Would have been great to see in a theater with a crowd.
Harbour is great and you can tell he's having a ball.
Being an 87/11 production, the action is well-done but wisely not over-choreographed/stylized. The movie is more meat and potatoes, 80's B-action film in its sensibilities and is all the better for it.
The script is WAY better than it has any need to be. The movie is VERY funny but it's also inventive and smart enough to 1. know what kind of movie it is 2. be just the right amount of campy and ridiculous 3. mix things up enough to make thing feel fresh and fun.
It's also really well cast in the Die Hard tradition where the leads are perfect and even the henchmen have memorable moments/lines.
As much as I liked this, I don't really want this to become a franchise because it's such a little gem of a movie that I'd hate for the returns to start rapidly diminishing in a set of sequels that can't harness lightning in a bottle again.
I really do hope it becomes a cult Christmas classic though.
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A lot of you players ain't okay.
We would have been better off with an okaycivics board instead of an okayactivist board
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86672 posts
Thu Dec-22-22 11:15 AM
2. "Thought it was fine. Full step below Nobody." In response to Reply # 0
I didn’t like the “edgelord” script stuff. Kinda thought the movie was at its best when it was earnest, Santa and the kid bonding, etc. The opening where he pukes on the lady’s head, all the family “tee hee they said something profane” shit… just wasn’t for me. The premise and violence are shocking enough without the eyeroll-inducing humor.
But the action was good, the kills were occasionally great (the last one, holy smokes), and Harbour is the right guy to do this kind of thing.
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86672 posts
Thu Dec-22-22 02:11 PM
4. "I *hated* Gunpowder Milkshake." In response to Reply # 3
Flagrant rip-off of John Wick. No originality, all baked in irony. Loathed it.
Loved Nobody. One of the first action movies in recent memory where the theme is "getting to beat the shit out of people is fun and fulfilling." And the action ripped.
Violent Night is somewhere in the middle. Didn't love it, didn't loathe it.
6. "kinda disappointed. Good overall, but.... spoilerish" In response to Reply # 0
I expected Santa to be much more of a badass.
I know he got busy with the hammer
But I didn't like how vulnerable he was for much of the film
I was looking forward to Santa wrecking shop with little resistance.
I know that skirts the usual formula, but sometimes I like an OP hero.
I think a nigh-invincible Santa would have made for a better film. We could have kept all the stuff with the girl. I'd have preferred his big obstacle to be psychological, in that he swore of killing and refused to return to his old ways. They *kind of* touched on that, but they didn't really go there.
Instead he just got his ass kicked for half the film.