Our JP reviews the alt-Christmas action-comedy, “Violent Night” starring David Harbour, John Leguizamo, and Beverly D’Angelo.
VIOLENT NIGHT
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
- Cast: David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Cam Gigandet, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson and Beverly D’Angelo
- Directed by: Tommy Wirkola
- Screenplay by: Pat Casey & Josh Miller
- Producers: Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Guy Danella
- Executive Producers: Marc S. Fischer
Studio Synopsis:
To hell with “all is calm.”
From 87North, the bare-knuckle producers of “Bullet Train,” “Nobody,” “John Wick,” “Atomic Blonde,” “Deadpool 2” and “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” comes a holiday action-comedy that says you should always bet on red. When a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy Lightstone family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage, the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (DAVID HARBOUR, “Black Widow,” “Stranger Things” series) is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.
J.P.’s Take:
Among the glutton of feel-good Christmas movies, “Violent Night” suggests something more raucous than holiday cheer. Once you dive in, you will discover a wicked mash-up of “Die Hard” meets “The Santa Clause,” with a smidge of “Home Alone” added for a dark comical effect.
“Violent Night” takes a wild approach to those silly, sappy family-oriented holiday movies, while accentuating the cynical side of the Christmas spirit. One thing is for sure, those dealing with holiday conflict are allowed to vent through this brutal, off-the-wall extravaganza without doing the dirty work themselves. Billy Bob Thornton’s bummy version of Kris Kringle in “Bad Santa” got nothing on David Harbour’s amusing and barbaric portrayal of Santa Claus.
Everyone knows the yuletide season can get pretty contentious, especially when it comes to family gatherings. For the obscenely wealthy and influential Lightstone family, cheers turn to jeers when a band of mercenaries breach the family compound and ruin their Christmas Eve celebration.
To start, Santa (Harbour) is drowning his woes in booze at a bar as he ponders his pitiful life and does good deeds for unworthy people. After washing away his sorrows, he sets off on his next run to deliver gifts, where he happens to stop off at the home of the Lightstone family. Unsuspecting the squabbling family, mercenaries disguised as catering staff, headed by the main baddie Jimmy “Scrooge” Martinez (John Leguizamo), blast their way through other staff and hold the family hostage. They plan to swindle the family out of millions. The fun begins when Santa catches wind of what’s going on and plans to put their operation on ice.
What holds this movie together is “Christmas magic” (a phrase you’ll hear throughout this movie) and the holiday cheer of one little girl named Trudy (Leah Brady). If you’ve paid attention to the trailer, you notice Santa disappears and reappears in a cloud of sparkly dust down the chimney. There is a supernatural element the writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller have built into the story to exploit the fantasy aspect of the film. This also gives them creative control over Santa’s inner workings in times of trouble.
Yes, there is an actual naughty list that Santa uses to track down baddies like John McClane in “Die Hard.” Utilizing his gift bag of tricks, he methodically takes names and exacts his style of justice on them.
Trudy’s plea to Santa is to save her family. Thus, Christmas sets the stage for Santa’s ballistic antics, which come in the form of some clever and apropos stunts when dispensing away with the miscreants. Santa makes good use of your average Christmas ornaments in ways that will make a Navy Seal take note. One good example is the lighted star tree topper that becomes a ninja star when he launches it into the eye of one of the bad guys. Another cringe-worthy moment is when he confronts another baddie with a sharpened candy cane. Other barbarous instances take place toward the end of the movie, when Santa gets his hands on a sledgehammer and bludgeons his way through more thugs. Trudy even gets in on foiling the bad guys, staging some “Home Alone” trickery of her own.
Yet, “Violent Night” is not without its sentimental moments, as Trudy and Santa have a little heart-to-heart about what Christmas is all about. There are moments between the separated parents, Jason Lightstone (Alex Hassell) and Linda Lightstone (Alexis Louder), as they make amends and showing hope for their relationship after all. Comedy comes in the form of Christmas puns followed by direct jabs at ridiculous Christmas movie troupes.
None of this would have worked had it not been for the cast, who play their roles to the hilt. You can thank Beverly D’Angelo for her grinchy role of Gertrude Lightstone, the matriarch of the Lightstone family. Hassell as husband Jason Lightstone plays the perfect milksop to Lourder’s valiant Linda Lightstone. Brady puts on a sweetness that can’t be ignored as Trudy. Leguizamo’s role as Mr. Scrooge/Jimmy Martinez fits the bill and the code name just right.
Rounding out the remainder of the cast is Edi Patterson plays Alva Steele-Lightstone, the hard-drinking and gold-digging sister of Jason Lightstone, and the Scrooge’s cronies, consisting of Brendan Fletcher, Andre Eriksen, Mitra Suri, and Stephanie Sy in the respective roles of Krampus, Gingerbread, Candy Cane, and Sugarplum. Each of them comes with its own set of quirks and weaknesses.
Director Tommy Wirkola does a great job in balancing the act of holiday sentimentality to comically presented brutality. It’s the kind of weirdly refreshing anti-holiday holiday movie, where if you watch it in the right frame of mind, it may surprise you.
Don’t look for “Violent Night” to win any major awards, but I’m sure this will become a cult classic in no time.