is an actual Christmas movie. That's right, I said it, come at me!

I really had a blast with Violent Night. While it did drag near the end, I'm willing to forgiven because of great performance from David Harbour, beautifully done dark humor or great humor in general, intense and creative action scenes, a surprising amount of heart, and being a real good Die Hard clone.

My final rating is Great.

So yeah, I think you should give this one a chance. But that's all for me. Come back on Monday, Dec 5th, for my review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.