Red One
Amazon Studios | Release Date: November 15, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
18
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Washington PostAmy NicholsonNov 14, 2024
Red One is a sour sugarplum of a Christmas treat, a cheerfully cynical action comedy for kids — especially the ones who asked Santa Claus for ninja stars and a Nerf gun. Read full review
72
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeNov 5, 2024
The challenge is to balance the mayhem with the holly-jolly, to blow stuff up while also allowing troubled characters to find the nice in themselves and in each other, and Red One fulfills both of those wish-list items with a cheeky finesse. Read full review
60
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiNov 5, 2024
Red One might not save Christmas but at least it saves face. Read full review
55
LooperDominic GriffinNov 13, 2024
It's a mechanically functioning, intermittently humorous amusement park attraction whose greatest sin is that it never rises to its hidden potential. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredDemi PhillipsNov 18, 2024
A grandiose action-comedy, with an over-reliance on CGI, and not a crumb of Christmas charm. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 15, 2024
Outside of a clever re-invention of how the North Pole works, Red One doesn’t do a lot right, which is surprising considering that the project re-teams director Jake Kasdan and actor Dwayne Johnson, who made the thoroughly enjoyable Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Radheyan SimonpillaiNov 14, 2024
For all its built-in cynicism and tired tropes, Red One is not as insufferable as you’d expect. At the least you can count on Evans and Johnson committing to the bit and selling all the broad gags they can, which should be enough to win over the elves in your family. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittNov 14, 2024
Earnest to the point of stultifying, “Red One” offers a busy landscape of plastic action figures come to life, visually appealing and plenty colorful, though as hard as it tries, the movie doesn’t deliver the joy and emotion you’d want in a seasonal treat. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJustin ClarkNov 14, 2024
It’s neither naughty or nice, and in Santa’s book, that likely means it just ends up getting nothing this Christmas. Read full review
50
Original-CinJim SlotekNov 13, 2024
A non-stop action movie with just enough plot to stitch together more action scenes, Red One is as soullessly fast and furious as you’d expect from scripter Chris Morgan of Fast & Furious franchise fame. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonNov 13, 2024
Though “Red One” is a bit of a slog, it’s still better than about 98 percent of the Christmas movie junk flung at us by the studios and streaming services every holiday season. Read full review
50
ColliderNate RichardNov 13, 2024
It’s constantly trying to build its own strange mythology to set up sequels that might never come, cracking jokes that rarely hit, and struggling to decide whether it wants to take itself seriously or be more self-aware about its general absurdity. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonNov 5, 2024
In the fun but strained Red One, director Jake Kasdan serves up an effects-heavy action comedy with a disarming sweetness that is undone by an overly complicated plot and some tired blockbuster conventions. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerNov 14, 2024
The aggressively secular and gift-based systems of Red One are almost enough to prompt a moist-eyed holiday wish for more piously churchy seasonal entertainment. Read full review
40
The Daily BeastNick SchagerNov 14, 2024
A Yuletide misfire that lands like a lump of coal. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 11, 2024
A charmless, CGI-heavy spectacle, Red One falls into an ill-considered audience no man’s land: it’s too intense for little kids (we get to visit Krampus in what appears to be a yuletide S&M dungeon) and too bland to attract teens and genre fans. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyNov 7, 2024
This whole story pimps out Yuletide as a strictly mercantile fixture, with a sham veneer of goodwill merely sweetening the transaction. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraNov 6, 2024
There’s a little bit of heart here, in the story of two people who have lost faith in Christmas for very different reasons, but more often this feels engineered in a lab to provide seasonal spectacle. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreNov 5, 2024
If Red One were a disaster, it’d be more interesting. Instead, it’s a technically passable action-comedy transparently stitched together from parts scavenged from other movies. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanNov 5, 2024
The villains are shape-shifters, but the key thing about “Red One” is that the whole movie is a shape-shifter: arduous action jape, low-kitsch Christmas fairy tale, buddy movie, family-reconciliation movie — every quadrant and demo must be served. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comZachary LeeNov 14, 2024
While "Red One" may scratch at some interesting ideas about lamenting the world's cruelties, it lacks the narrative depth and commitment to fully explore its angst. Read full review
38
The Associated PressJake CoyleNov 12, 2024
Red One comes off a little like the holiday version of “Cowboys and Aliens” — enough so to make you nostalgic for leaner tales about folkloric figures starring Johnson, like “The Tooth Fairy.” Read full review
30
IGNA.A. Dowd Nov 14, 2024
The movie surrounds its mismatched stars with a whole lot of shockingly inconsistent special effects, preaching a sentimental yuletide message even as it looks like the height of soulless commercialization. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithNov 14, 2024
The movie takes on the shape of a video game, with the heroes swaggering confidently from one blowout action sequence to the next with hardly any thought given to making us care about the characters or establishing the film’s heart. Read full review
30
Screen RantSimon GallagherNov 7, 2024
There's lots of bells and whistles, but in attempting to deconstruct and reconstruct Christmas spirit there's just never enough charm to carry the spell. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyNov 5, 2024
This is a high-concept, CG-saturated bore that lacks heart and infectious humor, even if it huffs and puffs its way to a little poignancy in the end. Read full review
25
ABC NewsPeter TraversNov 15, 2024
We all need a little Christmas now, but not this cynical cash grab faking it as holiday fun. The mind boggles that it cost $250 million to produce a big, bloated fiasco about Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans trying to save kidnapped Santa (J.K. Simmons). Bah, humbug Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 14, 2024
It’s awful, but disposable and easily forgotten. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 14, 2024
Red One is the holiday fantasy built on retribution, punishment and crushed hopes we deserve right now. Read full review
25
Paste MagazineJarrod JonesNov 13, 2024
If only Red One had a bit more respect for its audience. We can all use a reaffirming message this holiday season, but this stuffs stockings with little more than hot air. I’d have preferred some coal. There’s at least a use for that. Read full review
25
IndieWireRyan LattanzioNov 5, 2024
You don’t watch Red One so much as stare ahead at the screen. It is a movie that is playing in front of you, I can comfortably give it that much, and for one meant to summon up the Christmas spirit, there’s not a whiff of mirth from the screenplay to the production level. Read full review
20
The New York TimesBrandon YuNov 14, 2024
It’s all a particularly egregious piece of commercial slop — just a little too expensive and passable to qualify for being so bad it’s sort of fun. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshNov 13, 2024
Red One is a confounding project that is clearly trying to be for all audiences (it’s weirdly kiddie-oriented, but feels more aimed at adults) and is so bad it ends up being for none. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 5, 2024
There’s nothing wrong with a big-hearted film for Christmas, but this commercial and formulaic slice of content is a toy destined to be forgotten. Read full review
0
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiNov 14, 2024
For the most wonderful time of the year comes the worst movie of the year. Read full review
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