Dwayne Johnson is a controversial figure these days. He has an undeniable star power that brings millions of dollars to his projects, but that creates a strange backlash. A lot of people are sick of seeing him in every other ad. The Rock has helmed a few flops in his day, many of which had the sense to stay on streaming. His latest, Red One, failed to make back its absurd budget, but it’s getting its presents on Amazon Prime Video.
Director Jake Kasdan is the son of Empire Strikes Back writer Lawrence Kasdan. Jake locked into a niche of studio comedies early, but he’s well outside of it now. In 2017, he did the first Jumanji reboot, and he’s been stuck with The Rock since then. His best project is probably Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, but I find it hard to imagine him doing that again.
Dwayne Johnson’s Red One Steals Streaming Christmas
I feel like the trailer for Red One feels like a fake movie ad from a comedy. Dwayne Johnson portrays Callum Drift, the leader of Santa Claus’ security team. He’s one week away from retirement when someone attacks the North Pole and makes off with St. Nick. Drift, with some help from the international military organization that polices mythical beings, kidnaps Chris Evans’ tracker, Jack O’Malley. After some delightful holiday torture, Jack agrees to a suicide mission to help find Santa, leading to a wacky globe-trotting race against time. It’s a dumb premise with awful execution. The rampant militarization of the Marvel movies slipped into the wholesome celebration of Christmas. I seem to be the only one who hates seeing Santa tacitly approve of torture and mass surveillance. Regardless, the film mostly concerns Jack and Callum punching people while J. K. Simmons sits around silently.
Audiences didn’t show up for Red One, no matter how many ads Dwayne Johnson plastered his face all over. You could almost forget beloved stars Chris Evans and J. K. Simmons even appeared in the film. The film cost between $200 million and $250 million to make, with many suggesting Johnson’s on-set behavior ballooned the budget. Some claimed the project started with a $50 million price tag, only to quintuple due to The Rock’s absences. Hiram Garcia, Johnson’s ex-brother-in-law who also runs his production company, argues that the WWE superstar had no such effect on the budget. Regardless of how it became so expensive, the film didn’t make that money back. It made an impressive $166.5 million, but its budget became insurmountable. It never had a chance against Wicked and Gladiator II, both of which dropped the following weekend, or Moana 2 the week after that.
Red One came to Amazon Prime Video on December 12th, less than a month after its US release. It probably would have been smarter as a straight-to-streaming release. The massive budget certainly prevented that, but the cost of bringing it to theaters couldn’t have helped. I’m glad to see Red One bomb, if I’m honest. It was cynical, design-by-committee garbage that wasted every decent idea it featured. Its streaming success is a sign. At least Santa doesn’t make you drive to a movie theater just to get coal in your stocking.
