Violent Night

"Santa" (David Harbour) is getting a bit disillusioned with the whole Christmas thing. He is tired of delivering gifts to modern day children who live in an unappreciative, throw-away, culture and so has taken to the bottle rather. Leaving Bristol one night, he rather drunkenly crash-lands thousands of miles away at the compound of the wealthy and therefore entirely dysfunctional "LIghtstone" family. Now here we have group of people ruled over by matriarch "Gertrude" (Beverly D'Angelo - who just reminded me of Goldie Hawn) who are dealing with their own issues of separation, avarice, precociousness and, yes, I too was already thinking - same old, same old... Wait, though, it seems that this family are the target of some seriously nasty robbers who are after the $300 million hidden in an impenetrable vault in the cellar. "Santa", unwittingly, becomes embroiled in these shenanigans and after being initially desperate to get out of the place, he spots the terrified young "Trudy" (Leah Brady) and, well, someone's goose is about to be cooked! It can't resist wallowing a bit in sentiment at times, and the familial discord stuff is all very old hat, but when the action scenes kick in we are offered a sort of "Home Alone" (1990) meets "Thor" (2011) experience peppered with some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments as, of course, the plot follows it's own, very obvious course. It's violent and gory, but the fact that much of that emanates from this epitome of kindness and avuncularity makes this just a bit different - and quite entertaining - with Harbour carrying it off quite engagingly. It is a bit long, and there are times when you want it to pedal faster, but it's a fun watch that is certainly not for the youngsters!

Yeah I'm going to give this top marks, not because it is really that good, but because it came out in 2022 and was probably the best thing in the theater at the time (which was probably why the other Movie Data Base started deleting positive reviews of it). But a lot of it is done right, it features an interracial family but doesn't make the race a key part of the story. In fact, it doesn't even mention it at all. Instead it follows the story of a little girl and Santa. And the Santa is a bit weird, there is a lot of things that just don't fit with his character, but that doesn't matter because the story is just so fun that you willingly suspend most of your disbelief. It is violent and does a great job of making the violence both exciting and at times comical. It drops Easter eggs in some of the best possible ways. Not all the men are evil and idiotic and not all the women are practically perfect in every way. They are just written as, well, as unique characters. And you really have to appreciate it in 2022 when most movies drop characters for checked boxes. It was probably the only movie that you could go into in 2022 and just be entertained by. That was the clear intent in making this and that was the end result. Twenty years ago it would have been "Meh" but in 2022 it is the best thing in theaters.

Violent Night was exactly what I was looking for heading into this movie. It is laugh-out-loud funny with spectacular action and brutal gory kills, a perfect blend for a Christmas film! When David Harbor is on screen this movie works wonderfully. I never knew I needed a David Harbor Santa Claus, but now that we got it, I want to see more. He portrays a charming grumpy Santa wonderfully. His lack of care and worldview had me laughing in so many instances. This performance carried the film and was the only reason I was there. Unfortunately, the writers tried to do a little too much with all the secondary characters. There are subplots sprinkled throughout that take away from the action adding unnecessary minutes to this film. This creates an unbalanced pace that jumps from interesting action to boring side character development, really messing with the flow. This film is nearly 2 hours long, and that length is felt at times. If these side plots were to be eliminated and we streamlined the action the film would have been all the better for it. All in all, Violent Night effectively achieves its main goal and provides a brutal Christmas movie that I will be revisiting every season. Score: 68% | Verdict: Good | Theater Verdict: See It