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Netflix’s Red One Will Remind You of Other, Better Movies


Honestly, the Dwayne Johnson-Chris Evans action comedy would be more interesting if actually were a disaster.

His character, Callum Drift, is definitely the head of an organization called ELF, which stands for Enforcement, Logistics, and Fortification (there are multiple cute little acronyms like that in this movie) and which is basically the North Pole’s answer to the Secret Service. And sure, there are only so many possible reimaginings of Yuletide lore, which is why there’s a polar bear guy out of His Dark Materials and a government organization (MORA, the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority, run by a stern Lucy Liu in a thankless role that seems intended to be the Nick Fury of a theoretical holiday franchise) that feels co-opted from Hellboy. There’s no real indication of the massiveness of that sum on screen, which is enough to make you pine for the day when infamously bloated budgets were the result of scenes involving thousands of extras or sets knocked down and rebuilt to fit a director’s demanding vision.

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