Review: Violent Night

On Christmas Eve, disillusioned Santa Claus (David Harbour) stumbles onto a heist in progress as ‘Scrooge’ (John Leguizamo) and his criminal team (Mitra Suri and Brendan Fletcher among them) pose as caterers for a wealthy family hosting a family Christmas party. They’re there to rob the vault of family matriarch Gertrude (Beverly D’Angelo). Santa was just stopping by for the free alcohol but his better/violent instincts kick in and he decides to help young Trudy (Leah Brady) and her affluent brood. Cam Gigandet plays the idiot actor boyfriend of D’Angelo’s alcoholic daughter Alva (Edi Patterson).

 

Mel Gibson gave us a gun-running Santa in the slightly underrated “Fatman”, and now David Harbour and director Tommy Wirkola (the slightly overrated “Dead Snow”) put their own spin on the ‘Christmas Action Movie’ idea with this 2022 film. I’m still likely to go with “Die Hard”, “Lethal Weapon”, or “First Blood” (yes, there’s Christmas decorations in it) for my ‘Christmas Action Movie’ annual watch. This one’s jolly good fun too, if a little long-winded.

 

I’m not the world’s biggest David Harbour fan but he’s perfect here as a very jaded Santa who is sick of what Christmas has turned into over time. At 1100 years old (!), he’s starting to feel a bit too old for this shit, basically. Despite his advanced age, Santa is John Wick levels of brutal at times here, if less slick. By the way, ‘Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town!’ being used as a tough guy catch phrase is hilarious. Young Leah Brady is adorable, Beverly D’Angelo is a hoot as the family matriarch, and Edi Patterson is funny as her awful daughter. As much as John Leguizamo is solid (if not exactly a physical threat) as the lead villain, he’s actually outclassed here by most of his henchmen (or is it henchpersons?) Brendan Fletcher and Mitra Suri especially standout among them. Fletcher’s been doing solid work for years now, often in low-budget Canadian films and is worth shining a bit of light on in this. Any himbo actor could play Cam Gigandet’s idiot actor role, but even I have to admit he’s decent in this one. I loved that he claims he’s a big deal in ‘parts of Asia’.

 

Conservatives will hate this film for one of the reasons that I like it: Although irreverent, it still manages to be an actual Christmas movie that treats Santa as a real, yet somewhat magical figure. In amongst all of the violence, that’s kinda cute but also funny. I came into this one expecting a one-joke bore, but this one’s good, violent fun. A touch too long, but that’s about it for flaws. A good film that could’ve been even better at 90 minutes perhaps. Great use of one of my favourite Christmas songs at one point too (Bryan Adams’ “Christmas Time”). The screenplay is by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, who scripted the “Sonic the Hedgehog” films.

 

Rating: B-

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